Motivations for Joining DEs (Was: Bullying)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 140942

Nora:
> So we, of course, don't know what Young!Snape knew about the DEs.
> It seems safe to say that the blood thing was their public face,
> so we can assume that Young!Snape knew all about that and at 
> minimum had no problems with it.  And I think it's also supported
> that Young!Snape had 'issues' with the blood thing.  He's one of 
> the very few characters we've heard 'Mudblood' from (the others 
> being Voldemort and Draco, and I think Bella?).  

Jen: Snape calling Lily a Mudblood does evoke the memory of Draco 
calling Hermione the same. Whether JKR is really going for a "Snape 
was similar to a boy Draco when he was in school" angle is hard to 
say. Dumbledore seemed to feel Draco and Harry's instant dislike of 
each other mirrored Severus and James.

If JKR intends this, I see some canon evidence Snape may have been 
recruited very much like Draco. To set the stage, we hear from Lupin 
in the "Very Frosty Christmas" chapter how Fenrir recruits new 
werewolves by preying on children of parents he's angry with as 
punishment. Voldemort seems be using this strategy as well, if Draco 
is an example. Lupin said he didn't know 'for a long time' why he 
was bitten, and Draco doesn't seem to understand exactly why he was 
recruited, either. His arrogance on the train and belief he'll be 
rewarded for devotion indicate a certain innocence about the adult 
drama playing out in the background. 

Now only a few pages from the Fenrir story, we discover the potion 
book is 50 years old, JKR's code for "when Tom Riddle was in 
school." Finding out Eileen Prince originally owned the book meant 
she undoubtedly knew of Riddle at Hogwarts, and if she was in 
Slytherin, may have known him well. Now I'm in no way going for the 
romance angle here (ick), but saying there was a very large 
possibility Eileen was seen as a blood traitor when she married a 
Muggle. Whether Voldemort knew about it or cared is impossible to 
say, but the groundwork is there for Snape to be recruited as a 
means of punishing Eileen. Perhaps Snape, like Lupin and Draco, 
found out the truth later on.

Like Draco, Snape saw something attractive about the offer at first. 
Also like Draco, Snape balked when the stakes got too high. I think 
this is a possible scenario.

Nora:
> We have the 'Half-Blood Prince', however one wants to read that.
>  [I tend to agree with a correspondent, who said they found 
> it "pathetic and cringeworthy and pitiable and contemptible and 
> embarassing - and absolutely perfectly so."  But that's a tangent.]

Jen: LOL! As for the nickname, I thought it was meant to be somewhat 
of a cynical joke on Snape's part. The rest of his potion book 
comments don't read like someone taking himself *that* seriously, 
i.e., 'shove a bezoar down their throats'.

Nora:
> What I wonder is whether there were associates of Voldemort in the
> school spreading the siren song of his Dark Magic skillz, as
> well.  There's always the possibility of unrelated factors, but
> I'm not going to speculate about what I don't know I don't know,
> when I have shiny information in front of me.

Jen: I wish we had more to go on than Sirius' words and the 
Sectumsempra spell to say Snape was hoping to learning more dark 
magic from LV. Having *Sirius* assess Snape's personality is like 
asking Draco to describe Harry for us. To confuse matters, Hermione 
likens Snape's DADA speech to Harry's for the DA! Perfect moment for 
us to find out his attraction to dark magic and Hermione draws our 
attention away to Harry. I think the dark magic was the initial 
attraction and not the blood purity, even more knowing he was half-
blood, but JKR is being remarkably restrained about showing this in 
a decisive way. 

Oh wait! We do have the old interview comment here from Royal Albert 
Hall: "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 we'll get you to teach Potions and see how 
you get along there"." 

Jen