TBAY: Definitely NOT a Snape Theory (long)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 145024

One stormy evening in Theory Bay, Neri was to be found in the Royal
George, looking for the bathroom. Why can't George hang proper signs
in here? And where is George himself when you need him to answer a
simple question? Come to think of it, George *has* been absent from
his own bar for suspiciously long periods lately.

The bar wasn't very crowded, but it was sure noisy. For some obscure
reason all the customers were shouting at each other:

"ESE!"

"DDM!"

"OFH!"

It seemed you couldn't conduct simple theorizing these days without
lots of exclamation marks. Nobody were very interested when Neri
offered them a bag of ACID POPS, and they got positively scarce
whenever he started talking about Harrycrux. Now where was that @#$&
bathroom? Neri pushed one shabby door at random and found himself in a
dark corridor with many more doors. Another random door opened to a
narrow staircase going down and down and down... the stairs where
dangerously slippery under Neri's feet. Positive now that he was lost,
he opened the door at the bottom of the staircase into what looked
like... a big underground dock below the Royal George???

The canal coming from the far side of the dark cave must have been a
secret opening into the Bay. In the dock near Neri there was a
half-finished ship, its bow scribbled with the words "LID!Snape". Two
people were working on board in the meager light of a lantern,
hammering planks into place while they argued between them:

"I still say he was slowly disillusioned with the Death Eaters, and
gradually came to the realization that Voldemort and his followers
were evil." The speaker's voice was very familiar. "Couldn't we fit
this in somehow?" 

"Oh, George, really! not *that* old one again. Only Snape fans would
buy it these days. I thought even you forgot all about it." 

This voice too was familiar. But it couldn't be. Surely not...

"Faith?" said Neri in utter disbelief. "Is that you? Working on a new
*theory*?? A *Snape* Theory???"

Both personifications jumped and looked guiltily at Neri.

"She made me do it!" George pointed at Faith with his hammer. "It was
all her idea!" Faith had a trapped look on her face and no answers.

"And isn't it a bit cumbersome working in the dark like that," added
Neri, crossing over to the ship, "while wearing a Life Debt... I mean,
a life belt..." Neri stopped and looked more carefully. The life belt
Faith was wearing, as usual when she was aboard any marine vessel, was
indeed inscribed with the words "Life Debt".

"This isn't a theory!" Faith finally found her voice. "Definitely not
a theory. Most Definitely not a *Snape* theory! You wouldn't think
that I would stoop to such... such...".

"Then what is it?" asked Neri, looking at the half-built ship.

"It's... it's an intellectual exercise. A pure intellectual exercise
that was never meant..."

"A speculation, you mean."

"No! Definitely not a speculation! I don't do speculations!"

"But just the other day you said..." started George, and hastily shut
up when Faith gave him a murderous stare. She looked back at Neri.
"This is not a speculation!" she said forcefully. "It is just an
innocent intellectual construct, absolutely theore... no! I meant
absolutely hypothe... no, no! I meant... erm..." she was at a complete
loss of words for a minute. Finally she gave Neri a piteous look and
whispered:  "You won't tell anybody, will you?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," said Neri, looking as if his birthday has come
early. His 18th birthday. "Now, this ship is obviously in need of a
proper inspection." He jumped aboard. "By someone experienced and
objective. Surely not by one of the designers. No, no, *they* have
this tendency to deny the existence of any holes even when they have
to cross in murky water up to their waist just to reach their engine
bay." He found a big box of ship crackers and seated himself
comfortably on it. "Now, lets start the inspection with the name. What
does LID!Snape mean? I somehow hoped for a cool acronym from Bay
veterans like you two." 

George and Faith looked at each other. "The name was *your* idea,"
accused Faith.

"It's just a pre-production name," said George defensively. "Until we
think of something better. It means Life-InDebted!Snape". 

"Oh, the debt that Snape owes James' memory for saving his life?" said
Neri. "This is an old one. It's hardly a theory."

"This is exactly what I've been trying to say!" said Faith. "It's not
even a theory! It's so obvious that it's practically canon. And yet it
has all the advantages of either ESE!Snape, DDM!Snape and OFH!Snape,
while having none of their weaknesses. It's perfect!" 

"Explain yourself," said Neri to the agitated Faith, who started
pacing around the deck, grasping her life belt. "We don't know even
how Life Debts work, after all," He added. "They may follow at least
two alternative models of Potterverse magic. They may be like Lily's
sacrifice protection – that is, a completely mysterious and unexpected
magic that doesn't do anything most of the time, but works
spectacularly when the Author needs it to. Or they may be like the
Unbreakable Vow, having very specific terms that anybody who breaks
them drops dead on the spot. Only in the Life Debt case we don't have
a clue what these terms are."

"This is all speculation. I told you I don't do speculation." said
Faith. "I just believe what canon places in front of me. Dumbledore
told us in SS/PS that James saved Snape's life, that Snape hates it,
and that he tried saving Harry because it would make him and James
even. The question how exactly Life Debts work is mostly irrelevant to
our theo... I mean, to Snape's actions. Besides, the reason we know so
little about Life Debts is precisely because JKR avoided giving us any
details, and the reason she avoided giving us any details is, as she
admitted, that Life Debts are extremely important to the plot! This
isn't theory. It's canon!"

"But canon doesn't say explicitly that Snape owed James a Life Debt,"
interjected Neri.

"Of course it doesn't. Because the term `Life Debt' itself isn't
canon, it's only our name for it. But canon does say that when one
wizard saves the life of another, a special bond is created between
them, and that this is magic at its deepest, most impenetrable. It
isn't *me* who should theorize that Snape owed a Life Debt to James.
This is the obvious part. It's all those ESE, DDM and OFH lot who have
to explain how Snape's Life Debt factors into *their* theories! And if
they claim it doesn't, or that Snape doesn't owe a Life Debt to James
at all, then it's *them* that have to prove it!" 

"I could have told you not to get her going on this," said George
wisely to Neri.

"I see some problems with this, but lets leave them for now," said
Neri. "You said that your theo... that LID!Snape has all the
advantages of ESE, DDM and OFH, and none of their weaknesses. This is
a rather bold claim. Explain this." 

"Well, just think of the biggest Snape revelation in HBP," said Faith.
"Dumbledore told us in plain words that when Snape heard the prophecy
he told it to Voldemort. It is only when Snape realized who is the
*specific* family Voldemort had in his sights that he went to
Dumbledore and told him the Potters are in danger."

"Actually, Alla had pointed out that this last detail is not explicit
canon," commented Neri.

"Oh, I'm sure she too believes that Dumbledore wouldn't have accepted
Snape otherwise," said Faith dismissively.

"And another thing," added Neri. "If Snape was sent to Dumbledore as a
double agent by Voldy himself, then Voldy likely supplied him with
some true but worthless information to feed Dumbledore, in order to
maintain Snape's cover."

"But surely Voldemort didn't want Dumbledore to be told that Voldemort
knows about the prophecy, that he knows only the first half of it, and
what is the specific family he chose to attack! If Voldemort ever find
out Snape told this to Dumbledore it *would* be the end of Snape's
career as a DE. This is surly why Dumbledore was so secretive about
this specific detail, while telling hundreds of wizards that Snape
changed sides and spied on Voldemort for some time before GH. And the
Wormtail's betrayal plot and the mysteriously rebounding AK explain
why Voldemort has never suspected that Snape told Dumbledore about the
imminent attack on the Potters."

"And you concluded all that without doing any speculation?" said Neri.
"Most impressive. But lets leave that for now," he added quickly when
seeing Faith was about to explode. "Why do you say that LID!Snape best
explains it?".   

"Well, obviously Snape only told Dumbledore because of something
specific about the *Potters*," said Faith. "So it could only be
because of Lily, which means LOLLIPOPS, or because of James, which
means Life Debt. I don't see other options to explain Snape behavior
here, unless you claim Dumbledore was lying about it." 

"There are other possibilities. Some members suggested that young
Severus had a platonic friendship with Lily, perhaps because of their
common interest in Potions."

"Oh, you mean FOLLIPOPS," said George.

"What?" said Neri, distracted.

"FOLLIPOPS. Friendship Of Lily Left Ire Polluted Our Poor Severus.
FOLLIPOPS."

"Our policy is not to say anything against the folly pops, I mean
FOLLIPOPS," said Faith, smirking. "But obviously, if this friendship
was so strong that Snape changed sides because of it, then for all
*practical* purposes this theory is like LOLLIPOPS. Since both Lily
and James are long dead anyway it amounts to the same thing as far as
Snape's present and future actions are concerned. We just treat this
theory under the heading of LOLLIPOPS."
 
"OK, then," said Neri. "So you say yourself that LOLLIPOPS explains
Snape's changing sides as well as LID!Snape."

"LOLLIPOPS!" said Faith scathingly. "Now *there's* a typical theory
for you. Not a single can(n)on on board, but a huge crew of believers,
none of which think that they have to bother showing even a shade of
proof. But I'm sure that THEY!" she suddenly shouted upward, towards
the ceiling of the underground dock, "WILL DEMAND THAT *I*, WHO IS
STANDING ON PURE CANON, WILL PROVE MY _T_H_E_O_R_Y_!!!"

Neri and George both cowered with their hands on their ears. "Told you
not to get her going on this," whispered George.  

"OK, OK, just calm down," said Neri. "I... er... gather you have a
thing about LOLLIPOPS."

"Me? I don't have anything about LOLLIPOPS," said Faith, taking deep
calming breaths. "Why should I? It's only a theory. It will either
sink or stay afloat in the end."

"So lets go back to ESE, DDM and OFH," said Neri. "Why do you say that
LID!Snape works better than them?"

"Just think. Is there any mystery, any big Snape question that either
ESE, DDM or OFH manage to explain, but LID doesn't?"

Neri pondered. And pondered. 

"Don't exert yourself, there isn't such a thing," Faith told him. "But
OTOH, each of these theories has things it does not explain, which LID
does. ESE and OFH don't explain why Snape told Dumbledore about the
coming attack on the Potters – LID does. ESE and OFH don't explain why
Snape tried to save Harry's life several times, the last time in HBP
after he had already killed Dumbledore – LID does. DDM don't explain
why Snape hates Harry so much – LID does. DDM is yet to find a
satisfactory explanation of what had happened on the tower – LID
doesn't have any problem with it."

"Hmm, when you put it like that..." said Neri. "But there *are* Snape
mysteries that LID doesn't explain."

"Only those mysteries that ESE, DDM and OFH don't explain either. For
example, why did he undertake the Unbreakable Vow."

Neri smiled broadly, took out a bag of sweets from his shirt pocket
and offered them to Faith with a generous gesture. "ACID POPS?"

"No thanks", said Faith coldly, as though she didn't think this was
the time for ACID POPS.

"They explain why Snape undertook the Unbreakable Vow," wheedled Neri.
"And they don't interfere with LID!Snape at all."

"Had anybody in canon ever said that Snape ever had a thing for Narcissa?"

"No, but the timeline works, and if you read between the lines of
`Spinners End' a bit..."

"I don't read between the lines," said Faith. "I just read the lines
themselves".

Neri sighed, put one ACID POP in his mouth and offered the bag to the
other personification. "George, ACID POPS?"

"Do they say that Snape had gradually came to the understanding that
Voldemort is evil?"

Neri sighed again and stowed the bag back in his shirt pocket. "I
really have to invest more in promotion," he mumbled to himself. "How
come no one wants them? I thought I had all the best ingredients:
romance, betrayal, sacrifice, tragedy, celebrities..." 

"Do I gather we're done with the inspection?" Asked Faith frostily.

"What? No! Not that easily. Le'mee see... canon – check, plot
considerations – check... um... meta-thinking! What about that?"

"Ah, yes," said Faith. "Another aspect in which LID has all the
advantages of ESE, DDM and OFH, but none of their weaknesses. For
example, the OFH crew argue that their theory requires the least
explanation. Both the DDM and ESE people counter that OFH would be
boring, and that it doesn't supply Snape with a strong motivation for
his actions in the past, nor for an interesting plot development in
Book 7. But a Life Debt to Harry would give OFH!Snape all the
motivation and interesting conflict he lacks, without any increase in
the amount of explanation needed."

"There will be need to explain how the Life Debt magic works," argued
Neri. "However it does."

"We're going to need that anyway, because it's supposed to play in the
Wormtail plot. And as I mentioned before, LID explains better than OFH
why Snape went to Dumbledore when he realized Voldemort was after the
Potters, and why he tried to save Harry's life several times, so LID
actually requires even less explanation than OFH."    

"Er... well..." said Neri.

"More meta-thinking," said Faith. "The DDM crew point out that the
tower scene, at the very end of the book before last, just *begs* for
a nice reversal in the last book. The ESE and OFH crews counter that
revealing Snape is DDM in the last book would practically make him the
real hero of the series and Harry a puppet of Dumbledore's plan. But
LID!Snape can supply us with a powerful reversal – Snape saving
Harry's life at the critical moment in Book 7 – without making Snape
the hero. He'll do it because he magically owes James' memory, not
because he's the secret guardian of Dumbledore's plan. All the
advantages, none of he weaknesses."

"Hmmm..." said Neri.

"She can be so annoyingly right, can't she?" observed George in an
understanding tone.

"Even more meta-thinking," continued Faith relentlessly. "The DDM crew
argue that ESE and OFH would make Dumbledore look really dumb in the
end - trusting blindly in Snape's faked remorse - and would
practically reduce his character to a plot device. The OFH and ESE
people counter that DDM would make *Harry* look really dumb and would
reduce him to a plot device. But a Life Debt to Harry would give
Dumbledore a true reason to trust Snape without making Harry incorrect
about Snape killing Dumbledore. LID!Snape would thus enable both
Dumbledore and Harry to come out mostly right (but also slightly in
the wrong) in the end."

"Hey, that part can actually be made even more convincing," said Neri.
"Del and I posted about it. You see, if the Life Debt magic kills you
when you take a part in killing the one you owe to, then Snape should
have died after GH, but if Dumbledore saved him by magically
transferring his Debt from James to Harry, then Snape would owe a Life
Debt to Dumbledore too! That would certainly make Dumbledore trust
him. And after Snape saved Dumbledore's life back from the ring curse,
he could kill Dumbledore, but he still owes Harry..." 

Neri trailed off when he saw the look on Faith's face, and sighed
again. "I know, I know, you don't do speculation. It just that
Dumbledore trusting Snape when knowing that it's only his own life on
the line, while Harry's life are protected as ever, strikes me as a
very Dumbledore choice to make." 

Neri considered for some time. "But I still see a meta problem with
your theo... with LID!Snape. Wouldn't it be a superfluous thematic
duplication, since we already have the Life Debt plot of Wormtail? Why
do we need another one with Snape? And some would perhaps argue that
Kreacher too belongs to this category – villains that betrayed Harry
but are now magically compelled to help him."

"Exactly," said Faith. "We already have both Wormtail and Kreacher, so
why not Snape too? And JKR has already demonstrated in the past that
she's not afraid of thematic duplication. On the contrary - she lets
it work for her. In PoA she gave us not one, not two, but three
unregistered animagi, and then she threw in a werewolf for good
measure. In HBP she gave us not one, not two, but six Horcruxes. Why
would she have a problem with two DEs owing a Life Debt to Harry in
Book 7?"

"Hmmm... now that you mention it," said Neri thoughtfully, "Snape and
Wormtail forced to share the same house in HBP, with no apparent plot
reason for that... could it be foreshadowing? You know, the two of
them, as much as they hate each other, compelled to cooperate in Book
7 in order to save Harry and repay both their Debts..." He trailed off
when seeing the look on Faith's face. "Er... speculation again?"

Faith nodded.

Neri sighed. "Well, *I* do it, you know."

"So are we through with the inspection?"

"Not yet! We now come to the most difficult part."

Faith waited.

"You know, that part about water tightness," said Neri ominously.

Faith waited. Neri pondered. And pondered.

"Now just a minute," he finally said. "This isn't fair! There can't be
holes in your theory because it has no structure to have holes in it.
You just took three paragraphs from Dumbledore's end-of-the-year talk
in SS/PS, combined them with two paragraphs from his end-of-the-year
talk in PoA, and that it! Where are the assumptions? Where is the
reasoning? This isn't even a theory!"

"Exactly," said Faith. "I've been explaining that all along. LID!Snape
isn't even a theory. And yet it answers more Snape mysteries than
either LOLLIPOPS, ESE, DDM, OFH or any Snape theory."

"She's always so annoyingly right, isn't she?" sighed George.

"Ah, well. But I still have one more question," said Neri. "A question
for George, actually."

"For me?" said George.

"Yes, for you. Where is the nearest bathroom?"









References and notes
--------------------

Faith is described in 
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hypotheticalley.html#faith

George is described in
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hypotheticalley.html#george

LOLLIPOPS is described in
http://www.hpfgu.org.uk/faq/hypotheticalley.html#lollipops

Speculation about the nature of the Life Debt magic and why Snape owed
a Life Debt to Dumbledore too can be found in Del's post:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/139110

and are further developed in my response:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/140493

ACID POPS (they are really really good, we have them in two flavors,
just try them! PLEASE!!): 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/138593
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/138790
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/139141