Snape and the Life Debt

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 139110

Or: Why Snape HAD to change sides when he discovered who LV was going
to go after. 

We keep hearing about the Life Debt, but interestingly enough we are
never told how it works. I doubt that's an oversight.

We know that Snape owed a Life Debt to James for saving him from
Werewolf!Lupin. And we can suppose that Snape hadn't managed to repay
that Debt by the time James died, because he supposedly tried to repay
it by saving Harry in PS/SS (or so DD says).

So first question: considering that James and Snape were fighting in
opposing camps, and that James had already defied LV three times,
doesn't it strike anyone as odd that Snape hadn't yet managed to repay
his Debt? I'm sure he had several opportunities to save James's life.
Including, of course, Godric's Hollow.

So my personal conclusion is that Snape never managed to repay his
Debt simply because he never *tried*. That's the simplest and most
logical answer IMO.

Second question: what happens when one is under a Life Debt? We know
the WW doesn't take magical bonds lightly. You die if you break an
Unbreakable Vow. Harry had to participate in the TWT because his name
came out of the Goblet, no matter that all the rules were broken by
that event. So I would suggest that something like a Life Debt is
about, well, life. I don't think that one's life is at risk as long as
they simply don't repay that Life Debt because Snape has survived 20
years since he contracted his own. So a Life Debt doesn't seem to
affect one's survival. So how does it work? What could motivate anyone
to repay a Life Debt, other than personal integrity?

My personal guess is that a Life Debt has desastrous consequences
(read: death) if you take part in the killing of the person you owe a
Life Debt to.

That would explain why Peter tried to convince LV of using anyone but
Harry for his rebirthing potion: because Peter knew that he would die
if he took part in the murder of Harry.

And that would definitely explain why Snape was horror-struck when he
realised who LV was going to go after. He realised that he would die
if James died because of the information he (Snape) had passed.

Sooo... Snape went to the only wizard who might be able to do
something for him, DD. Explained his situation, explained that he
would do *anything* to get out of that mess alive. Well, there was no
getting LV off-track, both Snape and DD knew that. He *would* go after
the Potters. Of course, the Potters would take protective measures, DD
would do his best too, but, well, LV *was* the greatest Dark Wizard
around, so chances were that he would get the Potters sooner or later.

So here's what I think might have happened. DD proposed a very special
transaction to Snape: a transfer of Life Debt. I'm not sure what the
specifics of the procedure were. Maybe James owed a Life Debt to DD
(not very hard to imagine, for me anyway), and DD remitted James's
Debt in exchange for becoming the object of Snape's Debt. I'm not
sure. But in the end, Snape ended up owing a Life Debt to DD, so that
his own life wasn't at risk anymore should LV kill James because of
the Prophecy.

Of course, owing a Life Debt to DD meant that Snape couldn't work of
his own accord for LV anymore, because anything he did as a DE could
eventually lead to DD's demise. That's why Snape entered into DD's
service, and why DD kept him close.

The problem, when you owe a Life Debt to the greatest wizard alive, is
that it is extremely hard to repay it. So Snape was now stuck at
Hogwarts, unable to repay his Debt, and necessarily careful of doing
anything that might endanger DD's life.

As an aside, it is possible that Snape was so desperate of getting out
of his Life Debt that he tried to repay his *original* Debt, the one
to James, by saving Harry in PS/SS. His attempt was of course doomed
to fail, first because his Debt was now to DD, and because the Debt to
James most probably wouldn't have transferred to his son anyway. But
this could a sign of how much Snape *loathed* being under this Debt.

I also think that this Debt is the very reason DD wouldn't give the
DADA post to Snape. First because he woulnd't want to risk losing
Snape after a year (a Snape at his service was probably quite a
valuable asset), and also because he was afraid Snape might use his
power and authority as DADA Master to find a countercharm to the Life
Debt.

Now, let's jump to the beginning of HBP. DD goes Horcrux-hunting, and
gets grievously, *mortally*, wounded. And who saves his life, but
Snape? As a result, the Life Debt is repaid, Snape is free. He then
makes it extremely clear that either DD finally gives him the DADA
position, or he leaves. DD has no choice, if he wants to keep Snape
close. He gives him the DADA job, and goes Potion-master-hunting with
Harry.

>From then on, DD can only *hope* that Snape will remain on the right
side. He is exactly in the same position that Merope was, when she
decided to stop feeding Love Potion to her husband: hoping that the
long time spent acting in a specific way has changed the true nature
of the person. DD hopes that after spending so much time working for
the right guys, Snape has changed and has learned to put the Greater
Good before his own ambitions and desires. 

Tough luck...

Snape might be willing to keep helping DD as long as that doesn't
interfere too much with his private plans or comfort, but that's about
it. When faced with a choice between DD's life and his own, Snape
chose his own.

The only thing I can't directly link to this theory is Snape's strange
reluctance to speak of Lily. I wonder if this has anything to do with
the conditions surrounding the Transfer of the Debt. It could be that
James had to give his permission for the Transfer, and that he did so
only when Snape agreed to take an UV with Lily, that he would protect
Harry. In that case, his trying to protect Harry in PS/SS would simply
be a fulfillment of this Vow. So would his protecting Harry from the
other DEs at the end of HBP. And the reason why Snape agreed to the
Vow might be the same one why he won't talk of Lily: he liked her (not
necessarily romatic love, I'm going more for friendship or something
like that).

That last hypothesis could also explain why Snape twitched when
Narcissa pronounced the third item of her Vow. If Snape didn't know
what the Task was (and I think he didn't), he might have thought that
maybe Draco was supposed to kill *Harry*, in which case Snape would
have been stuck between two diametrically opposed Vows. That would
explain why he was so desperate to learn Draco's Task and plans, and
why he even tried to sabotage them (by putting Crabbe and Goyle in
detention). As others have pointed out, there was no time frame
attached to the Vow, and we don't know that there was any attached to
the Task either. So maybe Snape figured that if he could delay Draco
long enough, DD would find a way to defeat LV and then one or both
Vows would be automatically nullified.

Disclaimer: this theory is just in the first stages of reflection, I
do not claim that it is in any way foolproof.

OK, shoot, now :-)!

Del dons umbrella and ducks behind a barricade, awaiting the rotten
tomatoes.