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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162561

Alla wrote:
<snip>
> I am just confused how does it follow that Snape could not make UV
if he is OFH. In my view - easily. As long as he is not for Dumbledore
or for Voldemort, he can be friend, protector, lover of any number of
people ( I don't think the number is that great  but theoretically, 
why not?)

Carol responds:
It's simple, really. An Unbreakable Vow will kill you if you break it,
and a character who's Out For Himself (Peter Pettigrew, for example)
would never make one (unless he was compelled at wandpoint). The
reason that Snape agreed to the UV in the first place is canonical: he
agreed to protect Draco, putting Draco's life above his own. (That
pesky third provision was not mentioned when he agreed to take the UV
and can't constitute his motive.) 

Yes, OFH!Snape can have friends (read the Malfoys), but he wouldn't
risk dying for them. OFH! means exactly that. He's out for himself,
and he puts himself first. He wouldn't risk dying from a broken vow or
doing anything that would compel him to do something as dangerous as
killing Dumbledore. (In the unlikely event that he succeeded, he'd be
the most wanted man in the WW next to Voldemort, which is exactly what
happened. What OFH! character would want that? PP went to great
lengths to frame Sirius Black for his murders. Who could OFH!Snape
blame? Draco? Not without triggering the vow.)

DDM!Snape, OTOH, has every reason to protect Draco, who is a student
in his own House and the only son of his friend, Lucius Malfoy.
Dumbledore, too, would want to protect Draco from both killing and
being killed. So duty and natural inclination go together in this
instance. Yes, the vow is dangerous, but DDM!Snape is used to walking
a tightrope, and it will bind him and Narcissa together in a common
cause, helping and protecting Draco, with the danger only to himself.
Snape may even feel that he can later turn Draco's danger at the hands
of Voldemort to good use, once Draco is safe from harm, by enlisting
Narcissa and possibly Lucius against LV. After all, Narcissa will owe
Snape a huge favor if he saves her son from harm.

As for the third provision, which he clearly didn't anticipate but
ultimately agreed to, what is the likelihood that Dumbledore, who
defeated *Voldemort* in the MoM, could be killed by Snape in ordinary
circumstances, even with his dead hand? DD still has Fawkes, who saved
from an AK at the MoM and spirited him to safety when Fudge and Co.
tried to arrest him. DD is the most powerful Wizard alive, Voldemort
notwithstanding. Consequently, Snape must have thought that it was his
own life he was risking, not DD's, or that he and Dumbledore together
could make sure that Draco came nowhere near Dumbledore and the UV
wasn't activated. (Snape probably knew that Draco didn't have the
skill, the power, or the courage to confront Dumbledore on his own
without DE backup. He also believed, as Dumbledore did, that no DEs
could get into Hogwarts. I think, based on his remarks about next
year, that he actually hoped to return to Hogwarts the next year.) 

So taking the UV, especially that last provision, was a calculated
risk: DDM!Snape would do everything he could to protect Draco and to
avoid triggering the UV, which he couldn't refuse to take without
arousing Narcissa's and Bellatrix's suspicions. And if Bellatrix's
suspicions were aroused, she'd find some way of informing Voldemort
without compromising herself. (ESE!Snape, of course, would have
refused to protect Draco or to help Narcissa and would not have taken
even the first part of the vow.) So DDM!Snape took the vow, probably
under orders from DD to do everything he could to protect Draco and to
keep his cover as a double agent. 

The hand twitch suggests that Snape realized halfway through the third
provision what was coming and didn't like it, but once he'd heard the
actual wording, he agreed to it. Why? I'm not sure. I don't think he
had much choice (he was on his knees, his wand hand clasping
Narcissa's, bound to hers with double ropes of fire, and Bellatrix was
standing over him with her wand pointed at him). It would have been
difficult if not impossible, to escape that accursed third clause, but
I do think he thought that he and DD could work around it. And I do
think he told Dumbledore about all three provisions. DD says that he
knows more about what's going on with Draco than Harry does, and
"Severus, please" makes no sense (to me) unless Dumbledore knew
exactly what Snape was facing at that moment.

Carol, knowing that you won't agree but trying to make clear why
DDM!Snape would take the UV and OFH!Snape, concerned primarily if not
solely for his own life like PP, would not