A blood bond between Snape and Dumbledore? (was Re: Snape a relative?)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 144723

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, literature_Caro 
<literature_Caro at w...> wrote:
<SNIP>
 And Snape is the son of a female prince!)makes it very possible that 
Snape is Harry's relative and I
> think we will meet our "greasy git" sooner than we thought, e. g. 
at the
> Potters' grave.
> 


Possible.  However, let me put forth another theory about Snape's 
relatives.  Perhaps, just perhaps, he's related to Dumbledore.  JKR 
has indicated that Dumbledore's family will be important, and also 
has said that the family relationships of Hogwarts professors are 
kept secret for security reasons.

Let us suppose that Elaine Prince was Dumbledore's granddaughter, for 
example, making Snape DD's great-grandson.  Not at all impossible 
chronologically, as DD is 150 or so and Snape in his late 30s.  A 
great-grandson of a different name (and whose mother had a different 
name) would not stand out as an obvious relative.

Wouldn't that put an interesting twist on things?  It would certainly 
explain why DD wants to trust Snape and put great faith in him, as 
well as why he gives him such latitude.  DD perhaps feels guilty 
about Snape's life, thinking he should have "been there" more.  Thus 
he is trying to patiently guide his great-grandson (or whatever) 
along, perhaps giving him too much latitude -- one of the emotional 
mistakes JKR hinted at in her interviews.  DD makes a mistake with 
Harry in OOTP by trying to protect him out of love and guilt.  
Perhaps love and guilt explain his mistakes with Severus as well, 
i.e. a tendancy to dismiss all problems with "Severus will learn, I 
know he has it in him."  Thus DDs policies are not so much the clever 
plans of a manipulative wizard as the wishful thinking of a guilty 
old man who feels he has failed two young men he loves and wants 
desperately to believe that everything will be all right with just a 
little time/patience/restraint/protection/whatever.  His detachment 
magnifies this problem, as he is without a true confidant who could 
metaphorically shake him by the collar and say "Albus, wise up will 
you!"

One attraction to this idea is that there is a ready and plausible 
way for it to be revealed -- Aberforth.  He would certainly know of 
any connection and it would not be hard to work out a scene where he 
reveals it.  Perhaps one reason we have seen so little of Aberforth 
is that he disapproves of some of DDs ideas?  After all, it was 
Aberforth who caught Snape eavesdropping.  One can readily imagine a 
rather testy scene between the two of them where Aberforth tells 
Albus he's letting his sentimentality get in the way of common sense 
and Albus replies with something akin to the speach he gave Harry 
about his intelligence and how perhaps he understands things better 
than Aberforth does.

Yes, yes.  I know the image of Albus as a sentimental and somewhat 
foolish old man wouldn't sit well in some quarters.  But it does very 
neatly explain a lot of things that other theories either leave 
untouched or explain in ways  that raise grave moral and intellectual 
problems.  It also melds the Snape/Harry/Dumbledore triad into 
something of a dysfunctional family, which fits pretty well with what 
we've seen of its workings.


Lupinlore