ESE, DDM, OFH, or Grey? (WAS: DDM!Snape the definition)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162454

Debbie wrote:
> 
> So many choices, so many opinions.  However, everyone has left out
my favorite option, what Jen calls Grey!Snape (her title is so much
more catchy than mine was, but I think the theories are essentially
the same).
> 
> Here's how I sort out the options:
> 
> As the surface reading of HBP, ESE!Snape is not only Ever So Boring,
it all but turns him into another Voldemort, but without Horcruxes. 
There's nothing left but for to kill him.  What a waste of a character!

Carol responds:
Agreed on all counts. Besides, there's no evidence to support this
reading and a great deal of evidence against it. He clearly despises
the ultimate Voldemort loyalist, Bellatrix Lestrange. If they support
the same goals, I'm Delores Umbridge. (I'm not. Really, I'm not.)
> 
Debbie:
> DDM!Snape is better, but only his backstory is dynamic.  The double
agent game keeps him hopping, but if his mind is made up these past
sixteen years, he's just playing out his hand.

Carol:
Yes, his backstory is dynamic, and I think most of us are eager to
read it. But his hand is not necessarily played out. See below.
> 
Debbie:
> OFH!Snape (which I found initially attractive after first reading
HBP) maintains the mystery about the meaing of his *current* actions,
but at the expense of the passion barely under control that is so much
a part of his character.  He cares too much to be OFH!

Carol:
I never found OFH!Snape attractive, not only because of the passion
(which is controlled much of the time but explodes out of control on
two or three occasions) but because OFH!Snape wouldn't spy for
Dumbledore "at great personal risk" or show his Dark Mark to Fudge or
take an Unbreakable Vow that could result in his own death. Whatever
motivates Snape to take such risks, it's not self-interest. Besides,
we already have a character who's the epitiome of Out-for-Himselfness:
Peter Pettigrew. Snape, passionate, angry, courageous, sarcastic
Snape, must be something else altogether.
> 
Debbie:
> And that's why I have settled on what Jen calls Grey!Snape.  In my
book, DDM!Snape doesn't account for Snape's volatility, his passion,
his anger.

Carol:
Why not? DDM!Snape hates James, whom he failed to save. He feels
remorse for the eavesdropping and Godric's Hollow yet hates Harry
(because he's a living reminder of that failure?). He continually
watches over and protects Harry but gets angry when Harry (like James)
gets away with rule-breaking or stealing from his supply cabinet or
invading his privacy by entering the Pensieve or using his own spells
against him. His loyalty is to Dumbledore, not to Harry, who is
nevertheless important to him as the One who will defeat Voldemort,
which is why Harry's "mediocrity" is so irritating to him and why he
tries to suppress any dangerous tendency toward arrogance in Harry,
who cannot afford to underestimate Voldemort, and why he even
sometimes places himself in the position of Harry's enemy to give him
some idea what he's up against and force him to defend himself against
the Legilimens spell or use a nonverbal defensive spell in DADA class.
It's why he saves Harry from a Crucio, deflects his hexes, and yells
at him to close him mouth and his mind. It's why Harry's charge that
killing DD was an act of cowardice causes him so much pain.

Debbie:
> Even though I believe Snape and Dumbledore had a plan and that Snape
was merely executing the plan when he killed Dumbledore, he's seething
with anger at how things have played out, and his soul is hanging in
the balance.  He's got more choices to make, and we can't be sure
he'll make the ones Dumbledore would have wanted him to make. <snip>

Carol:
I agree that he's seething with anger at Dumbledore for forcing him to
keep his vow, but he's also in a hell of his own making because of the
Unbreakable Vow. He feels a self-hatred comparable to what Harry felt
when he was force-feeding DD poison but longer lasting and inescapable
because Dumbledore, his mentior, the only person who trusted him, is
dead by his hand. Much as I would like to believe that DD died from
the poison and Snape cast some other spell disguised as an AK (I do
think there was an additional nonverbal spell that sent him over the
battlements, but that's beside the point), his agony is only
explicable if he really killed Dumbledore against his will, for the
cause, at the expense of his own soul and everything he had before--a
comfortable job, the respect of the WW, the trust of the Order
members, the freedom to go anywhere without fear of Azkaban. Now his
only way out is to undermine Voldemort and secretly help Harry, who
sees him as a murderer and his personal enemy. What will he do? How
will he keep Voldemort from suspecting his intentions? How can he
slither out of action now, when he's placed so close to Voldemort?
He's in a terrifying position, much worse in its way than Harry's. I
only hope there's a way out of this hell other than death.

> Debbie, in
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/143025
> I never liked plain-vanilla DDM!Snape because there's no
> element of choice. This is why I picture Snape out there somewhere
in his own private hell, trying to make up his mind whether to carry
out Dumbledore's plan to save Draco or whether to go over to Voldemort
and save himself. What would really justify Dumbledore's faith would
be for Snape to emerge from this crucible and do the right thing. It's
easy to be faithful while ensconced in a safe job at Hogwarts; to
really justify Dumbledore's faith he must face a final test. 
 
> Debbie again:
> I suppose Grey!Snape could be considered a variant of DDM!Snape, but
if you asked me if Snape was loyal to Dumbledore *at this moment*
(i.e., after HBP but before the start of Book 7), my answer would have
to be no, because Snape himself doesn't know where he stands.  So
Grey! today, DDM! tomorrow.
> 

Carol:
"Plain-vanilla DDM!Snape"? There ain't no such animal. He's already
faced the ultimate test of loyalty to Dumbledore, killing him against
his (Snape's) will. And now he faces more challenges, how to help
Harry and the Order when all of them believe he's Voldemort's man. And
even though his loyalty to Dumbledore redeems him ten times over, IMO,
for revealing the Prophecy to Voldemort, he now must redeem himself in
his own eyes and the eyes of the WW and the eyes of the reader and
above all, in Harry's eyes, for the story to play out. Irony, tragedy,
conflict, and hope all in one character. He'll face a final test, all
right, but not a test of loyalty. It's a test of courage and
resourcefulness, fighting a battle that no one knows he's fighting.
He'll confront Harry and he'll confront Voldemort. I have no doubt
that he will contribute in some way to Voldemort's fall and that he'll
be redeemed and that Harry will forgive and in some measure understand
him, all of which will pave the way to Harry's ultimate victory over
Voldemort. 

My only doubt is whether Snape will survive into the epilogue. Please,
JKR. Don't kill off DDM!Snape, by far your most interesting character.

Carol, who thinks that Snape knows exactly where he stands but not how
best to act on those convictions and help those who think he's their enemy