Snape again

[Karen]

No: HPFGUIDX 146840

I just got done reading Book 3 through the shack scene again. I still 
simply cannot buy ESE!Lupin. However, I certainly appreciate the level 
of detail that all the ESE!Lupin posts have made me look at upon 
rereading.

One thing really struck me tonight and that is that Snape *is* truly 
unhinged when it comes to  any of the Marauder boys. Sure, he didn't 
hear the end of things, but he heard the *real* story of what happened 
when he was tricked and that Sirius was the one to blame. That does not 
keep him from feeling the same as he always has about Remus.

What I see clearly here is that this blinding rage is probably the key 
weapon that LV used to get to Snape, who was probably a pretty big 
recruit on the old DE list. And I suspect that this blinding, 
uninhibited anger at the Marauders is merely the set of people that 
took the stopper out of his repressed abusive past. The straw that 
broke the camels back, as it were, for all other emotional baggage he 
carried (similarly to how Snape has become the unfortunate hate vacuum 
for Harry over every loss in his life. I mean, effectively, Harry has 
about the same amount of reason to blame Snape for every loved one he 
has lost as Snape has for blaming the Marauders for every indignity he 
ever suffered; LV just thinks everyone owes him because he's a gift to 
wizard kind.) We know from HBP that Snape is really gifted. We also 
know from other things that he is gifted on many levels. Legilmens, 
occulmens, potions....and he was a psyche that was ripe for picking.

He's almost like a distorted image of Harry and by dint of that a third 
version of LV in a way. Both Harry and Snape were raised in abusive 
environments, which, makes them really pretty quiet and self-effacing, 
at least publicly. Keep quiet. Keep your ducks in a row. Don't be seen. 
But whereas Harry is raised in a muggle environment, Snape has the full 
benefit of the WW and its structure. Different pressures and 
expectations (from others as well as themselves). For all we know 
Harry's greatest ambition in life growing up was surviving long enough 
to get shot of the Dursleys and work at McDonald's or something (but I 
can imagine him wanting to "show" the Dursleys in some way with what he 
does with his life), but I can well imagine Snape had set to "be a 
great wizard and show them all" from an early age; hence his alter ego 
of The Half Blood Prince. LV simply always "knew" and never doubted he 
was special and had the biggest jump start of them all.

And then there is just the genes we're given. Harry has an innate charm 
and ingenuousness that Snape simply does not. Snape is socially 
disfunctional; he has no real natural charm; he is not particularly 
appealing or attractive in any way. Had Tom Riddle not been charming 
and handsome, would he have been able to rise as far as fast as he did? 
It's a key idea we continually return to. We've heard more than once 
how he could charm the people he needed and we can't get away from the 
"handsome" descriptor until he is good and snaky. Harry, too, has a 
good enough self esteem that he knows and is gaining ground in 
appealing to people. I wish I could remember just where I read it, (I 
think it has to do with Slughorn? HBP? Help anyone) but at one point 
Harry is described as having persuaded too many people to be taken in 
by X's tactics or similar sentiment. Once Harry is introduced to a 
"normal" environment, he blossoms socially (which is probably 
accelerated by being a good athlete ). And as well, Harry has the jump 
on both Snape and Riddle in that he IS imbued with the "golden scar". 
People just expect great things of him from day one. (As an aside here, 
I think this holds Harry back the most magically speaking. He never 
performs as well in class when there is official expectation as he does 
on the fly when he is really doing and not thinking about doing. Or, 
when he is focused on the goal, not the task. Which is one way in which 
not being in school may lead to an acceleration of skills in book 7. I 
can really not think of anytime after hearing a spell that he didn't 
manage with difficulty in class that he couldn't call upon pretty 
handily when he wasn't under "test anxiety" conditions but applying 
them to a goal - usually survival of himself or others.)

It's like looking at three versions of the same situation (though 
Riddle's wasn't abusive, it certainly wasn't normal to be raised, as he 
was, in a public orphanage. No real abuse but certainly no real family 
- just as Harry and Snape) and the way people turn out in different 
conditions. I can see LV pegging Snape after someone informs him about 
an exceptional and creative potion and spell maker/finder at Hogwarts. 
It might even be handy that he isn't a school paragon. And once again, 
why isn't such an exceptional student more heralded? We don't ever hear 
anything really stellar about Snape at school. No special awards 
(Hermione would have spotted something in her hunt for the HBP in old 
archives), no honorable mentions, no "could have been at the ministry" 
stories. We don't even know what Snape did after he left school and 
before he taught at HW. I doubt highly that had he been handsome and 
charming his skills would have been so unnoticed. So, I think LV 
charmed Snape. Promised him the things that he never got in school for 
his talent. I wonder what the story is (and I'm sure we'll find out) 
but Snape is not an idiot, and he isn't insecure in his abilities and 
as such the scales might just fall from his eyes more rapidly once the 
real promises aren't kept. I'm almost tempted to fall for the "Lily as 
a prize" theory but just don't think Snape is that errr.....lascivious 
or stupid enough to believe he'd ever get a cooperative Lily, once her 
hubby and son were killed, especially.

Maybe all of you have noticed this and I'm just late on the bandwagon 
and taking up bandwidth, but it really is interesting. I think we have 
two levels of triangles going now, Draco, Neville, Harry, Harry, Snape, 
LV with, of course, Harry acting as a kind of fulcrum.

Well, it's a thought anyway.