The Awkward Squad, was: Re: Shouldn't Snape hate Draco?

[nibleswik]

No: HPFGUIDX 84751

<snip>
> Severus Snape is a card-carrying member, nay, an elected officer 
>of the Awkward Squad. As such, he resolutely refuses to be 
>pigeonholed. He will damn well favour Draco Malfoy (the Slytherin 
>alpha male) if he wants to and to hell with what we think about it. 
> Part of his beguiling complexity as a character is his 
>contradictions - though we are told again and again that he's on 
>the side of the Order, he hasn't quite surrendered the last of 
>that "little oddball up to his eyes in the dark arts," up to 
>history yet, has he?

Oh, I so don't want to snip any of this! Alright, just a little bit. 
At the beginning. There. Enough? Well, thank you, Astrofiammante, 
for your excellent comment. Though I most certainly will not abandon 
my hopes that Draco will follow in Snape's footsteps, becoming the 
brilliant, shrewd, good guy who can still be an asshole, I love what 
you said. I don't think it's mutually exclusive with the possibility 
that Snape sees potential in Draco not just as a good wizard in the 
technique sense, but also ethically. 

No, Snape hasn't surrendered his interest in the Dark Arts, and I 
really hope he never will. Just as I think deciding that Slytherin 
is the house of the evil opens one up to less conspicuous dangers 
like Pettigrew (who I'm convinced was a Gryffindor, thank you very 
much), I believe the relative lack of education on the Dark Arts at 
Hogwarts is dangerous. Moody/Crouch was on to something, in my 
opinion, when he said one must know what one is facing. Would Harry 
have survived that night in the graveyard were it not for the evil 
teacher's lesson on the Unforgivables? Well, yes, of course. But 
would he if he weren't the protagonist of a popular seven-book 
series in its fourth book? I don't think so. And yes, there is DADA, 
but I don't think it's enough. Then again, I'm a big proponent 
of, "if you want to counter something, first learn what's behind 
what you're countering."

Anyway, I really enjoyed your post. And I still think that with his 
good looks, Draco would be fantastic for Slytherin's image if he 
only became good.

Cheekyweebisom, who really, really wants to join the Awkward Squad.