Snape and the Life Debt

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 140493

I know I'm responding a bit late to Del's excellent post, but you know
how sometimes your mental wheels just take their sweet time to get
spinning. Besides, I was busy lately with obsessive SHIPping and it
tends to clog the mind <g>. So, hopefully some of you still remember
what was this about.

> Del wrote:
> Second question: what happens when one is under a Life Debt? We know
> the WW doesn't take magical bonds lightly. You die if you break an
> Unbreakable Vow. Harry had to participate in the TWT because his name
> came out of the Goblet, no matter that all the rules were broken by
> that event. So I would suggest that something like a Life Debt is
> about, well, life. I don't think that one's life is at risk as long as
> they simply don't repay that Life Debt because Snape has survived 20
> years since he contracted his own. So a Life Debt doesn't seem to
> affect one's survival. So how does it work? What could motivate anyone
> to repay a Life Debt, other than personal integrity?
> 
> My personal guess is that a Life Debt has disastrous consequences
> (read: death) if you take part in the killing of the person you owe a
> Life Debt to.
> 
> That would explain why Peter tried to convince LV of using anyone but
> Harry for his rebirthing potion: because Peter knew that he would die
> if he took part in the murder of Harry.
> 
> And that would definitely explain why Snape was horror-struck when he
> realised who LV was going to go after. He realised that he would die
> if James died because of the information he (Snape) had passed.
> 

Neri:
Yes, that sounds logical to me, but I need one additional clause here
to make it work. Suppose I owe you a Life Debt but I hate your guts.
If I see *somebody else* attempting to kill you, and I don't interfere
although it's in my power to prevent it, this is considered as if I
took part in killing you, and therefore according to the proposed
terms above I'm dead too. Otherwise I could just stand aside and watch
gleefully how somebody else rids me of both you and my Debt.

An additional plus about these terms is that they explain why, when
asked if Ginny owes Harry a Life Debt, JKR said "not really" and then
declined to explain further. Ginny would never try to kill Harry, and
would never refrain from preventing somebody else from killing him.
Therefore, although she nominally owes Harry a Life Debt, she "doesn't
really". The terms of the Life Debt are simply irrelevant to her. And
it's obvious why JKR couldn't explain this nuance without giving away
too much. 

> Del:
> Sooo... Snape went to the only wizard who might be able to do
> something for him, DD. Explained his situation, explained that he
> would do *anything* to get out of that mess alive. Well, there was no
> getting LV off-track, both Snape and DD knew that. He *would* go after
> the Potters. Of course, the Potters would take protective measures, DD
> would do his best too, but, well, LV *was* the greatest Dark Wizard
> around, so chances were that he would get the Potters sooner or later.
> 
> So here's what I think might have happened. DD proposed a very special
> transaction to Snape: a transfer of Life Debt. I'm not sure what the
> specifics of the procedure were. Maybe James owed a Life Debt to DD
> (not very hard to imagine, for me anyway), and DD remitted James's
> Debt in exchange for becoming the object of Snape's Debt. I'm not
> sure. But in the end, Snape ended up owing a Life Debt to DD, so that
> his own life wasn't at risk anymore should LV kill James because of
> the Prophecy.
> 

Neri:
This is where things get too complicated for me, and I'll try to
simplify them. My proposition for the specifics of the procedure is as
follows: Snape owed a Life Debt to James. By going to Dumbledore he
tried to prevent James' death and thus saving his own life from the
Life Debt terms. But this effort failed, and when James died (just
before or just after) Snape was thus in mortal peril. Therefore
Dumbledore proposed to him a very special transaction: transferring
his Life Debt from James to *Harry*. So Snape survived but now owes
the Debt to Harry. However, only the great wizard Dumbledore could
perform such a magical transaction, and by doing so he had obviously
saved Snape's life. Therefore Snape ended up owing a Life Debt to
Dumbledore too.

Hmm, one wonders how complex would this magical transaction be, and
how long it takes to perform. How about 24 hours? This would explain
what was so urgent that it delayed delivering baby Harry to the Dursleys.

Owing Life Debts to *both* Harry and Dumbledore is a very powerful
bond, and it's easy to see why Dumbledore would trust Snape. Moreover,
this way Snape would become the ideal agent from Dumbledore's point of
view. As long as Snape is spying in Voldemort's camp he's likely to
find out about any plot involving the killing of either Harry or
Dumbledore. Once he is aware of such a plot, then according to the
Life Debt terms above he is taking part in it, and therefore must
prevent it in order to save his own life. Why, this is almost
diabolical. I practically feel sorry for poor Severus <g>.

> Del:
> Now, let's jump to the beginning of HBP. DD goes Horcrux-hunting, and
> gets grievously, *mortally*, wounded. And who saves his life, but
> Snape? As a result, the Life Debt is repaid, Snape is free. He then
> makes it extremely clear that either DD finally gives him the DADA
> position, or he leaves. DD has no choice, if he wants to keep Snape
> close. He gives him the DADA job, and goes Potion-master-hunting with
> Harry.
> 
> From then on, DD can only *hope* that Snape will remain on the right
> side. He is exactly in the same position that Merope was, when she
> decided to stop feeding Love Potion to her husband: hoping that the
> long time spent acting in a specific way has changed the true nature
> of the person. DD hopes that after spending so much time working for
> the right guys, Snape has changed and has learned to put the Greater
> Good before his own ambitions and desires. 
> 
> Tough luck...
> 

Neri:
No kidding. However, in my version of your theory, when Dumbledore has
bet on the sincerity of Snape's remorse he knew he is only betting his
*own* life, while Harry's life remains protected as ever, and perhaps
even more so, since after killing Dumbledore Snape would become
Voldemort's favorite, and is much more likely to be told about any
plot. So Dumbledore wasn't really being gullible trusting Snape. Only
noble.  

Well, from here on we have a wealth of possibilities. Snape can have
many different motives and inclinations, including fame and glory and
perhaps passion towards a certain blond schoolmate <g>. But the main
thing is this: when he made the Unbreakable Vow he was already free of
his Debt to Dumbledore, but not of his Debt to Harry. 

Now, this could shed light on several interesting passages, such as:

**************************************************
HBP CH. 28, p.603 (US):
"No!" roared Snape's voice and the pain stopped as suddenly as it had
started; Harry lay curled on the dark grass, clutching his wand and
panting; somewhere overhead Snape was shouting, "Have you forgotten
our orders? Potter belongs to the Dark Lord - we are to leave him! Go!
Go!"
**************************************************

Does Snape care that much about the Dark Lord's orders? Even if it's
somebody else who's going to take the blame for breaking them? Or does
he has another reason to save Harry here? And immediately after that:

 **************************************************
HBP CH. 28, p.604 (US):
"Kill me then," panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage
and contempt. "Kill me like you killed him, you coward -"

"DON'T -" screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman,
as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in
the burning house behind them - "CALL ME COWARD!"

And he slashed at the air: Harry felt a white-hot, whiplike something
hit him across the face and was slammed backward into the ground.
**************************************************

I suspect Pippin is right: Snape was thinking that by "him" Harry
meant *James*, not Dumbledore. But what's so horrible to Snape about
the idea of killing James or Harry? Does remorse, even most sincere
remorse, have the power to make a man scream dementedly 15 years after
the case? And what's the "coward" thing has to do with the remorse? 

OTOH, wouldn't Snape be angry, perhaps even "demented", about being
forced to go into so much personal danger, during many years but
especially the last two, precisely in order to prevent James and later
Harry from getting killed? Maybe this is what's so infuriating about
Harry shouting "kill me like you killed him [James]".

Or, was Snape perhaps in *real* pain here? And why? Maybe because he
was going to hit Harry with a non-lethal curse? Perhaps Life Debt is a
more general thing then we assumed above: not only you die if you kill
the person you are in Debt to, but you also suffer if you hurt him.
Now, won't that make Snape demented?

Neri