Snape key (getting longish)

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 121416


> Dungrollin wrote:
> 

> Dichotomous key to Snape theories.
> 
> <snip detailed key>

Neri:
Ah! A fellow theorist and zoologist. Greetings!

I agree very much with your key as it is now, but I'd point out that
it systematizes only 3/5 of the Snape enigma. It refers to the
mysteries of why did he join the DEs in he first place, why did he
left them and why does DD trust him. There are at least two additional
Snape mysteries: why (assuming he's reformed and DD trusts him) is he
so nasty now, and how is he spying on the DEs (if indeed he is) in
OotP. Admittedly, adding these two mysteries to the key would be very
difficult, as many theories don't really address them.

Also, allow me to direct you to my own theory, Mind-linked!Snape,
later officially christened as the VASSAL (Voldy And Snape Share A
Link), which takes a stab at all five mysteries. It is detailed in:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/116369
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/116370
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/116371
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/116373

A warning: this theory has a little hole in it, but at least it is a
thoroughly inspected hole.

Also, JKR had recently shot down my Neville-related speculation in the
VASSAL (this woman is one mighty sharpshooter) but luckily this
speculation was never an obligatory part of the theory.

Even if VASSAL isn't strictly true, it suggests a more general
possibility that is not explicitly represented in your key: Snape left
the DEs because he had discovered some secret weakness of Voldy (most
likely the same weakness that enables Snape to spy on Voldy now). If
Voldy ever finds out that Snape knows, then Snape is toast. So Snape
went to DD and told him about it, asking for his protection. DD trusts
Snape because Snape doesn't really have the option to return to Voldy,
and because Snape is awared that if he ever betrays DD, DD can reveal
the secret to Voldy and then Snape dies no matter what.

Personally, I tend to agree with you that Snape is not really
reformed, and that he is on DD's side more out of necessity (and now
perhaps also out of genuine respect to DD's power an knowledge). This
is not to say that I don't believe in redeemed!Snape. On the contrary,
I want to read the epiphany and redemption in real time and not just
off-page or even in a Pensieve memory. So I prefer to think that they
are still in the future, most likely in Book 7.

Neri, finishing his own bottle of Friday Bosca.