A possible patronus for Snape, not Lily or DD

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 140698

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Jen Reese" <stevejjen at e...> 
wrote:
<SNIP>
> Mainly I'm considering this theory to explain why in the world JKR 
> continues to withold information about Snape's patronus form and 
his 
> boggart. Also, what he sees in the Mirror of Erised. There can only 
> be one of two answers I believe: 1) He's evil, has always been 
evil, 
> and to show his patronus/boggart prior to the tower scene would 
give 
> it away; 2) He's good, he's always been good since switching sides, 
> and his patronus/boggart/Mirror of Erised symbols will prove his 
> loyalty in Book 7. 
> 
> Maybe if he's out for himself, or just loyal to no one, these 
> symbols could be meaningful as well, but somehow I can't picture 
the 
> drama in that. Just a personal opinion.


Well, I agree that Snape's patronus and boggart are very important 
clues to his character.  JKR has flatly told us that.   However, just 
because they are very important clues to his character that JKR wants 
to hold back until a dramatic moment does not mean that they would be 
indicative of his guilt or innocence per se.

It's pretty easy to come up with patronus shapes for Snape that would 
be dramatic, revealing of character, would let secrets out of the bag 
JKR wants to keep until the right moment, and yet not be clear 
evidence about whose side he's on.  For just one example, let's do a 
thought experiment:

The hints of some kind of influence over Snape wielded by Narcissa 
are related to the fact that they did at one time have an affair, and 
that Draco is, in fact, Snape's son (he inherited his physical 
features from Narcissa, not Lucius).  Snape's patronus takes the form 
of the only blood relative he has, namely Draco Malfoy.  Narcissa 
perhaps thinks that her secret is safe, or maybe even doesn't know it 
herself (if we want to postulate that she was sleeping with both 
Snape and Lucius during the same period), but Snape knows Draco is 
his son, and has been forced all these years to watch from the 
sidelines as DE!Lucius raised his child.

That would be extremely dramatic, reveal a great deal about Snape's 
character, explain many of his past actions or put them in a new 
light (did anybody else find the scene of Snape "singing" to an 
injured Draco eerily suggestive?) but would not be very helpful in 
determining his ultimate loyalties.  Perhaps he treasured in his 
heart the idea that Narcissa would leave Lucius and marry him, and is 
embittered that the daughter of the Blacks preferred a pureblood. 
Perhaps he joined the DEs out of genuine loyalty to Voldy and the 
affair with Narcissa is only a sideshow.  Perhaps he joined DD in a 
belief that DD would come up with some way to save Draco (DD did seem 
awfully solitious of Draco, didn't he?).  Maybe part of his 
bitterness toward Harry is based on this -- that, in his mind, it was 
supposed to be loyal Severus' son who was DD's favorite, but instead 
the old fool has doted on Harry (a fact that Snape reports with no 
little savagery at Spinners End) and uses some facile prophecy (Snape 
reasons) to excuse Harry all his faults, including slicing Draco to 
ribbons.  Maybe he is DDM!Snape and still trying to save Draco.  
Maybe he is ESE!Snape, his loyalty to Voldemort deepened by the fact 
that (he believes) DD was content to twinkle benignly in Harry's 
direction while a gang of Gryffindors bullied Severus' son.  Maybe he 
is OFH!Snape, finally driven to a moment of decision when the only 
thing he loves in life is threatened.  Maybe on the tower DD was 
saying "Please Severus, don't let your bitterness overcome you, trust 
me that I care about your son after all."  Remember, Severus was not 
on the tower to see DD's offer to Draco, and maybe he has genuine 
doubts on this regard.  Maybe the argument in the forest is because 
Severus feels that DD is using Draco as a pawn in a dangerous game 
(whatever DD actually intends) and he wants to quit the charade, tell 
Draco everything, and flee.

How might this relate to DD's mistakes?  He might well have thought 
Snape's love for his son was a sign of redemption but, being an old 
and detached man, he forgot that love can drive one to desperation as 
easily as to nobility -- especially when the loved one is threatened -
- and that people who might be able to forgive slights or threats to 
themselves are unable to forgive slights and threats to a loved one. 
How might this relate to Snape's action in Book 7?  Maybe we will see 
a Snape who winds from one side to the other, taking whatever action 
he feels will preserve Draco and himself.  He could Crucio Harry one 
moment, but then switch sides again and charge valiantly to his doom 
at Harry's side after Voldy AKs Draco in a fit of anger.

In any case, there you have it.  A patronus form for Snape that would 
be dramatic, revealing, witheld until a crucial moment, and yet which 
does not, in and of itself, tell us much of anything about whose side 
he's actually on.

Oh, two more things (I'm not arguing for this theory, by the way, 
just spinning a mental web).  The reason no one has ever mentioned 
Snape's patronus to Harry is because it IS so intensely personal.  No 
one mentions it to him at the end of HBP because it doesn't speak to 
the matter at hand.  A Draco Patronus, revealing as it is, doesn't 
reveal good or evil the way a Dumbledore Patronus or Phoenix Patronus 
or Spider Patronus or Bat Patronus or Lily Patronus would.

Also, in this scenario, it would not be Snape who was in love with 
Lily, but Wormtail.  After all, what could be more believable?  A 
mousey, shy, somewhat put upon young man who grows enamored of a 
pretty girl who is kind to him in a way few girls every bother to 
be.  Said young man begins to develop ever more elaborate fantasies 
about how the girl would be so much better off with him than with 
that shallow blowhard she's going out with.  Finally said young man 
begins to indulge in insane schemes to capture the young woman for 
himself, reasoning that if only his rival could be gotten out of the 
way she would see how much better off she would be with her true and 
devoted love.  In this scenario, the various hints we have had of 
Lily's kind and loving nature would not lead toward her taking mercy 
on Snape, but to the (much more plausible, IMO) scenario of her being 
kind to James' shy friend, thus inadvertantly setting wheels of 
obsession and envy into motion (wheels foreshadowed by Slughorn's HBP 
comment concerning the danger of obsessive love).  

Lupinlore