[HPforGrownups] OoP - Snape STILL could be the turncoat

[SnapesSlytherin at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 63442

In a message dated 6/23/03 8:55:15 AM Eastern Daylight Time, bard7696 at aol.com 
writes:
> When I first read PS/SS in the fall of 2001 -- I came to the Potter 
> world late -- I thought I was reading a very well-done children's 
> book, until I got to the part where Harry finds who is really after 
> the Stone and it's Quirrell, not Snape.
Hey!  That's when *I* started reading them too!  Sorry, onto the real post...
<SNIP>> 
> 
> Now it's time for me to wonder if he still is. Here is my case. It 
> involves a little canon and decent bit of metathinking. Take it with 
> as many grains of salt as you need.
> 
> Meta:
> 1) Snape being evil now WOULD be a twist. After five books of 
> discovering tidbit after tidbit about Snape, he has become one of the 
> most popular characters in the books. To yank it out now would be 
> shocking.

Snape being evil still feels predictable to me.  He's always "swooping around 
like an overgrown bat".  It would just be too "HA!  I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!"  
The books haven't been like that for me so far.

> 
> 2) Who are the ones who always shoot down any of Ron and Harry's 
> conspiracy theories involving Snape? Hermione and Dumbledore, the two 
> fonts of knowledge. JKR herself said (in the CoS DVD interview) that 
> Dumbledore and Hermoine are wonderful tools for getting out 
> information. Wouldn't it be just like JKR to have those guys wrong 
> about this?

I guess they could be wrong about SemiGood!Snape (I won't go so far as to say 
all good...).  But they've been right so far!  This would kinda shoot down 
REDHEAD ALWAYS, right?  Cause then Dumbledore would *know* that Snape was behind 
it all...but if he has to keep out of it ... oh, never mind.  I'm confusing 
myself.  I don't know if JKR would make them both wrong... How about we set 
Crookshanks on Snape and see what happens?  Crookshanks'll settle it for us....

> 
> Ok, onto the canon:
> 
> 1) Why exactly did the Occlumency not better? Well, obviously, Harry 
> didn't appear to be trying too hard, but then Dumbledore says that 
> Snape was the wrong person to teach him because of all the hate for 
> Harry's father. D-Dore, who trusts Snape implicitly, is blaming it on 
> Snape's emotions. But... could the softening up theory be right?

I don't think Snape hating James was the reason, but I don't think the reason 
was that Snape's evil.  I personally think that Snape has too little patience 
for teaching anyone anything like that.

> 
> 2) How did the DE's know that Harry had finally broken into the Dept. 
> of Mysteries? They could have had lookouts posted. But what if they 
> had been tipped off by the guy who was supposedly deep in the Forest, 
> looking for Harry after he escaped from Umbridge? 

I dunno...that one's a little shaky IMHO.  How do we know that Hagrid was 
really running in the forest and not alerting the DE's.  I don't think there's 
enough info with that to blame it on Snape.

> 
> 3) Snape took pains to hide certain memories from Harry. What if that 
> humilation one is just the tip of the iceberg? 

I'm sure it is.  But I don't think it's cause he is ESE.  Maybe he doesn't 
want Harry to see James and himself fighting.  Maybe he doesn't want Harry to 
know that he's having a secret affair with McGonagall (but I'm pretty sure 
that's not it).  He might be hiding those memories from himself too.

> 
> 4) We now know that D-Dore is susceptible to mis-steps in judgement. 
> He has made mistakes before. Crouch/Moody is the most prominent, but 
> those were cases of being actively fooled by a potion. With his 
> misreading of how Harry would react and what V-Mort would do to that 
> reaction, it opens up D-Dore for being wrong about one of his 
> followers. 

Okay, I'll give you this one.  I agree.  He could be mis-reading Snape (but I 
sincerely doubt it!).

> 
> Who is the one follower he's had to make the biggest leap of faith 
> with? Snape.
> 
> Commence slings and arrows.
> 
> Darrin
> 

Very well thought out... I think Snape is in the same vein as Mundungus - the 
only was to know what criminals will do is to have one on your side.  Snape 
could still be the turncoat, oh yes - but so could anyone else in the books.  I 
think most of the canon could be used to point to other characters as ESE.

~*~*~Oryomai~*~*~
--Who has been thanking God that Snape is alive -- until the next book 
anyway.


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