Snape's DE past

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 111173

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Cathy Drolet" <cldrolet at s...> wrote:
> 
> Tonks said
> "Or maybe Snape is on neither side, but both sides think that he is 
> on theirs."
> 
> DuffyPoo:
> Now, that's an interesting thought!  Unfortunately, I don't have any more to add...I'll 
have to go ponder it for a while. ;-)
> 
> 

It's a bit more complicated than that, I think - though the basic premise
is one that I've been burbling on about for the past year. 

Snape is not interested in the fight of good vs evil.
Snape has his own agenda and it's *personal* not ethical -  and DD knows
this, understands this and accepts it.
The Snape, DD and Voldy triangle exemplifies that old adage "My enemies'
enemy is my friend." The only reason that Snape is allied to DD and the
Order is because it is the only way he can get revenge for an action by
Voldy that hit Snape on a personal level - probably through his family.

Just to stir things up I did suggest that this consisted of Florence and
the crying child in his memory flash, even though the time-line mitigates 
against this, Florence being a couple of years older than Sevvy according
to the most likely calculations. (But see post  69509 and God knows
how many posts since.)

No matter. That's just a whimsical embellishment that isn't  critical to the
main theory.

Snape was a good little DE - then suddenly he wasn't. Not only that but
he betrayed his friends. Because make no bones about it, they were his
friends. These were the Slytherins he was running around with at school;
these are his natural allies. Nobody in the Order likes him; nobody except
DD really trusts him - so why is he in so deep in the anti-Voldy coalition?
Because he is vehemently, passionately, obsessionally anti-Voldy. 
He wants him brought down by any means.

DD knows this. He has total certainty that Snape, having changed sides
once will not do so again. Snape is a driven man. DD also knows why - 
"Professor Snape has his reasons.." he says in OoP. So why isn't he
(or JKR) telling us? Because it's much more bangy than a baddy seeing
the light, embracing goodness and truth and renouncing his naughty
past. 

What could bring about a change so fundamental?
It would have to be something pretty damn dramatic, wouldn't you say?
What do we know about the character of S. Snape, Professor of this parish?
He's cold.
He's intelligent.
He's logical.
He's proud.
And that last one is the key. Hit Snape in his pride, as Sirius did with the
Shrieking Shack Mark I or in his so-called worst memory - the Grey
Underwear Affair - and he will bear a grudge forever. He will nuture it,
cosset it, carry it to the grave and beyond. So when he agrees to work
on the same side as those he apparently hates you have to assume that 
there is a motivation that is even more compelling.

Every so often a thread kicks into life on the "Worst Memory" theme.
IMO it's no such thing. Snape has much worse than that little vignette
to disturb his restful repose - personally I'd rate the Grey Underwear
no higher than forth or fifth if you're willing to make some reasonable
assumptions. (See 80844 - The worst is yet to come.)  Even with what 
has been revealed so far I refuse to believe that the 'Prank' doesn't
rate as worse in Sevvy's mind than a minor schoolboy fracas by the
Lake.

I don't go much on the so-called 'Life Debt' obligation either. IIRC no
such phrase occurs in canon - anywhere. It's an invention by the fans
based on some of DD's flim-flam. Snape wasn't looking out for Harry
because of James but because of something else - DD has persuaded
him that Harry, through the Prophecy, is the best bet to bring down
Voldy - something Snape cannot do on his own. 

Much as Snape may dislike Harry (and I'm not totally convinced about
that, either), he recognises that Harry is probably the only way to
grind Voldy in the dust. 
Snape wants revenge.
He wants it so badly he can taste it.
Now give me another possible reason for that lust for revenge.

JKR has stated previously that the marital status of some of the Hogwarts
teaching staff will be revealed later. This leads one to suspect that such
information is plot-sensitive. Who can you think of where this is likely
to be an important revelation? Only two - DD and Snape; and with DD
it's starting to look irrelevant as the books and theorising progresses,
though some suspect that his blood-lines may be significant. 
But Snape now, that has legs.
Snape loses wife and child because of a Voldy atrocity.
Snape, the Black Widower, full of poisonous hate.
I like it.

Kneasy