Why does Snape wants DADA job if it cursed? LONG

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 148931

--- "Sydney" <sydpad at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> You know, looking at those two lines... I'm back to Suicidal!Snape 
> (or Kamikaze!Snape if you prefer). It hits every point. It has bang.
> It has irony. It wouldn't be out of place in a Victorian novel. It 
> has a lot of potential energy to drive cool scenes.  It can generate
> motion from Harry.  It can connect in interesting ways to other
> Unsolved Snape Mysteries like why Dumbledore trusts him so much and
> ties into the remorse thing.  And, pace Lupinlore, it's not
> excessively heroic.  Ladies and Gentlemen-- THE WINNNEEEER!  
> 

Personally, I expect that JKR will give us Gollum!Snape at the end, a 
schizophrenic creature of ultimately weak character, scrabbling for 
the ring, shouting, "IT'S MINE! [Lily, Fame, DADA] MY PRECIOUS!" as 
he goes down in flames.  I am trying to prepare for the worst... but 
I prefer to be delusional.  Rather than Suidical!Snape, let's try 
Self-Sacrificing!Snape, similar to Self-Sacrificing!Dumbledore, only 
with more bite.

Dumbledore constantly says he trusts Severus Snape.  Assuming he does 
not lie, the threshhold for trust is much higher than it is for 
giving a second chance.  Dumbledore seems not to have trusted Harry 
until HBP.  He kept Harry in the dark, not even looking at him in 
OOTP until the end.  Dumbledore never trusted Tom Riddle Jr., of 
course.

Snape must have done something profound to earn Dumbledore's trust, 
something more than telling him Voldemort was after the Potters, 
something more than showing the Dark Mark to Crouch, something more 
than spying on the Death Eaters.  If you consider that Dumbledore not 
only let Snape teach children, who some say Dumbledore wanted to 
protect above all else, he also let Snape into the Order when he 
probably didn't have to, and he apparently let Snape care for him 
when he was injured -- that's an awful lot of trust to put in one 
person.

Keep in mind that this is Dumbledore, a man who stands back from 
emotional involvement with others.  Dumbledore engaged many DADA 
professors before Snape.  He was apparently willing to sacrifice them 
once he realized the job was cursed.  He's seen Snape's weaknesses, 
his inability to continue Occlumency training with Harry, his 
inability to put aside mistrust of Lupin.  Yet, he still insists he 
trusts Snape, to all those who apparently do not share this trust.  
If he had to vouch for Snape, then people must have told Dumbledore 
they didn't trust Snape -- how naive could Dumbledore have been?

I think that Snape has been willing to sacrifice himself, and that 
makes all the difference to Dumbledore.  That is why Dumbledore 
ultimately comes to trust Harry, after all, because Harry 
demonstrated he will put the interests of others before his own.  
Snape had to know about the DADA curse, no matter how hubristic or 
spiteful some think he is, if only because he does make observations 
and can put two-and-two together.  He probably didn't have to leave 
his Potions position to make way for Slughorn.  He agreed to leave 
Potions and take the DADA position, probably knowing he was making a 
sacrifice.  (And perhaps the thing he didn't want to do in the forest 
was to sacrifice someone else, namely, Dumbledore.)

WHY Snape is self-sacrificial -- that is something I am still 
pondering.  Maybe it's the life debt to James Potter.  I do not 
believe Dumbledore would have asked for an Unbreakable Vow, which 
would have voided choice.  And if the DADA curse works to bring out 
the hidden flaw in an individual, then it may be that when it comes 
right down to it, Snape is a Slytherin and has to choose to save his 
own neck, no matter how self-sacrificial he may want to be (if 
Phineas Nigellus is to be believed).

Everyone agrees that Snape has character flaws, whatever the reason.  
Dumbledore's flaw is that he needs to believe the best of people.   
Even so, it seems Dumbledore's trust of Snape cannot have been that 
simple.

lealess