[HPforGrownups] Re: More OFH! Snape (Responses to two posts)

[Jessica Bathurst]

No: HPFGUIDX 142909

 >> Jessica prior:
 >
 > 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.

Nora:
>  So let me immediately re-raise the issue that 'best for him' can be a 
>tricky thing to define, and >  really depends on perspective.
<snip>
>  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.
<more snip>
>  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.

Jessica now:

True, which is why I have such a hard time with a Snape who's working both 
ends to make sure he ends up on top.  He seems so much more committed to 
exacting revenge on everyone who wronged him in his youth (and their 
descendants) and to recreating himself as a figure of respect than he does 
with insuring his good position with either Voldemort or Dumbledore/OotP.  
That's why I have an easier time seeing him as being either DDM! or 
ESE!Snape, because then he doesn't have to spend time weighing any evidence 
or formulating any strategies to keep his options open; he's able to 
concentrate on what really matters - making Harry miserable.  <grin>

>  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).

That's certainly possible - I have no idea how strategic Snape really is, 
and he certainly doesn't leave a whole lot to chance.   I'd love to know 
more about prophecies and the people who doubt them, but I'm probably going 
to be disappointed on that one.

>...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. :)

No, he doesn't, but he also doesn't know that Harry is going to NOT win for 
sure.  That's what I meant by keeping his options open - by alienating Harry 
(who I still maintain should be considered as his own "side," separate from 
Dumbledore/OotP), Snape's made it just that much harder for himself if Harry 
actually does defeat Voldemort.  Does OFH!Snape think the satisfaction 
gained by petty revenge against his enemy's son is worth sacrificing his own 
survival?  (And, yes, that's a pretty dramatic way of putting it, but Snape 
is pretty dramatic guy.  Sweeping black robes and all.)

Yours,
Jessica
(who's changed her mind and now prefers the Jack Daniels chocolates.  
*hick*)