TBay: SAD ADDLED WHOOP

Sat Oct 1 20:03:23 UTC 2005

No: HPFGUIDX 141019

This is my 6285th take on Snape after HBP. I was
preparing it when I read Betsy's message mentioning
the word 'addicted'. Hopefully this is a good omen and
not a sign that the subject has been discussed before,
but if it has, could you please direct me to the
relevant message? Thank you.                          

And now let the ship be launched.

Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.               

Surely my brave rum-hardened fellow sailors of TBay
fame would have no trouble in confirming this saying.

                     The first timber for my ship is
an excerpt from Jo's Interview At Royal Albert Hall,
26 June 2003 (courtesy Lexicon and Quick Quotes
Quill):

----

Question from Jackson Long in audience competition
winner

Jackson: Professor Snape has always wanted to be
Defence Against Dark Arts teacher. In book 5 he still
hasnt got the job. Why does Prof Dumbledore not allow
him to be Defence Against The Dark Arts teacher?

JK Rowling: That is an excellent question and the
reason is that I have to be careful what I say here.
To answer it fully would give a lot away about the
remaining two books. When Prof Dumbledore took Prof
Snape onto the staff and Prof Snape said I'd like to
be Prof of Defence Against the Dark Arts please and
Prof
Dumbledore felt it might bring out the worst in Snape
so said I think well get you to teach Potions and see
how you get along there.

----

Does passion, positive passion, bring out the worst in
people? Hardly.

Which leads me to the following theory:

Snape does not love Dark Arts. He is addicted to them.

- Snaps's dedication in learning Dark Magic ("Snape
was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in
the Dark Arts" - Sirius in OotP)

- his irritability when he is far from the object of
his obsession (any Potion class taught by Snape would
make a fine example)

- the poverty (Snape is spending his time learning,
pondering, inventing, longing, rather than using his
talents to prosper; indeed, it could be argued that
the sole reason why Snape stayed at Hogwarts, when he
hates teaching "a bunch of dunderheads" - Snape in PS
- is his fascination with the DADA position)

-  the isolation, secrecy, carelessness
("Snape-the-teenager had a stringy, pallid look about
him, like a plant kept in the dark. His hair was lank
and greasy and was flopping onto the table, his hooked
nose barely half an inch from the surface of the
parchment as he scribbled." - OotP; "Snape had imposed
his personality upon the room already; it was gloomier
than usual as curtains had ben drawn over the windows,
and was lit by candlelight" - the description of
Snape's DADA class in HBP)

- influence from bad friends (DEs)

... everything fits with the usual warning signs of an
addiction.

In fact, Dark Arts strike me as a good analogy for
drugs. Doing unnatural things, enslaving your body or
limiting freedom of choice for others, you gain
advantages that 'good' people do not have, or have to
obtain by superior skills and sweat. Getting a high.
Winning a race unfairily. Generating yourself an
addiction.

Anybody who has suffered from this condition knows:

(1) that staying completely clear of temptation is
infinitely easier than enjoying it with measure, and

(2) that, despite overwhelming evidence on the
contrary, the addict is almost always convinced that
it is in their power to keep their habit under
control.

When teaching Potions, Snape showed severe withdrawal
symptoms. According to (2), he wanted the DADA job
because he was convinced that he could keep tabs on
his Dark Magic, and use his talent for positive
endings.

Dumbledore, however, was wise enough to believe in
(1), hence his determination to keep Snape away from
DADA. Dumbledore realised that once he would be in the
presence of Dark Magic, Snape would not be able to
limit himself to defensive activities.

History has known artists who had to be kept away from
their instrument lest they went insane or died. Snape
is not a singular case.

It is not impossible that the real reason why Snape
came to Dumbledore was the recognition that he could
not handle proximity with Dark Arts and remain
himself. Anybody who has witnessed how apparently
harmless
addictions can destroy the lives of those afflicted
would understand why Dumbledore would believe that
Snape was ready to leave the Dark Side for good, in
exchange for Dumbledore keeping him grounded and away
from temptation.

In other words, the reason why Dumbledore trusts his
Potions master is not that Snape regretted having
caused harm to James and Lily, but rather that Snape
regretted having caused harm to himself and was afraid
he would cause even more. A good reason to believe a
Slytherin, probably the best.

In GoF, however, Snape had to return to the Dark Side.
He still spends most of his time at Hogwarts, so his
involvement in the Dark Arts is still harmless enough.

Until HBP when Dumbledore was forced to give Snape the
DADA chair, because, as Juli told us in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/140887,
Snape was the best available man for the job, and, at
the very least, time meant lives.

I have seen a couple of messages that remarked how
Harry's perception of Snape changed as the former
potions master started to teach DADA (for instance
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/140888).
But there is also a possibility that it was not Harry
who grew up, but Snape who really changed for the
good. Why? Simply because he got his DA fix.

But a steady dose is never enough for an addict.

Snape did not have to take the UV. In no situation
would a refusal be brought to Voldemort as proof of
Snape's lack of loyality. If the Dark Lord knew that
Narcissa and Bellatrix had failed to keep the secrecy
when specifically asked to, the one who would be in
trouble would not be Snape. In fact, from the moment
when the sisters knocked on Snape's door, the whole
Malfoy family was put at the mercy of our greasy DA
addict. I propose that Snape took the UV either
because such a bond belongs in itself to the Dark Arts
(and I believe it does!), or thinking that assisting
Draco would put him in the position to use a little
more Dark Magic. I am sure he neither expected the
third provision of the vow, nor realised that he would
not be able to disentangle himself from the Dark Arts,
once he got into them again.

For me, this explains why Snape did not tell
Dumbledore about the UV (as I have argued in the
thread with subject UV=DDM?). Once again, anybody who
has met with addictions knows what a terrible shame
they entail, every time the addict has given in to
abuse again. As a quote on the movie Les Invations
Barbares goes, 'Never believe an addict. They are too
used to lying'.

This theory can also explain the discussion overheard
by Hagrid. Snape realised that he was sinking again,
and told Dumbledore that he did not want to suffer
exposure to the Dark Arts anymore. Stop teaching DADA,
stop spying most likely, perhaps try to find a
countercourse for the UV. There might well be such
loopholes. Perhaps a vow has to be meant in order to
work, same as a spell. Perhaps free will can
counteract the effects of the UV. It can override
prophesies, so why not bonds? But there is no free
will inside an addiction.

It was partly Dumbledore's fault that Snape got caught
in his addiction once again. There are no doubts (at
least in this scenario) that Dumbledore acted for the
sake of the good, but he did put Snape in a very
delicate position. Snape did not have to perform AK as
such, but he was in too deep in already, and, under
these assumptions, it is partly understandable that he
looked at Dumbledore with hatred.

Without doubt, part of Snape's loathing was directed
toward himself. Because even if Dumbledore exposed him
to his former addiction, I don't think Snape can be
left off the hook either, and I am pretty sure he does
not believe it himself. Snape had the option to back
off from the UV. Whether it was overconfidence (2) or
sheer lack of control (1) that made Snape take the UV,
his attempt to both indulge in his addiction in Dark
Arts and fulfill his obligations to the Order was
doomed to fail. Where Harry chooses the good side and
Voldemort chooses to be evil, Snape refuses to choose,
and eventually this lack of decision puts him in a
position from where he does not have any choice
anymore. While it is possible for casual users to
maintain moderation, dependent persons like Snape are
always offered a clear choice, and the more the
decision is postponed, the narrower are the options
for the future.

In conclusion, Snape's behavior does not demonstrate a
cold interest in the Dark Arts, but a sheer,
uncontrollable dependency.

After the UV, after DADA, after AK... which is the
next mirage for the Dark Magic aficionados, if not
creating a Horcrux? Could it be that Dumbledore begged
Snape not to mutilate his soul, to resist the
temptation to sink even deeper in Dark Magic? Could it
be that Dumbledore pleaded with Snape to allow
himself, at least this time, a real choice instead of
a corner, and to use it well? I believe it could.

Hence: Snape Addicted to Dark Arts; Dumbledore
Devilishly yet Luminously Exploits Desperate Weakness
for His Own Original Purposes, aka SAD ADDLED WHOOP

Mira