Grey!Snape and Character Growth (was:Voldemort's Plan for Snape & the Ring..

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162808

Jen: You and others have argued Grey makes too much of Snape, that 
> the story will veer off from Harry to Snape.  To me Grey is already 
> front and center!  HBP told us what we need to know about the life 
> Snape lived and how it came crashing down around him.  He was once 
> the Half-Blood Prince, a name that meant something significant to 
> him, and now...he's left with nothing.

Carol responds:
I don't think I've made this particular argument (I can never have too
much of Snape), but I do think that the key point is not a change of
heart in Snape but the revelation of his loyalties, which will come as
a shock to Harry. There's the whole problem of point of view (I'd like
to see another "Spinner's End"-style chapter, but there won't be
many--the story is usually told from Harry's pov), and it's Harry who
has to learn Dumbledore's lessons (mercy, forgiveness, trust in
Snape). Snape is Snape, and he's not going to change, either in
essential character or in loyalty, IMO. We, and Harry, will simply
find out that he is and remains DDM (or whatever). There's no room in
the story for Snape's own internal conflict, which has long since been
suppressed or overcome. (The argument in the forest is not about old
Slytherin or DE loyalties returning; it's just about something DD
wants him to do that he thinks isn't working or won't work.) At any
rate, HBP is in some ways Snape's book. He's front and center, with
major scenes in three or four chapters and several minor scenes, he
finally has the DADA position, he makes the crucial UV (we finally get
to see him as he appears to the Death Eaters), we learn what he's told
Voldy that's enabled him to survive (rather different from the actual
truth), we see his healing skills and his duelling skills, we see him
*appear* to turn traitor and yet continue to save and protect Harry.
And all the time, throughout the book, there's the parallel motif of
the Half-blood Prince, who improves Potions and invents clever spells
and reminds Harry of Snape's lesson on Bezoars, an unknown teenage boy
whom Harry sees as a friend, who helps him out in many ways--and turns
out to be Snape. But at the end of the book, all Harry sees is Snape
as murderer of Dumbledore.

Sad to say, Snape has had his book. We'll find out more about him, of
course. We'll have to for the reveal/reversal to make sense. But most
of it will be snippets of Snape's past and none of it will be insight
into the inner workings of Snape's mind. At most, I expect one key
scene from the perspective of an objective, dramatic third-person
narrator and one or two scenes with Harry and Snape with the usual
third-person limited narrator presenting the scene from Harry's pov.
> 
Jen:
> I didn't mean Snape went through character growth in HBP, what I 
> meant by the crucible was that a confluence of events forced Snape 
> out in the open (ironically on the wrong side).  While Dumbledore 
> dealt in mercy and Voldemort in savagery, Snape walked a tightrope 
> between them engaging in neither one.  <snip> 

Carol:
So far, I agree with you.

Jen:
Now Snape is saddled with Draco and the Chosen One and suddenly
Dumbledore's problems of compassion and mercy are Snape's problems. He
detests the position he's in with every fiber of his being, he's 
avoided being attached to any person or group because that could lead
to weakness and yet...he'll still choose to follow Dumbledore's plan.
 (I'm not holding my breath for Snape to learn about mercy 
> though <g>.)

Carol:
I agree that he detests having to go back to Voldemort, but that was
always part of the plan from at least GoF and possibly before, as, I
think, was giving Snape the cursed DADA position when he was most
needed, a year of passing on his skills and knowledge to the students
before the DADA curse forced his return to Voldemort and, as you so
beautifully put it, " a confluence of events forced Snape out in the
open (ironically on the wrong side)." But, IMO, what Snape is now
saddled with is not attachment to any person or group (though Draco
could prove to be a thorn in his side) but the agony of intensified
remorse. If he felt remorse for his part in the Potters' being
targeted and killed by Voldemort, what must he feel now at having been
forced, not by the UV alone but by the "confluence of events," to kill
Dumbledore? And now, having lost everything, he must pretend to be
loyal to Voldemort. Absolutely, he "detests the position he's in with
every fiber of his being"--except, possibly, for the danger and the
challenge, which are greatly intensified by his status as fugitive
criminal and Harry's almost insurmountable antipathy.

But you don't need to hold your breath for Snape to show mercy. He has
already done so. Look again at the healing scene in the Sectumsempra
chapter. Snape is forgiving Draco for fighting the Chosen One and
trying to kill Dumbledore, and he is letting him continue his
assignment, very much against Snape's will, IMO, because Dumbledore
believes in choices and second chances. We see Snape as gentle as a
mother singing a lullabye in that scene before he reverts to his
normal self to deal with Harry. And later, of course, he rescues Draco
from the DEs (and the Aurors) by getting him safely out of Hogwarts,
having first prevented him from becoming a killer. In "The flight of
the Prince," he has *Harry* at his mercy. He knows what spell Harry'ss
going to cast, but he simply deflects the spells rather than fighting
him. He saves him from a Crucio. And he stands over him when Harry is
wandless and helpless, taunting him with "Kill me like you killed him,
you coward!" and his only response is an anguished "Don't--call me
coward." (I think he wanted to say. Don't say that! I didn't want to
kill him!" Which, of course, he can't say under the circumstances.) He
could have killed or Crucio'd Harry or Stunned and kidnapped him, but
he does none of those things. He hates and possibly envies Harry, but
he shows him mercy, only at the very end venting his feelings with
what appears to be a stinging hex, for which he pays the penalty of
being chased off the grounds by Buckbeak. But snape is indeed capable
of mercy and has already shown it.

Jen: 
Harry doesn't understand what Dumbledore did, that you can be on the
same side even when you don't personally like someone or share his
values.  Harry needs a lesson in the grey area of life ;-), not
finding out the real Severus Snape is a lot like him on the inside. 
Draco will be Harry's biggest revelation imo, his nemesis from the 
same generation who *does* change before his eyes in terms of loyalty.

Carol:
Exactly. The enemy who will *change* is Draco. The seeming enemy who
will be revealed as being on his side (DDM!) is Snape (assuming that
we're right). So where is Gray!Snape? I don't see him.

Carol, noting that neither Snape nor Draco is Harry's nemesis (that
role is reserved for Voldemort)