OFH SNAPE was: Script from JKR's reading/ About Snape and Dumbledore

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 157036

PJ wrote:
<snip> 
> Don't you think your point of view sweeps Snape's importance to the 
> storyline under the rug?  I mean, to do everything that Dumbledore
tells him without any input gives Snape no credit for the intelligence
and cunning we're shown he possesses over and over again!  Why would
JKR bother to show us this if he was nothing more than Dumbledore's
lackey?   No, rather than just doing Dumbledore's bidding, I think he
is deeply involved in *formulating* those plans - working in tandem
rather than just doing what he's told.
> 
> I don't like Snape and I don't think Snape is DDM! but I see him as
much more actively involved than you do.  It's only logical that if
you're expected to do the dirty, dangerous work then you'd insist on
hashing that plan out *in depth* before sticking your neck out in any
way.  You wouldn't simply follow someone else blindly - not unless you
were suicidal....  In some ways he knows LV/DE's better than
Dumbledore does and his input would certainly be necessary for any
plan to work.
> 
> He's no one's puppet which is really the whole *point* of OFH!Snape.

Carol responds:
I don't think wynnleaf is suggesting that Snape follows DD blindly
(she points out that he's the only staff member who argues with
Dumbledore), only that he risks his life and does the dangerous dirty
work at least in part out of genuine loyalty to Dumbledore (which is
what we mean by calling him DDM, as I'm sure you know). And, as
wynnleaf pointed out, we *know* that Dumbledore's trust in him is
important to Snape from the scene with Crouch!Moody, as Wynnleaf
pointed out. That the bond between DD and Snape (great-grandfather/
great-grandson might describe it better than father/son, given the
immense difference in their ages) is mutual is indicated by
Dumbledore's inability to talk for several minutes after he sends
Snape off on the dangerous mission to pretend to return to Voldemort
(and by the deep understanding of Snape's "wound" that wynnleaf
cites). "If you are ready. . . if you are prepared" indicates that the
action is part of Dumbledore's plan but that DD trusts Snape to work
out the details for himself. IOW, he trusts him completely, as he says
in HBP, and allows him to use his own intelligence and initiative to
do what needs to be done. He also trusts him to report the
proceedings, to "find out what Voldemort is telling his Death Eaters,"
as Snape puts it in OoP. ("That's your job, isn't it?" "Yes, Potter,
that is my job.") DD trusts Snape to spy for him "at great personal
risk," but he is also concerned for his safety--and not, IMO, just
because his work is important and no one else could do it. That moment
of silence as he watches Snape go off into great danger, armed only
with the lies and half-truths he has worked out to explain his
opposition to Quirrell and his absence from the graveyard, indicates
to me that there is a deep bond between them that goes beyond
trust--affection or even love and DD's part and deep loyalty on
Snape's part. Just sharing an agenda would not explain Snape's
continued willingness to risk his life to spy on Voldemort. 

Carol, thinking that a bond between Snape and DD makes Snape's actions
on the tower all the more tragic (for Snape) and in no way diminishes
his importance to the story