Snape and the Life Debt

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 139116

Del wrote:
> 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. 

zgirnius:
Wow, Del, no rotten veggies from me. I think this is a very 
interesting and creative outline and it is giving me a lot of new 
things to think about. I agree that the rough outline about the Life 
Debt transfer does cover a lot of different details. You don't spell 
this out, but I also like that it means Dumbledore was right to trust 
Snape all those years. I never liked the idea he made such a big 
mistake, for so long. You move the mistake to the start of HBP. Cool.

The part above that I kept from your post is my one nitpick. I don't 
think Snape would have agreed to an Unbreakable Vow to protect Harry 
in the situation you outline. Your proposed theory says Snape would 
die if he were unable to prevent Voldemort from killing James. Why 
exchange this for a scenario in which Snape would die if he were 
unable to keep Voldemort from killing Harry? That had to seem equally 
unlikely, at the time. Especially as Harry is the *true* target of 
Voldemort, his parents are just obstacles, to be eliminated if they 
get in the way.

This in no way says Snape Snape like Lily. His unwillingness to speak 
of her could be because he had liked her, regardless of all this 
other stuff. (Snape, it would seem, is a person who has got the 
conventional wisdom that if you can't say something good about a 
person, you should say nothing at all, rather reversed...)