The Unloved Son (was Re: Could I be wrong about Snape being evil?)

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 156713

wynnleaf:
*(big snip)*
> Certainly it's possible that Snape is very jealous of Harry in a 
sort of sibling rivalry sort of way.  But since DD really spends very
little actual time with Harry, compared to what must certainly be a
good deal more time with Snape, it seems doubtful that that kind of
jealousy would be at such overpowering heights as to be the primary
fuel for Snape's hatred of Harry.

Ceridwen:
There are a few possibilities we may be forgetting.  First, while DD 
is spending all this time with Snape, what are they doing?  Talking 
about school?  Discussing Snape's spying missions?  Making plans and 
alternative plans for Harry's schooling and extra-curricular lessons, 
like the occlumency, which might help Harry save the WW?

In fact, during Snape's first weeks of teaching, did DD pay any 
attention at all to any problems the new teacher might be having?  He 
began at Hogwarts, according to OotP, the same year as GH.  If he 
began teaching at the beginning of term, which seems most likely at 
this point, then LV would have been a looming threat over the WW, and 
most specifically over the Order.  There are two families we know of 
who have defied LV three times and who are trying to protect 
sons 'born as the seventh month dies'.  With this crisis, does DD 
even have time to see to Snape's education as a teacher?  Or is he 
more interested in Snape's reports from the DE camp?  I think that DD 
naturally was more interested in the bigger picture, that of getting 
rid of LV and protecting the Potters and the Longbottoms.

Second, we now have several years while LV is off in a vaporized 
state, in which DD can spend all sorts of quality time with Snape.  
They may have made more plans for the day when LV would return, since 
DD at any rate seemed to know that this would happen.  They probably 
talked about school business, and it's possible that DD might even 
have paid attention to Snape's teaching style.  I think it may have 
been too late by this time, he was presumably successfully managing 
his classes and the students were learning, so the lack of tutelage 
(sp?) during those first critical weeks, including the days leading 
up to the start of term, stays in place.

It's nice to be the Only Child.  And during those ten years or so 
between LV's temporary demise and Harry's beginning at Hogwarts, 
Snape may have revelled in his solitary status.  Though, from things 
DD has said, it may not have been quite that cut and dried.  We know 
that Order members, at least Mrs Figg, watched out for Harry without 
his, and presumably Petunia's, knowledge.  Were plans being made even 
then that brought the name of Harry Potter into the discussion far 
too many times?  Were all of the Order discussions revolving around 
The Boy Who Lived?  A sibling doesn't have to be there to be doted on 
and favored.  Add that Harry lost his parents and so is an object of 
pity, and there was probably a lot of cooing and sighing over the 
poor boy.  If Snape had any feelings of regret over the Potters' 
deaths, this could not have been too pleasant.  And I can see the 
possibility that DD overlooked such a progression with Snape, or 
downplayed it, since things overall seemed to be going very well: LV 
was temporarily out of the way, Harry was taken care of though 
possibly not as well as could have been hoped for, and plans were 
being made for VWII.  And in the meantime, Dumbledore is watching 
Harry himself, more than Harry realizes.

Ten years later, Harry Potter comes to Hogwarts.  This is the kid 
they've all spent years thinking about and talking about.  And he 
*seems* to be nothing but James revisited.  He possesses an 
Invisibility Cloak which used to belong to his father: the hard thing 
about this isn't only that Dumbledore seems to turn a blind eye to 
Harry and his friends creeping around the school under it, breaking 
rules, and getting not only into mischief but into darker sorts of 
trouble; but that the cloak wasn't even given to him by his similarly 
rule-breaking (or at least rule-fudging, in this Snape's opinion) 
father, but by Dumbledore, who was sitting on the cloak for at least 
the past ten years in order to give it to precious Harry so the boy 
can break the rules.  Harry gets into trouble, but in the end, as 
Lupinlore said, Slytherin colors are replaced by Gryffindor colors, 
publicly and in a humiliating fashion.  And, things don't get any 
better in second year.

Harry Potter is stealing Snape's thunder, and his mentor, and the 
Order, out from under him.  The only thing left is the WW at large - 
no wonder he wanted an Order of Merlin!  It's the only cold comfort 
he has left.  And, in OotP, Snape is asked, or possibly cajoled, 
nudged or even ordered, to teach the arrogant little brat Occlumency 
when the boy is obviously not suited for it.  He has his temper 
tantrums, he spouts out anything he thinks.  Occlumency for him?

Right.  And, again in OotP, Harry is getting visions of Voldemort's 
doings.  He travels through Nagini along with LV, saving Arthur 
Weasley's life; he sees the last minutes of Frank Bryce and 
eavesdrops on part of LV's conversation with Wormtail and Crouch Jr.; 
he experiences Rookwood's 'little chat' with LV; he is privy to LV's 
desire to get into the MoM: in short, he is encroaching on Snape's 
territory.  If the Great Harry Potter can get into LV's mind, why 
bother with a spy?  Snape is facing redundancy.  And he flat out 
tells Harry this when Harry asks him.

So the time spent between DD and Snape is adult time, not any 
fatherly time or mentor time.  They work on school things, with Snape 
in an elevated position as Head of House, not as student or disciple; 
they discuss what to do when LV returns; they discuss what to do with 
Harry Potter and how to help him overcome LV and save the world.  If 
Snape is lacking the guidance of a father figure or mentor, he is 
still lacking this.  He has to be the Older Child, grow up faster, 
protect the younger sib, give up parental/mentoring attention and in 
some ways, raise himself.  When Snape was young enough to obviously 
need the mentoring, there was a hot war in progress; afterwards, he 
was older, and not actively spying, so all of this was set aside.

And in HBP, there is Dumbledore, taking Harry on for private lessons, 
taking him on a Horcrux hunt, giving him adult responsibilities such 
as forcing DD to drink that potion (no, Snape probably didn't know 
about that, only about the general instruction to do whatever DD told 
him to do no matter what), and retrieving a whole memory from 
Slughorn.  So, the ante is raised almost every year from the time 
Harry starts back at Hogwarts, even though there is little actual 
face time between Harry and DD.

I'm still leaning more toward Dumbledore as Horcrux (for a simple 
title) myself, but I can see certain possibilities in Lupinlore's 
suggestion of the Unloved Son.

Ceridwen.