Understanding Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 153952

Steven1965aaa wrote:
> 
> Yea, I agree with that (although I'm not sure from where get that 
> Snape believes in backup?), I was only responding to the portion of 
> an earlier post that asked why would Snape risk his life to try and 
> capture them.  Snape was distraught about not getting the Order or 
> Merlin for capturing Sirius, he wanted that credit badly.  Although 
> Snape kept himself invisible for a while I think he was doing so to 
> spy and obtain information, I don't think he was worried so much 
> about his personal safety.  Despite the 20 aurors, etc. I think 
> Snape believes he can handle both Sirius and Lupin if necessary. I 
> know that he didn't reveal himself until after Lupin gave away their 
> wands but my point was just that I don't see Snape quivering in fear 
> with regard to Lupin and Sirius, this is not his school days as in 
> the pensieve anymore, I think he considers himself to be a powerful 
> wizard.
>
Carol responds;
I'm sure Pippin's point on backup comes from Snape's interrogation of
Draco in "The Unbreakable Vow" (HBP).

I agree with you that Snape would not have been afraid of taking on
Lupin and Black together (the "murderer" and the werewolf about to
transform)--he didn't "quiver with fear" even when Sirius and James
together attacked him unprovoked, not to mention all those hexes that
he already knew and others that he had invented. In a fair fight, one
on one, I think he would have been a formidable opponent even as a
teenager, and Sirius and James both knew it. (We also see that he has
quick reflexes even taken unawares; unfortunately the other boys
already had their wands drawn as far as I can tell; there's no
reference to their drawing them, and Severus wouldn't have had cause
to pull his if theirs weren't already pointing at him.)

However, I'd be wary of assigning Snape's anger to the loss of the
Order of Merlin, though I do believe that he wanted to rescue HRH once
he found the Invisibility Cloak. (The conjured stretchers indicate
that he wanted them alive and safe, not lying unconscious on the
grounds where a werewolf was prowling.) And certainly he wanted to
return Sirius Black to Fudge's custody so he would be soul-sucked.
That old hatred had just been fanned by Black's lack of remorse for
luring Teen!Severus into the Shrieking Shack when they were both
sixteen. But Snape's anger when black escapes could just as easily be
explained by the man he believed to be a murderer getting away--helped
by the very boy whom, in Snape's view, Black intended to murder. That,
surely, would prompt a more intense emotional reaction than the usual
lack of recognition that Snape is quite used to at this point in his life.

We have Snape's words and actions in this scene and elsewhere (though
the quarrel with DD in HBP is presented partially and indirectly, no
doubt deliberately). We are not privy to his thoughts here or anywhere
else. He can hide beneath the cloak of other people's assumptions (as
he does in "Spinner's End" and "The Unbreakable Vow") as easily as he
can hide under an Invisibility Cloak. I don't think we can safely
assume that his conduct in this scene is fully or even partially
explained by the loss of the Order of Merlin. That loss could easily
have been used as a cover for rage with some other cause.

Carol, wishing that we could prevent our assumptions about Snape's
loyalties from coloring our interpretation of him and wondering if
there's anything about him that we can safely take for granted