More OFH! Snape (Responses to two posts)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 142902

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jessicabathurst" 
<ragingjess at h...> wrote:

>> Jessica now:
> 
> I should explain that, when I think about an OFH!Snape, I think 
> about someone who examines all of the options to see which one will 
> be best for him. 

So let me immediately re-raise the issue that 'best for him' can be a 
tricky thing to define, and really depends on perspective.  This is 
the philosophical problem that gets pulled out in first-year classes 
to whack utilitarianism, which is otherwise pretty sound: how do we 
value 'what is best for someone'?  It's hard to compare things like 
personal gratification and social standing without knowing the 
internal scale which an actor is using, and even those scales of 
value can fluctuate.

> That's the point that I can't wrap my head around - if Snape is 
> covering all his bases, why would he go out of his way to make an 
> enemy of someone he might need later?

He's gratifying another good to him: his personal (kinda twisted) 
sense of retribution.  And he knows that Dumbledore will let him get 
away with a certain amount of it.

> Conversely, I do agree with you that it's possible that Snape might 
> not take the prophecy very seriously, but he would then appear to
> be the only person in the WW who isn't, and I'd love to know why.  

Idle thoughts; Snape makes the logic puzzle at the end of PS/SS.  
Maybe he's disinclined to think in all the ways that others might 
fall into.  I'm deeply ambivalent about the status of prophecy in the 
Potterverse myself, so it's not hard to imagine him being the same 
way--particularly given his own valuation of his own skills (as 
opposed to fate and other intangibles).

<snip>

> As you wrote, Snape does, indeed, hold his hatreds dear.  But would 
> his hatred of James override his desire to be on the winning side?  
> How OFH is OFH!Snape?

Well, part of my postulate in how I think of OFH!Snape, particularly 
after HBP, is that he's been having his doubts about what the winning 
side is going to be.  Unlike us, he doesn't know that he's in a 
series entitled "Harry Potter and the <insert foo here>".  He appears 
to push at Dumbledore's attention to Harry, and probably doesn't 
share Dumbledore's high valuation of Harry Potter.  But no, 
Dumbledore keeps insisting on Harry Potter being special and valuable-
-when Snape just knows he is nothing of the sort--and Dumbledore is 
showing more weakness than ever, and depending on Snape for 
assistance.  Time more than ever to keep the options open.  Snape 
just doesn't know that Harry is going to win for sure. :)

-Nora likes the high-proof stuff...