Does Snape want Harry to be expelled?

[saraquel_omphale]

No: HPFGUIDX 141037

> P J wrote:
> > So if instead of doing what he can to keep Harry at
> > school he wants him expelled, what does that say about Snapes 
> > sympathies? [SNIP]
> >
Magda wrote: 
> If Snape seriously wanted Harry expelled, he'd have arranged it in
> OOTP; Umbridge would have pounced on any excuse to expel Harry.  If
> Snape is evil, why doesn't he cozy up to Umbridge and give her an
> excuse?  Any excuse?  Inventing an excuse? She'd have accepted it.

Saraquel:
A while ago I posted a long OFH scenario which examined Snape's 
behaviour over the course of the books.  I think that Snape goes on 
his own journey and his attitudes and possibly his allegances, shift 
and change as the years go by.  Up until GoF, although Voldemort is 
around, he is not a palpable threatening power.  Harry sends him 
back to Vapormort at the end of PS and in CoS, it is the memory of 
Riddle that Harry deals with.  Voldemort doesn't really feature in 
PoA - only with GoF does Snape see signs that Voldemort's power is 
returning as a real threat, as the dark mark on his arm starts to 
light up and falsh neon.  

To me it is feasible that in the first three books, Snape is more 
concerned with vengeance than with Voldemort.  Voldemort is not a 
direct threat either to the WW or to Snape in the form of 
vapormort.  It is after Voldemort is reborn and Snape returns to his 
spying activities, that IMO, his attitude to Harry begins to change. 
Now Snape has some vested interest in Harry acquiring some advanced 
magic tricks to defeat Voldemort.

I think that we cannot assume that Snape has not changed the way he 
thinks and acts over the books.  That he is essentially the same 
character in HBP as he is in PS would be a mistake in thinking, 
IMO.  To me the battle which Snape is having for his own soul starts 
with his distress in GoF - when he is faced with the very real 
possibility that Voldemort will return, and that he will have to 
take sides.  When Voldemort wasn't on the scene except as Vapormort, 
being, or appearing to be, on DDs side was easy to do, it involved 
nothing from him except compliance on a fairly superficial level, 
and in return he got a good job and DDs protection.  He was not 
obliged by external circumstances to examine whatever conscience he 
might have lurking under the curtains of his greasy hair.

I think that the essence of Snape's character is his internal 
divisions which pull him in opposite directions, and which have 
finally pulled him apart.  To me Snape's love affair with the dark 
arts is an academic, theory laden love. I am not saying that he does 
not desire to practise them, only that his love stems from the 
beauty of the theory.  Mathematicians and theoretical physicists 
usually have a very aesthetic sense about thoeries.  For instance, 
one mathematical journal asked everyone to vote on which theory they 
thought was the most beautiful.  Whereas DD, IMO, sees only the 
practical danger of the dark arts, and refuses to consider them at 
all.  

The question is, is the theory itself essentially evil, or is it 
only the uses that it is put to by evil people, that make it evil.  
For instance, the Crusades, the Inquisition and the current round of 
terrorism are all done in the name of religion.  Is Communism in 
itself evil, or is it the way that it is interpreted and put into 
practise that is evil? This is why, IMO, Snape continued to lust 
after the Dark Arts post and why DD continued to deny it to him.  
There is an argument to say that eventually DD thought that he could 
no longer hold Snape's hand over this one, and gave him the Dark 
Arts post to force Snape to confront this aspect of himself.  In 
order for Snape to become truly, totally, trustworthy in DDs eyes, 
DD had to know tht Snape could deal with his addiction.  Was he able 
to order an orange juice in the pub?

I think it is very hard for Snape to see dark arts per se as evil, 
hence his ongoing temptation and struggle.  The return of his dark 
mark, IMO, forced Snape to reflect on what the dark arts mean in 
practise. I think that Snape has finally chosen - I do think that he 
is on Harry's side and will show himself to be that in book 7.  That 
doesn't mean that I think Snape is good, I think he is evil on the 
side of good.  He thinks too much about the beauty of theory and not 
enough about the beauty of people.

Saraquel