DD trust in Snape again. WAS: Evil Hermione

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 154920


> Pippin:
> Wait a minute. Only DDM!Snape needs Dumbledore's continuing
> protection.
> 
> AD:
> I suppose a better word would have been "patronage", but I mean
> "protection" as well.
> 
> Not from Azkaban, not directly, but Dumbledore's continuing assurance
> that Snape is a good guy, once you scrape off the grease and the
> snark, keeps him employed, and gives him (one presumes--we've seen
> little of his social life) entrée into circles other than Lucius Malfoy's
> 
> The Wizarding world is small and tightly connected--what we've seen of
> it reminds me of nothing so much as Chicago's city government,
> especially as it existed under the first Mayor Daley. (Perhaps because
> I grew up here, and have seen some of the workings up close, through
> relative's and friends of relatives who were involved, one way or
> another with the city.  It's possible that this POV colors my
> perceptions, but bear with me.)  Jobs and social position seem to
> depend on family and personal connection as much as anything else. 
> Witness the Slug Club.

Pippin:
LOL! Me too! Now there's a thought, Rita Skeeter hanging out at
Billy Goat's.:)  Then there's the U of C as Hogwarts: Gothic architecture, 
powerhouse brains and dangerously liberal attitudes.  DE's
could be   The Mob, plotting to regain its former power. But
Fudge hardly qualifies as Hizzoner. If Daley had run the WW
(perish the thought) he wouldn't have lectured the Muggle PM,
he'd have *chosen* him. 

Yes, if Snape is a mobster turned stoolie, he had better cling
to Dumbledore for dear life. But if he's a mobster who's been
clever enough to beat the rap, then he can take Dumbledore or
leave him. After all, the mere rumour of mob connections wouldn't
cost you a job in old Chicago -- well, it would with some people,
but there were plenty of less scrupulous citizens to pick up
the slack. The neighborhood I lived in, everybody had a cousin
or a friend of a friend who was in The Mob anyway. It looks like
it was that way in the WW as well.

Then too, Snape has another string to his bow. He's a potions
genius. He could well be the WW's Werner Von Braun, so valuable
for his expertise that his history is ignored.

Third, blackmail's a weapon Snape can use as well as any other.
He's in a position to collect dirt on plenty of people besides
Remus Lupin. You don't want him for your enemy, right?

> AD:
> Plenty of people who were cleared of willingly being Death Eaters by
> pleading Imperius.  Snape is unique, so far as we know, in being a
> willing Death Eater who was forgiven his sins as a result of
> Dumbledore's testimony that he had made up for them.
> 
> I don't know if British wizarding law allows double jeopardy, but
> let's assume it does not.  If so Snape is safe from retrial, but if he
> is seen to have lost Dumbledore's confidence, again, his world and his
> opportunities dwindle alarmingly. 
> 

Pippin:
What about Karkaroff? He's known to have been a DE who cut a deal
to go free, and he not only had a prestigious job, he was working with
children. He landed in  in deep trouble when ol' red eyes came
back, but if we're imagining a Snape who doesn't believe Voldie's
coming back (that is, after all, what he claimed at Spinner's End)
then why should he worry about that?
 
> AD:
> Carol, Pippin, other Snape fans--again, I ask: Am I, one of Snape's
> biggest critics, the *only* one who doesn't believe him so devoid of
> sense, so insane, so utterly batsh*t crazy, that he would rather see
> Harry dead than cement his position with Dumbledore by saving him, or
> so shortsightedly reckless as to take an entirely unnecessary risk of
> losing his position and what reputation he has?
> 
>
Pippin:
Risk is relative. What it's worth depends on the reward. Snape might 
want Harry dead for revenge, or because he wanted to blackmail 
Quirrell to steal the Stone for him, or because he 
saw Harry as an obstacle to his own plan to steal the Stone and 
become the next Dark Lord. 

Even if you're right and Snape is merely another Pettigrew seeking the
patronage of the biggest fish in the pond, Dumbledore  was an old, old 
man -- he wasn't  going to be Snape's patron for much longer. 
Snape was going to need another  meal ticket soon, and knowing Snape, 
he'd already planned what it was going to be. If a reputation for protecting
Harry Potter wasn't necessary to that plan, then why should he bother doing
it?

Pippin
Feeling weird to think up motives for evil Snape