Vengeance on Snape?Re: Snape--Abusive?

[severelysigune]

No: HPFGUIDX 115622


Jen wrote: 
> My thought is, does Snape really want his gifts acknowledged by the 
> WW? The only information we have about this is in POA, when 
> Dumbledore interprets that Snape is reeling from the loss of the 
> Order of Merlin. That seem legitimate, but once again it's 
> Dumbledore's interpretation. Maybe Snape is actually reeling from 
> the fact that Sirius "got away" with something again. Or that three 
> school children made him unconcious in the Shrieking Shack. 
> 
> Snape appears to be a loner with low regard for societal 
> approbation. He doesn't seem the type to need outside monetary 
> reward or intangibles. And there's always that question of whether 
> the WW at large will ever *really* forget he was once a DE. I'm all 
> for him finding another job, though ;).
> 
> Jen, thinking this is yet another unanswerable Snape question 
> because of all the details held back for plot purposes.


Sigune:
Yes, I've been wondering about that Order of Merlin too... But I 
think that when it comes to assessing Snape, Dumbledore might be a 
tad more reliable than Harry, so I wouldn't dismiss his comment 
straight away.
We don't know for sure what Snape is doing in VW2, but in VW1 he was 
a spy, and NOT a member of the Order of the Phoenix. So one thing we 
can be sure about is that whatever he did for the 'good' side, it 
went largely unacknowledged. He might be after that Merlin thing as a 
kind of compensation, I suppose; and the fact that he would gain it 
by handing his old enemy over to the Dementors would be a wonderful 
extra.
(And naturally you are right to see much of his anger has to do with 
Sirius escaping and himself being defeated by three students.)

I agree that Snape appears a loner etc, but I don't think that 
precludes a certain craving for recognition. It seems that his enmity 
with James and Sirius is tinged with that kind of feeling, too. I'm 
not sure about the accuracy of Lupin's explanation of 'Quidditch 
Envy', but that there was envy of some sort I have no doubt. Snape 
seems the type of person who tends to be on his own because he might 
feel that (to quote Wilde's Lord Goring) 'other people are quite 
dreadful. The only possible society is oneself.' He has a sense of 
superiority, and he might just want people to acknowledge that 
superiority.

I also have a problem with the assumption that the WW at large knows 
that Snape was a DE. If that is so, certainly a number of his 
students would know so, too ("My dad says Snape's a nasty piece of 
work, he used to be a Death Eater, you know; Papa doesn't want me to 
take Potions with him, he's sent Dumbledore several owls already"), 
and it wouldn't have been much of a discovery in GoF. If it were 
general knowledge, Ron would know, and he doesn't. The hearing, or 
trial, or whatever occasion it was where Snape was questioned and 
Dumbledore defended him must have been a rather quiet affair.

Yours severely,

Sigune