[HPforGrownups] Despised Lackey or Social Equal?: Snape's 'Respectability'

[digger]

No: HPFGUIDX 90114

Julie wrote:

> I tend to read Snape (his dress, speech patterns, method of teaching, 
> emphysis on respect and obedience) as someone with a chip on his 
> shoulder, who's self-made (or re-invented), who has struggled for 
> what he has and is very much on guard against loosing it, rather than 
> born to wealth and power and easy social connections like the 
> Malfoys.  

> So I wonder.  Would a combination of magical abilities, and what must 
> be at least a respectable bloodline (perhaps a bastard branch or 
> tradition of vassalage to a `good' pure blooded family?) plus Head of 
> House be enough to place Severus Snape on equal footing with someone 
> like Lucius Malfoy?  
> 

> 
> Would anyone care to comment?   Offer corrections on assumptions?
> 
> Julie
> 
> 
digger:

I think there are few in the WW Lucius Malfoy would regard as equals ;-)

Snape's immediate backgound could well be pureblood, yet tainted in some 
way. I think the glimpses we had of his unhappy homelife as a child help 
our speculation. His father seemed overbearing and cruel. That would 
give good precedent for dear Severus' teaching style. Is he just 
repeating the verbal abuse he received as a child, to his students? So 
why was his father so overbearing and nasty? I think the idea of a 
social mis-match between Snape's parents is enough to furnish.

If Snape pere or mere were high status and had the audacity to marry 
beneath them, the aristo family might well have spurned their company, 
and even 'cut them off without a penny', forcing financial hardship on 
them. That can be reason enough to cause resentment and spousal cruelty. 
I think this is more likely than our dear Severus being born on the 
'wrong side of the blanket', though that is possible too.

So Lucius Malfoy might well acknowledge Snape as being a kind of 'poor 
cousin' or somesuch. Not an equal, but one who has a trickle of noble 
blood in his veins. Tainted blood though, and with no financial clout. 
But our Snape is smart. He is powerful in his wand magic. He is also 
logical (a rare talent in a wizard). He knows a compendium of curses and 
hexes right from his first year at Hogwarts. (I can't help suspecting he 
learnt those the hard way, from Daddy using them at home) This would 
have earned him respect in the Slytherin Common-Room, and Malfoy would 
certainly have taken notice of him.

I feel the Malfoy Snr/Snape relationship is a kind of patronage. Malfoy 
is canny and devious. Snape is highly talented and therefore useful. 
Malfoy encourages Snape to develop his talent for potions. Maybe Malfoy 
procures Snape some illegal ingredients to brew some dark and dangerous 
potions. Who else would have brewed Malfoy those poisons he is hiding 
under his drawing room floor but Snape?

If Snape needs money, I'm sure there is a ready black market for all 
kinds of potions only he can brew. In fact, Snape could probably earn 
far more than his teachers salary by setting up a lab and shop in 
Knockturn Alley. But this would not bring him the respectability and 
recogonition he craves.

digger