What does Snape owe Harry?

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 96675

> {Ceasian}
> In PoA, his reaction to finding Harry, Ron and Hermione with Lupin 
>and Sirius in the Shrieking Shack has also struck me as a bit odd in 
>that his first direct comment to Harry is to point out that he was 
>saving his life. Because he had just witnessed a scene wherein 
>Lupin, Sirius and the Trio were quietly talking, why did he believe 
this?

 
> {Silverthorne}
>snip<
 >In the worst case scenario, he was so engulfed with rage at Sirius 
>that he had only eyes for finally taking down his school-day 
>nemesis, 
>at best, he honestly thought he was bringing in a DE murdered and 
>his (very dangerous) werewolf accomplice before the pair could get 
>hold of the kids and do them serious harm. 


Potioncat:
I'm joining a long and interesting post.  Sorry I've had to snip so 
much material.

I do think that Snape was trying to save the lives of the trio.  Even 
if at first he only expected to find them with a werewolf.  I'm 
convinced he thought Black had been guilty of those deaths and was 
after Harry.  He never trusted Lupin, and based on his beliefs, 
finding Lupin and Black together just proved him correct.

This quote from PoA fascinates me, probably because I can read it a 
couple of ways and I'm not sure how he means it:
Chapter 19 p361: Snape is speaking, "Like father, like son, Potter!  
I have just save your neck; you should be thanking me on bended 
knee!  You would have been well served if he'd killed you!  You'd 
have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be 
mistaken in Black--now get out of the way..."

Now, could Snape have warned James not to trust Black, and thinks 
that James did make Black his secret keeper?  I'm sure that at this 
time, Snape thinks Serius betrayed the Potters.

In OoP, in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place I get a nagging feeling 
that Severus is implying that Sirius had been a  DE. (Possibly the 
coward.)  He may only have been saying that Black was and is 
untrustworthy.



> {Caerian}
>  GoF, his extreme irritation and resistance to Colin Creevey taking 
>Harry away from a Potions Class wherein Snape was, probably, 
>planning to poison Harry suggests to me that, at this point, Snape's 
>getting desperate. He's actually trying to risk Harry's life in 
>order to have a shot at saving him (in this case, by providing the 
>antidote). One would consider his constant attempts to get Harry 
>expelled, and thus remove him from Dumbledore's direct oversight, in 
>this category.


Potioncat:
If almost killing a person, then saving them would satisfy a life 
debt, then there are many times that Snape would have met the 
contract!  How often has he wanted to wring Potter's neck, but 
hasn't! :-)
 
> {Silverthorne}
> Erm....I don't recall Snape ever even *threatening* to poison Harry 
>in class--feed Neville's possibly poisonous potion to Trevor the 
>Toad, yes. But not poison Harry. Also, even for Snape, with antidote 
>in hand, that's a *very* risky propostion to take.
>snip<


Potioncat:
GoF, chapter 18, pp 300-301
This is just after the incident with Hermione's teeth.
"Antidotes!" said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black 
eyes glittering unpleasantly. "You should all have prepared your 
recipes now.  I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be 
selecting someone on whom to test one..."  Snape's eyes met Harry's 
and Harry knew what was coming.  Snape was going to poison *him.*

Harry was particulary angry at this point, he'd had the fight with 
Malfoy, Hermione had been insulted by Snape, Harry and Ron were given 
detention and now he expects to be poisoned. We don't know if that 
was true (sure seems like it) or just as importantly, whether Snape 
tested the antidotes on another student. But Snape spends a lot of 
time teaching Harry to "work well under pressure" and this may have 
been one of those times.

I've never put the two incidents together before: Snape insulting 
Hermione and Snape threatening to poison Harry.  Now I wonder if he 
did it more to get Harry upset than for anything.  I mean, can't you 
see LV hurting Harry's friends in a situation to make Harry even more 
reckless?  When Crouch!Moody uses the Unforgivables to prepare the 
kids, they all think it's cool.  But he took the time to explain what 
he was doing.  I think Snape may be taking a similar approach.


> {Caerian}
> So, if all this is true, why wasn't he successful at that first 
>Quidditch match when everyone else certainly thought Harry was at 
>great risk? Maybe because the prophecy, and perhaps also the 
>lingering protection of Lily's sacrifice, makes it extremely 
>unlikely that Harry's life is about to be snuffed by anyone but Lord 
>Voldemort. 


Potioncat:
I don't think Harry has a special protection that will save him until 
he fights LV. (Except that his name in the title.) 
I wonder, since Snape was trying to save him from the bewitched broom 
in SS/PS, why didn't he intervene in CoS against the rogue bludger?