TBAY: Definitely NOT a Snape Theory (long)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 145483

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nrenka" <nrenka at y...> wrote:
>


> 
> But Dumbledore's whole modus operandi is, IMO, tending to 
> infantilization of people he ought to be giving more respect and 
> information.  And it's wholly thematic that his tendency to secrecy 
> and to take the whole load fully upon himself (contra Harry with the 
> Trio, who he's told about all kinds of things) bites him in the ass 
> in the end.
> 

I certainly agree.  However, let me offer a somewhat different way in 
which DD's refusal to tell Harry why he trusts Snape fits in with LID!
Snape.  

Let us suppose that LID!Snape is true.  DD accepts Snape into 
Hogwarts, knowing he is magically compelled to protect Harry.  Very 
good.  But DD being DD, he wants Snape to ACTUALLY reform.  That is, 
over time he wants Snape's expressions of remorse, which he recognizes 
may not be entirely genuine, to BECOME entirely genuine.

How would he do that?  By placing trust in Snape and backing him up at 
every opportunity.  And most of all, by NOT LETTING THE SECRET OUT.  
Because if he does that everyone will dismiss any good that Snape DOES 
do as "well, of course he would do that, he HAS to you know."

Now, why then did Dumbledore let spill about the life debt at all?  It 
isn't in his nature to lie, directly, and that would be his only 
option in PS/SS.  He could simply refuse to answer Harry, as well, but 
that probably wouldn't do in this situation, either.  So he reveals 
part of the truth, establishing the fact of the debt without all its 
implications.

Why doesn't he reveal the truth of LID!Snape in GoF?  Because he still 
hopes against hope that Snape and Harry will reach some kind of 
reconciliation, and he knows if he lets the cat out of the bag that he 
will destroy any chance of that, because from then on out Harry will 
receive any protestations of Snape's goodness/trustworthiness with a 
knowing sneer and something to the effect of "well, when he's GOT to, 
I suppose."

By the same token, I think we should remember that, as far as we know, 
he has never revealed to Snape about the prophecy.  Why not?  Well, 
for one thing it is very personal to Harry, just as Snape's situation 
is very personal to him.  But then Nora's objections about the greater 
good, etc., become pertinent.  

Perhaps it's for the same reason.  He wants a genuine reconciliation 
between the two of them, and he wants Snape to see Harry like he, 
Dumbledore, sees Harry -- or as much as possible like that, anyway.  
As many have speculated, he may well have hoped this would be an 
outcome of occlumency lessons, and may have been hurt to the quick 
when it was not.  I.E. when he says "I thought Professor Snape 
could...." he's really saying "I thought once Severus saw into your 
mind and your life, he would come to see you to an extent as I do."  
The revelation of how much Snape's hatred blinds him would have been 
all that much worse, under this scenario.

Therefore he doesn't share the prophecy with Snape, in part, because 
he fears that it would become a way for Snape to simply dismiss 
anything he says about Harry with a sneer and a "of course, he is 
necessary to the plan."  

Just some speculations on how LID!Snape might fit in with DD's keeping 
of secrets from BOTH Snape and Harry.


Lupinlore