The best reason for Dumbledore to trust Snape

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 137756


> Saraquel:
[..]
> *However*, my instinctive feeling is that DD is not the sort of 
> person who would demand that.  Somehow, I think DD wants people to 
> make FREE choices, and a UV could be seen as a form of compulsion - 
> Ok Severus, I'll believe you have repented when you take a UV. The 
> faith here is in the power of the UV, rather than Severus. I think 
> DD is more along the lines of: I'll have the faith in you that you 
> have repented and in doing so will empower you to continue in this 
> decision, knowing that if you lapse, you forsake the real power 
> which my faith in you gave to you, and the chance to regain that 
> most important of characteristics, self respect.
> 
> It's often said on the list that Snape wants RESPECT and 
> recognition.  The reason he still wants it IMO is because he has no 
> self respect.
>  
> Saraquel

houyhnhnm:

There's a lot of projection in Snape's misanthropy.  His hostility to
Hermione, for instance (besides the fact she's Harry's friend).  An
outsider, an overachiever desperate for recognition, trying to get it
all out of books before even coming to Hogwarts?  That sounds like Snape.

The most character revealing scene, IMO, is during the first
occlumency lesson.

"Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord," said Snape
savagely. "Fools that wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who
cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow
themselves to be provoked this easily--weak people, in other
words--they stand no chance against his powers!"

Clearly, he is speaking of himself, with a passion and an honesty we
don't see anywhere else.

This speech is the strongest evidence for me that Snape has not been a
Death Eater all along, that he really turned against Voldemort.  There
is too much self-loathing in his words for the weaknesses that made
him easy prey for the Dark Lord.  Weaknesses which he has ruthlessly
stamped out in himself (except for the couple of times when he loses
it), and which he sees it as his duty to stamp out in others, Harry
and Tonks, for instance.

Your imagining of what Dumbledore had to offer Snape by contrast, 
completes the picture.  The thing that makes Snape a tragic figure is
that while he *may* appreciate the superior good that Dumbledore has
to offer, he cannot evolve toward it.  He is bound by his past
actions, trapped in the role of spy, an excruciating study in the
workings of karma.