Understanding Snape

[horridporrid03]

No: HPFGUIDX 153746

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > Except Snape went into the forest first.
> > <snip>

> >>Neri:
> This piece of fanon seems to have acquired canon status by now.    
> I've seen it stated several times as fact by different list        
> members, and I'm a bit tired of correcting it. Still, the canon is 
> quite clear at this point:
> <snip of canon>

Betsy Hp:
Well thank you for working through your exhaustion, Neri. <g>  I 
promise to do my best to not make this mistake again.  (I do know 
how you feel, though.  I have the same eye-rolling reaction whenever 
folks state that Dudley did something to deserve Hagrid hexing him, 
so I really am serious about not repeating that mistake.)

I *am* glad to have had this pointed out because I think it really 
strengthens DDM!Snape.  Snape does everything correctly.  He checks 
to make sure Sirius is okay.  He waits for Harry to return so he can 
tell him what he's learned.  As soon as the time spent away gets 
suspicious he informs the Order of what *might* be going on.  He 
makes sure someone will inform Dumbledore as soon as he returns.  
And *then* he goes to check the forest in case some disaster has 
struck there.

All in all, Snape behaves exactly as an Order member and a Head of 
House should.

> >>Neri:
> Three pages later (p. 833) Dumbledore also tells us about         
> Snape: "It was he who deduced where you had gone when you did
> not return from the Forest." This means that if Snape had searched 
> the forest at all, it was already after he himself deduced that    
> Harry was no longer there. It strikes me like making a big deal of 
> running to lock the stable door after the horses had already been 
> stolen.

Betsy Hp:
Really?  I think it's more like telling Grandma, "Little Johnny has 
probably run away to your house, please keep an eye out for him."  
But then going to check the play park as well.  After all, a 
deduction is an educated guess, and if Snape had sat back on his 
educated laurels while Harry was being treated roughly by Centaurs, 
that would not be a good thing.

> >>Betsy Hp:
> > So Snape must have realized that he was taking action *against* 
> > Voldemort at that point.

> >>Neri:
> "Must" seems to be too strong a word here, but it certainly appears
> so. I quite agree that the ESE!Snape theory has a problem         
> explaining his actions that night, as much problem as the DDM!    
> Snape theory has in explaining these same actions, in fact. Which 
> strongly suggests to me that he's neither.

Betsy Hp:
I'm going to agree with Nikkalmati and Gerry; I don't see what DDM!
Snape has a problem explaining here at all.

> >>Eggplant:
> The book tells us:
> "when you gave Professor Snape that cryptic warning, he realized   
> that you had had a vision of Sirius trapped in the bowels of the   
> Department of Mysteries. He, like you, attempted to contact Sirius 
> at once."
> That is exactly what a good Snape would do, but it is also exactly
> what an evil Snape would do who was trying to protect his cover, so
> the passage tells us nothing about Snape.

Betsy Hp:
I agree, to an extent.  (There's no reason ESE!Snape should have 
checked on Sirius at all.  He could have played stupid.)  However, 
the next actions Snape takes, sending the Order to the MoM, making 
sure someone alerted Dumbledore, etc., are very hard for an evil 
Snape to explain.

> >>Eggplant:
> <snip> ...but there is one thing I will NOT concede, Snape is
> evil, as evil as Voldemort himself.

Betsy Hp:
Did Snape strangle a rabbit to death while a young boy?  Did he 
torture young children while still a boy?  Did he kill someone by 
the age of sixteen?  Did he kill his father?  Has he murdered people 
with the express purpose of furthering his own life?  Has he drunk 
the blood of a unicorn?  Has he forced a schoolboy to kill someone 
or die himself?

Because that's what it would take, I think, to make anyone as evil 
as Voldemort.

Betsy Hp