Will Snape betray Dumbledore? Re: my greatest fear....

[severelysigune]

No: HPFGUIDX 121191


Sigune jumps onto this thread with the eagerness of a hungry werewolf 
attacking a poor unsuspecting mortal...

> >> Alla: 
> > Oh, dear. Welcome back to the Light side. :o) I NEVER bought 
Snape going to the Tunnel, because he wanted to save the kids as his 
primary motivation. Revenge, revenge and revenge again.

I am not sure though that he did not know that the kids were there. 
Are you saying that he could not see them on the Map? Because 
then, I will abandon "saving life motive" even as secondary 
motivation, which I happened to hope he has. < <

Potioncat replied:
> chp 17 Lupin appears in the Shrieking Shack saying he saw Black 
pull Ron into the tunnel.(on the Map)
 
chp 19 Snape says,
"I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight." (on the 
map)  

Therefore, he saw Lupin go out of sight.  The trio, Scabbers and 
Black would already have been out of sight. So he only saw Lupin. <


Sigune:
AHA! But what was Snape *wearing* when he entered the Shrieking 
Shack? An invisibility cloak which he knew very well to be the 
property of Harry Potter. So even if he hurried after *Lupin* in the 
first place, he was well aware, before entering the tunnel, that 
Harry (and most likely his two closest friends, because they are sort 
of inseparable) was in the Shack too. 
As always with Snape, he was trying to do several things at once: 
playing the responsible teacher-cum-hero, saving students from a 
werewolf; petitioning for an Order of Merlin by catching an escaped 
criminal; and exacting vengeance on two of his schoolday nemeses.
Very efficient man, Snape is. He tends to combine motives.


Potioncat continued:
> What I can say, is that Snape, who has suspected Lupin all along, 
sees him going to the Shrieking Shack where he used to go for 
transformations. If Lupin has violated the "contract" so to speak, 
Snape may feel justified in going after him.  He was afterall, a 
danger to the school. < 

Sigune:
Very true.

Potioncat:
>  The essay he assigned the DADA class was "...on the ways you 
recognise and kill werewolves."  Keeping in mind, the empahsis was 
on the werewolf in wolf form vrs a true wolf.  Now I wonder, did 
Snape want to prepare students in case they met up with Lupin in the 
moonlight? Or was he hoping someone would kill Lupin without knowing 
who it was? <

Sigune:
I think all of the above. On the one hand he wouldn't want (some of) 
his students devoured; on the other, getting Lupin killed would be a 
nice bonus. But somehow I doubt a student can single-handedly take on 
a werewolf - if it was an easy thing to do, why would Snape himself 
be so traumatised by his sixth-year chance encounter with one?
 

> >>Alla: 
> > Now, why did he follow werewolf in the tunel indeed? Maybe he 
thought he knew how to fight werewolf succesfully? Hmmm, makes you 
wonder about some past events. :)

> Potioncat:
> I should have put that part of your post above my comments.  I 
wonder if Snape was prepared to kill the werewolf? (in werewolf 
form.) < 

Sigune:
I don't doubt it. He was prepared to kill Black too, though, to be 
fair, he kindly requested a reason.
*gloats over all that wickedness*


Alla:
> > About Snape betraying Dumbleodre... Not sure. Him wanting revenge 
against Remus and Black, not caring who will be hurt in the 
process, Dumbledore included, fits pretty well in the picture of 
Snape holding his old grudges, without him betraying Dumbledore. < <


Sigune:
I paste Potioncat's quotes again - 

PoA "The Servant of Lord Voldemort" (chp 19)
Snape speaking,
"Ive told the headmaster again and again that you've been helping
your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof.
Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as
your hideout--"
...
"Two more for Azkaban tonight," his eyes now gleaming fanatically.I
shall be interested to see how Dumbledore takes this...he was quite
convinced you were harmless, you know Lupin...a *tame* werewolf--"

Then in "Owl Post Again" chp 22
Harry and Hermione over hear Sanpe and Fudge. Snape is speaking and
Harry hears him in mid sentence,
"...only hope Dumbledore's not going to make difficulties," Snape
was saying. "The kiss will be performed immediately?"


I read this - and I haven't changed my mind - as evidence of Snape's 
strong loyalty to Dumbledore; or, more specifically, as Snape's own 
twisted version of loyalty. It is plain (to me) that he greatly 
*envies* Dumbledore's ever lingering affection for Lupin and EVEN the 
mass-murderer Black. He has been trying very hard to get Dumbledore 
round to his own point of view that has the first pinned down as a 
man who can't handle his highly dangerous and infectious disease 
responsibly and, on top of that, misplaces his loyalties and 
priorities; and the second as a treacherous and murderous 'mauvais 
sujet'. Remember him saying, (I paraphrase, not having my copy of PoA 
within reach, but I believe the stress is right) "Surely you haven't 
forgotten, Headmaster, that he once tried to kill *me*?" - as 
in, "I'm special to you, aren't I? Then why don't you prove it to 
me?" 
He's determined to get his rivals out of the way, and he doesn't care 
if their disappearance hurts Dumbledore's feelings - the old chap 
will one day come to the realisation that Snape was right, and that 
his loyalty is far more valuable and far more real than either 
Black's or Lupin's, and they'll both be content. 


Potioncat wrote:
<In the first case, Snape has been telling DD about Lupin all along
and is eager to be proven right. But he shows no regret for the
pain this will cause DD.

In the second case, he really seems to want Black punished and hopes
DD won't interfere. I could argue here that Snape is only
pretending, as a way of finding out Fudge's motives. But in the
first case, there's little doubt of Snape's opinion.>

Sigune:
Oh no, please don't argue he's only pretending - I don't believe for 
a moment that he is. He's sucking up to Fudge, trying to get his 
precious medal and finally offing that blasted Black. Again, two 
things in one throw - isn't he good? Pity nothing works out, 
though... <veg>

Yours severely, 

Sigune