Snape's penance and the meaning of a split soul

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 139451

SiriuslySnapeySusan wrote:
> <snip> I'd like to go with the possibility that Snape's soul *was*
ripped.
> 
> If you and I are right that DD asked Snape to kill him <snip> there 
> are many people who have a problem with the notion of DD asking 
> someone to commit murder, of asking a person to do something which 
> rips his soul.  
> 
> Now, I actually happen to think (and I have no canon support, I 
> know!) that it's possible that a "mercy killing" or a killing 
> commanded by a superior officer in time of war just might not cause 
> the soul to rip the way that a cold-blooded murder does.  But 
> assuming the other folks are correct and I'm wrong -- that even this 
> kind of killing DOES cause the rip -- might it not be that this 
> horrible thing, this ripping of the soul, is simply the *penance* 
> Snape is paying for the mistakes he's made?  
> 
> Snape was a DE.  Quite likely he participated in some pretty nasty 
> actions as a DE.  He also *is* responsible for providing Voldy with 
> the prophecy information that eventually led to the attack on the 
> Potters at Godric's Hollow.  Many people have expressed that they 
> would like to see Snape suffer, to be punished for his sins/crimes.  
> Now, still assuming Loyal!Snape here, his being asked to do 
> something like this -- to kill the man he, imo, cared most about in 
> the world -- and to rip his own soul in the process... wouldn't that 
> be the kind of suffering some people are asking for?  Wouldn't that 
> be "good enough" for Snape's penance?? 
> 
> Siriusly Snapey Susan

Carol responds:
I think it depends on what "tearing the soul" *means.* It's most
unlikely that Snape is going to want to create a Horcrux (unless he's
setting himself up as Voldy's successor, an idea that I see nocanon
support for). What are the consequences of soul-tearing in more
ordinary circumstances when murder is committed on someone else's
orders (as in "Kill the spare!")? And does it matter what curse is
used to commit the murder?

I'm thoroughly confused, actually, by the inconsistencies in this
regard. Setting aside the sociopathic Voldemort, who seems to have
been born evil, we see Barty Jr. corrupted into a psychopath by his
use of the Unforgiveables (not just AK), with Bellatrix, who seems to
prefer Crucioing to killing, following a similar course. And we see
the unquestionably evil Dolohov in OoP. I'm willing to bet that he's
killed numerous times and never suffered a second's remorse. (If he
were at large with time to recover from his term in Azkaban, we'd have
more to worry about than from pathetic nobodies like Amycus and Alecto.)

But what about Peter Pettigrew, who killed twelve Muggles when he blew
up the street to frame Sirius Black and later murdered the innocent
Cedric Diggory on Voldemort's orders? He doesn't seem demented like
Bellatrix or cruel like Dolohov. In HBP, as Voldy's spy passing as
snape's "assistant," he seems to be just as servile and cowardly as
ever, fully deserving of the "vermin" epithet that Snape threw at him,
but not a psychopath. Surely *his* soul is split in at least thirteen
pieces, not to mention whatever other damage has been done to it by
betraying and/or framing his friends and by his treatment of Bertha
Jorkins, Crouch Sr., the real Moody, and Harry. But, aside from being
a hunchback now (surely the result of Voldy's treatment of him, not
Snape's verbal sneers), I see no difference between the Wormtail who
grovels at the feet of the friends he betrayed and the Wormtail who
scurries upstairs when Snape casts a spell to keep him from listening
at doorways. Is Wormtail's soul split? If so, what are the
consequences and why can't we see them?

Has Lucius Malfoy committed murder? I'm willing to bet that he has.
Why don't we see any change in him from the arrogant pureblood bigot
he always was to something worse? There's no question in my mind that
he's evil and has performed innumerable Unforgiveable Curses and that
he deserves to be in Azkaban. But is that all there is to it? What
about his soul?

And what about Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, who would have jointly
taken justice into their own hands by murdering Wormtail (presumably
with an AK) if Harry hadn't stopped them? Assuming that they escaped
the Dementors, they'd have been sent to Azkaban, but what about the
effects of this murder on their *souls*? Would they be excused by the
fact that Wormtail deserved it or would the fact that it was two
against one and Wormtail was unarmed have made the murder
unjustifiable? (This is one instance where Harry is absolutely right
in my book, regardless of what happens afterwards as the result of
Wormtail's escape.)

As for Snape, I take Bellatrix's words that he repeatedly "slithered
out of action" and JKR's words (in an interview) that as a DE "he will
have *seen* [death]" to indicate that, whatever his other sins (and no
doubt they included brewing poisons to be used in murders committed by
others), the killing of Dumbledore is his first actual hands-on
murder. (I don't think he wanted to do it; I think he was trapped by a
combination of the DADA curse and his own pride and folly into taking
the UV, and that his choice on the tower was between killing a dying
old man and allowing a minimum of three people to die, with the DEs
having the run of Hogwarts. I agree with SSS that he's killed the only
person in the world that he actually loved and that he is suffering as
a consequence.) 

I think he's going to suffer terrible remorse, much worse than he felt
after the deaths of the Potters, which he apparently tried to prevent
by going to both Dumbledore and James (who spurned him, PoA). This
time he himself has committed the murder--not of a man to whom he owed
a life debt or a woman who dimly perceived the good in him, but of the
man who trusted him above all other members of the Order, the man who
earlier in the year placed his life in Snape's hands and was saved by
him. 

Maybe, like Wormtail, he'll try to excuse himself, but I don't think
he will. Watever else he may be, Snape is not a coward, as shown by
his remaining at Hogwarts, revealing his Dark Mark to Fudge, and going
off to meet possible torture or death at the hands of Voldemort at the
end of GoF. It was Karkaroff, not Snape, who ran away after he was
summoned by the resurrected Voldemort. I think Snape will do whatever
he can, trapped as he now is by his complete isolation from the Order
members, to bring Voldemort down. I think he will keep trying, as he's
always done, to protect Harry from dangers Harry doesn't see. But will
that redeem him in his own eyes, let alone Harry's? Will it heal his
torn soul? We don't know because we haven't been told what a torn soul
*means* or what the consequences are for the living murderer.

I don't understand what "Unforgiveable" means, either, and I'm not
buying the idea that it means only a life sentence to Azkaban. Whose
forgiveness are we talking about, and again, does it matter what spell
is used to commit the murder, assuming that intent matters in casting
an AK? (Yes, I know. We've gone round and round on that one.)

There's no question in my mind that Snape is already suffering a
broken *heart,* but I also realize that that belief follows from my
interpretation of canon (Dumbledore's Man) rather than from canon
itself. I think he'll suffer as no other character we've seen has
suffered from the act of murder and that his agony will be
self-inflicted. But remorse and agony clearly are *not* the inevitable
consequence of a split soul or we'd have seen them in Tom Riddle and
Barty Jr. and Wormtail. Surely a person who committed murder would, in
such circumstances, never do it again. It would be too much to bear.
But these characters, and various other Death Eaters, feel no such
reluctance. Their souls are split, but they feel neither remorse nor
pain. 

I'm certain of one thing. Snape is not going to want to come back as a
ghost to linger forever near the scene of his worst crime. He'll want
to be done with this life once Voldemort is defeated, to go on to the
next great adventure, whatever awaits him there. And JKR has given us
only the vaguest idea of what lies beyond the veil.

In a medieval Christian universe, a repentant Snape would be forgiven.
An unrepentant Bellatrix, offered mercy and rejecting it, would not.
But this is the Potterverse and JKR's (modern) Christian views only
occasionally penetrate it--through, for example, the mercy that
Dumbledore extends to Draco near the end of HBP. What this means for
Snape, who was far closer to Dumbledore than draco was, I can only guess.

Will Snape, who has actually committed "the deed," be extended mercy
as well, not by the dead Dumbledore but by some power (Love?) in the
Potterverse that we have not yet clearly seen? Will that power see how
his life (as Lupinlore so beautifully outlined) has been shaped and
ruined by Voldemort (in part, I believe, by the DADA curse and the
Unbreakable Vow)? Or is he doomed, whether he repents or not, to
remain forever Unforgiven?

For me, this is the most important question raised by HBP, followed by
the related question of how Harry will learn to forgive.

Carol, who dimly and futilely hopes that in the better world brought
about by the fall of Voldemort, the redeemed Severus Snape can write
an improved Potions textbook and live off his royalties