Snape and the Edinburgh Festival

[severelysigune]

No: HPFGUIDX 111090

Neri wrote:
 
< Why did DE!Snape change sides? This is one of the greatest 
mysteries in the books (Lexicon Steve, do you have it on your list?). 
I tried to round up the usual suspicions. I'm not really happy with 
any of them, but I added my personal scoring:

<neat list of options snipped for the sake of length>

Did I miss any theory? Which would you prefer? >


Sigune:

Hmm... the Life Debt, I can see that. He's honour-bound...

I offer up my own pet theory (sorry, couldn't resist...) - feel free 
to tear it to bits. I haven't got any proof, but I believe I am being 
consistent with canon.
Here goes:

Imagine young Sevvie, just down from Hogwarts. At school he has time 
and time again been beaten by two clever, quick and powerful fellow 
students. He's sick of it. He decides to go and learn from the best, 
and so one day to surpass his two tormentors and take his vengeance.
If he wants the best, he has two possible teachers to choose from: 
Lord Voldemort and Albus Dumbledore.
Young Sevvie isn't *nice*. He loves Dark Arts. Dumbledore is hardly 
an option: he's on the side of Potter and Black, and he has made his 
name as an opponent of Dark wizards.
That leaves the rising star of the moment, the powerful Lord 
Voldemort. The idea of joining him and the Death Eaters has some 
appeal. There will be Dark Arts galore and with some luck, young 
Sevvie will get to fight Potter and Black, this time with a lot of 
hooded pals on his side. If he has to harm a few Muggles or fellow 
wizards in order to be a member of this exclusive Dark club and get 
the opportunity to strengthen himself, then so be it. He joins. He 
partakes in the Death Eater brand of 'fun'.
BUT.
After some time he begins to realise the Death Eaters are not really 
the allies he had thought they were. They are all out to save their 
own skins, to further their own causes; and the Dark Lord does not 
really want his followers to substantially win power. He wants 
servants merely, and bullies his Death Eaters into such a position. 
This is so not what our ambitious young man wanted. He feels cheated. 
But he is bound to the Dark Lord by now. And on his own he has not 
sufficient strength to win back his freedom and pride.
So he turns to Albus Dumbledore, the only man who *does* have that 
strength and power. He offers to spy for him. And how wonderful it 
feels to undetectedly thwart the Evil Overlord who thinks he 
possesses him. Heh heh. And, look, he's better off with Dumbledore on 
the whole: no more Cruciatus Curses, no serfdom, a nice job in a safe 
place, a position of trust, and lots to learn. Hasn't he made a 
clever move.

Somehow I think that for Snape to make such an important decision as 
that of changing sides, there must have been something done to him 
personally. Someone near to him got killed? They shouldn't have been 
so clumsy. He changed his mind after being forced to do something 
gruesome? Don't buy that. Someone as calculating as he was would not 
have joined the DE's without first informing himself as to what they 
were all about. And he's not a wimp, or he wouldn't have lived till, 
well, Book Six at least, and wouldn't have shown Fudge the Dark Mark, 
and wouldn't have agreed to to whatever it is he is currently doing 
for Dumbledore. Snape's greatest concern is himself; if he joined the 
DE's, left them, became a spy, eventually joined the Order - he did 
so for selfish reasons. That's why Dumbledore can trust him: he knows 
he is Snape's greatest asset, they need each other to reach their 
respective goals, which happen to converge in one important place - 
Voldemort's defeat.

I guess what I've sketched here is a mean, nasty Snape who does the 
right thing for the wrong reason. He's a gift of a character :).

Yours severely,

Sigune