Harry Forgiving Snape / Grey!Snape and Character Growth

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162926


Jen wrote:
> > <snip>
> > Actually, Snape blaming Harry for weakening Dumbledore is a
perfect exmple of what Harry has to grow beyond to defeat Voldemort. 
I expect Snape's remorse for turning over the prophecy was because LV
targeted someone he loved or respected, but he doesn't blame
himself for the Potters dying, that's James' fault for putting his
trust in his friends.  *James* made Snape culpable.  In the    
situation with Dumbledore, Snape feels pain that he had to kill 
Dumbledore, but he will likely blame others for putting him into   
that position: Harry for weakening Dumbledore, Draco for being     
stupid enough to actually work with Voldemort and/or actually       
trying to kill Dumbledore, and Bella and/or Narcissa for the UV.    
*They* made Snape culpable. 
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> Eh, yeah, I totally disagree with this idea.  I think Snape takes
the blame for his past mistakes *fully* onto his own shoulders.  I do
think he's furious at James for not listening to him, but I don't 
think he uses that anger as an excuse to shift the blame to James.
Otherwise I don't think Dumbledore would give as much weight to
Snape's remorse, since blaming someone else doesn't really count as 
remorse.  <snip>

Carol responds:
In essence, I agree with Betsy though I concede that shifting part of
the blame for the Potters' deaths to Sirius Black, and to James for
"arrogantly" ignoring Dumbledore's warning, made the burden more
bearable--very much like Harry's blaming Snape for Black's death. Now,
of course, Snape knows that Black wasn't the spy/SK and he can't feel
such a satisfying hatred for the contemptible Pettigrew, so he merely
takes solace in hating the memory of James for "arrogantly" dying
despite his efforts to save him and he still clings to the humiliating
memories of the Prank and his "worst memory," the one time (IMO) that
he didn't "give as good as he got" because Sirius and James attacked
him two on one at unawares. (I'll bet he learned *that* lesson--
"Constant vigilance!" as Fake!Moody says.) Still, though, he can no
longer hide from his own guilt for revealing the Prophecy and failing
to save the Potters, and he has worked all this time to redeem himself
for that failure (and for joining the DEs in the first place). 

Now he has still more to feel guilty about--not the UV so much as its
consequences. Unlike Jen, I see no evidence that Snape blames Narcissa
for "making" him take the UV. It was his own choice to do so, another
risk solely to himself, or so it seemed when Narcissa proposed it and
he agreed to take it. He may well blame himself for agreeing to the
third provision, but it must have seemed at the time either that he
had no choice or that if he told Dumbledore about it, DD would find a
way to keep the UV from ever being activated. (I think that's what the
argument in the forest was about--DD taking for granted that he could
allow Draco to continue doing whatever he was doing in the RoR--yes,
I'm sure they knew where he was going and who the "girls"
were--without activating the vow, and DD wanting Snape to continue
merely watching Draco and trying to talk to him and other students in
his House, measures that Snape thought were futile but which did save
Draco's life when Harry hit him with Sectumsempra.)

At any rate, IMO Snape is doing everything he can to help Dumbledore
using the DADA knowledge which, till now, he's had to conceal because
he was the Potions Master and it wasn't his job to teach, or heal,
Dark Magic. (The fact that DD went to him to stop the curse on his
hand indicates to me that he already had the post of DADA teacher in
mind for Snape this year; he was just waiting for Slughorn to accept
the Potions Master post before making it official. So Snape was
telling Bella yet another half-truth; he hadn't *yet* been given the
position he wanted, but I'm pretty sure he knew it was coming. And he
also knew the real reason he hadn't been given it before, not because
it would tempt him into his old ways [which is what he and DD want LV
and the DEs to think] but because it would expose his till-now hidden
DE background and force him to rejoin Voldemort).

Sorry--straying from the main point, which is that I don't think Snape
is blaming anyone else for the UV, which he *chose* to take, but he
was plenty angry with DD on the tower for pressuring him to choose to
keep rather than break it. Yet, ultimately, it *was* his choice, and
it enabled him to protect both boys and get the DEs out of Hogwarts,
which would not have happened if he had died along with DD. So now
Snape is in a crucible of his own making, as Jen so aptly put it, but
however much he may resent DD for ignoring his advice (taking too much
for granted and allowing events to come to this pass), he knows full
well who cast the AK that sent DD over the battlements and exactly why
the Chosen One hates him. I *don't* think he'll blame Harry for
weakening Dumbledore by forcefeeding him the poison when he learns
about it. He knows full well what it's like to have Dumbledore order
you, or make you promise to do, something that you don't want to do. I
keep thinking that those parallel scenes (hatred and revulsion) and
parallel promises to do what DD says even if, in Harry's case, it
means leaving DD to die and, in Snape's case, it means fulfilling the
UV, will be the common bond that enables them to understand and trust
each other. 

Carol, feeling that she got off-topic a bit but "blaming" the
complexity of Snape's characterization <g>