my greatest fear....

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121545


Potioncat wrote:
> Here are two sections that made me wonder.  It's nothing the Snape 
> opposition hasn't been saying all along, but for some reason, it hit 
> home when I read it this time. I'm not fully converted, but my faith 
> in Snape is shaken! <snipped quotes>

> 
> 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.
> 
> Another view I've changed in this episode, is Snape's motives for 
> going into the Shrieking Shack. I thought he was saving the trio. It 
> is pretty clear from the timeline and from what he says: he saw 
> Lupin in the tunnel and went after him.  Snape did not know the kids 
> or Black were there.  Now, I'm not really sure why he followed an
un-medicated werewolf into the tunnel...
> 
> Still, on the positive side, Snape looks positively gentle when 
> Harry sees him putting the injured on stretchers.  Tell me why, why 
> didn't Lupin or Black put Snape on a stretcher?

Carol responds:
I sent this message to Potioncat offlist and at her suggestion am
belatedly posting it here (slightly edited so it sounds like a post
rather than an offlist personal message):

I think that Snape followed Lupin to the Shrieking Shack hoping to
catch him red-handed helping a man he really believed to be a murderer
into the castle--a mixed ambition because he wanted to really *be* a
hero and save Hogwarts and Harry, whether Harry was present or not, by
capturing his would-be murderer and his werewolf accomplice, but he
also wanted to be proven right and have his heroism acknowledged
(primarily by Dumbledore, but being denied his chance at an Order of
Merlin really did hurt, IMO). I don't think he had any evil intentions
(beyond the taint that accompanies revenge and the desire for it,
which we see in Sirius Black, too). Once he saw Harry's cape, he
probably focused as much on the idea of saving the kids (Ron and
Hermione were bound to be with Harry) as on catching the criminals.

Bear in mind that he didn't hear the whole story in the Shrieking
Shack (his own fault--he showed himself too soon) and that he was
given no reason to believe the story that Peter Pettigrew was alive
and was an animagus. He never saw PP, only Scabbers still in Ron's
hands. It's clear to me, at least, that he didn't believe the animagus
story even after DD presumably filled him in on the details until
Padfoot transformed into Black in front of him.

As for whether DD is right to trust him, I'm pretty sure he has some
very good reasons and that he watches Snape more closely than he
watched, say, Gilderoy Lockhart or Crouch!Moody. I think Snape has
given DD good reasons to trust him (saving or trying to save Harry on
more than one occasion, risking his life as a spy, and now doing
whatever he's doing for the Order, as well as acting as his right-hand
man in Hogwarts). I also think that Snape values that trust. It's just
about the only recognition he's received from his services.

But he also, like Hermione, wants to be right and wants to be
acknowledged as right, especially in his distrust of Sirius Black and
Remus Lupin, the only remaining members (as he thought) of MWPP. He's
(IMO) a grown-up teenage boy trying to prove to his surrogate father,
DD, that he's right about the "brothers" that his "father" favored
over him. ("See, Dad? I was right all along. You shouldn't have
trusted them or made Potter Head Boy. I'm the one who's really loyal.
I'm the one who's suffered for you." And he has, but so have they.)

Poor Snape. But he does make a better showing in GoF, and despite the
discontinued Occlumency lessons (which wouldn't have stopped Harry at
that point, anyway--he'd almost gotten through the door in his dream
and was determined to get there) in OoP as well.

Carol, glad that Potioncat isn't wholly giving up on Snape (who's
still the birthday boy, at least in Tucson)