ESEDDM!Snape

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 147541

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
<SNIP>
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Absolutely. I have absolutely no problem buying this type of 
Snape. 
> You see, despite me having very serious reservations of calling 
the 
> man who killed Dumbledore "loyal to Dumbledore", I can see all 
those 
> clues discussed multiple times actually turning to be clues in 
> support of DD!M Snape.


Particularly if being "loyal to Dumbledore" involves DD asking Snape 
to commit murder -- or at least killing.  This does seem to clash 
with the emphasis on how murder tears the soul.  Of course, this 
might help explain part of Snape's constant bitterness.  He feels 
himself to be second in DD's affections to Harry.  If DD indeed 
asked Snape to kill him, knowing what the consequences to Snape 
would be in terms of soul-ripping or whatever, Snape's anger takes 
on a new twist.  That is, he sees Dumbledore as being perfectly 
willing to sacrifice him, Severus, to bring about the salvation of 
Harry Potter.  Once again, as with the case of the prank and PoA, 
Dumbledore shows, in Snape's view, that he holds Snape's life and 
well-being in little regard, compared with that of first James and 
now Harry.  

To use a chess analogy, Severus has become used to being the most 
powerful piece on Dumbledore's board.  But even though he is Queen 
(not making any sexual references at all, here), Harry is 
Dumbledore's King in both strategy and affection.  Severus has 
reaped the reward of being the Queen, but in HBP, under this 
scenario, he learns the bitter truth, that in the end the Queen is 
just another piece, but the King is everything. Without his Queen 
Dumbledore would be crippled, strategically and perhaps emotionally 
if he feels affection for Severus, but without his King he would be 
strategically and emotionally destroyed.  And in the end Severus 
suffers the fate of many a Queen -- to be sacrificed to save his 
King.

<SNIP>
> 
> Now, I can even buy Snape being a bastard in general, but having 
> SOME nobility of the character and realising that Voldemort is 
evil 
> OR what you said - Snape being a person of really BAD character, 
but 
> understanding that Voldemort would be very bad choice to gamble 
> upon. ( Isn't your Snape in essense some kind of OFH!Snape? Just 
> trying to clarify.)

Is this not where Gray!Snape (my own favorite version) emerges?  A 
Snape who is complex and whose evil side is quite genuine and really 
evil, but who for any number of reasons is loyal to Dumbledore?  LID 
provides a very good explanation for that.  So we have a Snape who 
really is evil when he does evil things, but who is loyal enough to 
Dumbledore to do what DD asks.  This is a version of Snape who, 
perhaps in contrast to the version I set out above, is not so much 
destroyed from without as destroyed from within.  His dark 
tendencies subborn him at critical moments, such as during 
Occlumency or taking the UV, leading him down paths from which his 
only redemption can come at fearful cost and probably death.


> What I am NOT buying ever and this is of course JMO is "Saint 
> Severus". You know, the one who after leaving DE did not do 
ANYTHING 
> really bad, and even while he was being DE, he did not do anything 
> REALLY bad , after all he was most likely just preparing potions 
for 
> Voldemort and never used any unforgivables. Oh,and of course Harry 
> should be REALLY grateful for that type of Severus, after all 
Saint 
> Severus just protects Harry and/or toughens him for Voldemort. 
That 
> variety of Snape makes me laugh. 

Yes, Saint Severus of Hogwarts really is, IMO, a rather comic 
figure.  As much as his opposite, Eternal Death Eater Severus, he 
smooths out everything about Snape into one dimension -- which would 
be dirty pool on JKR's part.  In the same vein, for JKR to say, "Oh 
guess what, Harry has been ever so wrong about all these things -- 
Draco, the Slytherins, Severus -- the boy really needs to gain 
wisdom and grow up" would, IMO, be a rather desperate act of 
cheating and hand-waving on JKR's part.


Lupinlore