Why did Snape react so angrily to being called a 'Coward' ??

[Dennis Grant]

No: HPFGUIDX 133877

Ladi lyndi <ladilyndi at y...> wrote:

> Personally I think it was simply because Snape knows he is a coward.

I'm forced to agree (although I also agree that the whole question of
Snape's actions on the tower and subsequent is speculation, as the
text is written to be as open-ended as possible)

And I think he is particularly sensitive to the issue right then,
because he has just taken the cowardly way out. He is tied to Malfoy
and his mission by an Unbreakable Vow. If he fails to either protect
Malfoy, or to (in Malfoy's inability to carry out his mission) kill DD
himself, Snape's life is forfeit. In order to NOT kill DD on the
tower, Snape must sacrifice himself.

(I'm not sure how the mechanism of the Unbreakable Vow works though -
does it kill him *right there*, or can Snape mentally say "not yet"
and somehow stop that aspect of the spell from triggering?)

So Snape's choice is to sacrifice himself, or to sacrifice DD - and he
chose DD. I think that "look of loathing" is self-loathing over his
cowardice.

I also suspect, when Harry faces him, Snape wants to kill Harry very,
very badly indeed - but is too much of a coward to go through with it.
Thus, more sensitivity to the issue.

Incidently, I think Harry bears some of the responsibility for Snape's
turning....

The ethics of spying has always been somewhat murky, even when the spy
works for the good guys. It takes a special sort of person to work
one's way into the confidence of other people and then betray them
(which, let's face it, is what spies do) Even if you convince yourself
that the people who you are spying on and betraying are the spawn of
evil (even if they *are* the spawn of evil) taking advantage of
someone's trust is not exactly moral high ground.

It is not at all unusual for agents to wind up working for both sides
at some point, as their conflicted loyalties pull them in different
directions, especially in a case like Snape, where a "bad" guy is
recruited to work for the "good" side. An agent in Snape's position is
always on the cusp of fully reverting and going back to work for the
"bad" guys, and the "good" guys always know it - and so recruited
agents are never quite trusted. We see this explicitly in the various
books, where few people are willing to place much trust in Snape.

And Snape craves respect over all else. How hard must it have been for
him to help people who manifestly doubt his motives at every turn?

But Harry... Harry has pushed Snape beyond all endurance. Harry has
NEVER given Snape his rightful (as a professor at Hogwarts and a Head
of House at that) respect. Harry breaks rules at every opportunity and
is regularly rewarded for it - often at the expense of Snape. When
Snape helps Harry, Harry *never* shows any gratitude. Harry lies to
Snape *constantly*, and there is evidence in all the books that Snape
is a mind reader and KNOWS that he is being lied to. Harry commits a
moral indignity, a grave invasion of privacy, by reading Snape's
thoughts in the pensive in OOP, and tops that in HBP by usurping
Snape's own work (and lying about that too) And through all this,
Harry is coming to physically resemble his father more and more as he
grows up, which re-opens all those old wounds about Snape's
mistreatment at James' hands.

What reason has Harry given Snape to continue suffering indignity
after indignity by working for the good side? What's in it for Snape?

Nothing.

Whereas by killing DD, Snape earns the eternal gratitude of Voldy and
the Malfoy family and Snape gets off on respect. All he has to do is
sacrifice the one person on the good side who always stood by him....

Nobody is going to feel good about that - but I suspect Snape will
rationalize it away, somehow.

DG