Trusting Snape

[Neri]

No: HPFGUIDX 149094

> SSSusan:

<big snip>
> I suppose it's natural to assume one's own preferred view is the most 
> straightforward, but even OFH!Snape isn't totally, is it?  How does 
> OFH!Snape explain Snape's saving Harry in the 1st year Quidditch 
> match?  How does it explain Snape's informing the Order that Harry 
> had taken off for the DoM?  How does it explain Snape's saving DD's 
> life at the start of the year and then AKing him at the end of it?  
> I'm not saying OFH!ers can't offer explanations for these; I'm simply 
> saying that I suspect those explanations would include as 
> much "reading between the lines" and assumption-making as the various 
> explanations ESE!Snapers and DDM!Snapers must offer up to other 
> questions.
> 

Neri:
I'd say LID!Snape explains all the above with practically no reading
between the lines. Faith wouldn't have supported it otherwise <g>. 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145024

Now, since the question of the occlumency lessons came up again, it's
worth checking if LID can explain Snape's behavior there. I limit
myself now to the most straightforward reading, the way Faith would
like it. 

So what are LID!Snape's straightforward motivations? Well, he isn't
Dumbledore's man if he killed him (pretty much straightforward
reading, I believe) but he only killed him when he had no other way to
save himself from the UV terms (straightforward reading) so he isn't
ESE either. Accepting almost everything Snape said in Spinner's End as
true (straightforward reading) he's most likely to be OFH. What he
really wanted was to continue his double-agent game as long as
possible in order to come out on top in the end, whichever side wins.

However, LID!Snape has one additional problem that OFH!Snape doesn't
have: he must save Harry's life and get rid of his Life Debt
(straightforward reading of Dumbledore's words in the end of SS/PS).
Until he manages this he's not free to choose Voldemort's side. But he
has to save Harry's life without Voldemort realizing that he did,
because Voldemort isn't likely to forgive Snape such a thing. If Voldy
discovers that Snape saved Harry's life, the double-agent game is over
and Snape (even if he manages to avoid Voldemort's immediate
retaliation) is stuck forever in Dumbledore's side, which might end up
the losing side. Now, this starts to look like a problem worthy of Snape.

So in OotP Dumbledore asks Snape to teach Harry occlumency. What
should LID!Snape do? If he agrees and manages to teach Harry
occlumency, this is likely to thwart Voldemort's plan and save Harry
from running to the DoM and being captured by Voldemort, so Snape
would pay his Life Debt and free himself to choose whichever side that
has better chances. But if Snape agrees to teach Harry occlumency and
yet Harry fails to learn it, he might betray the existence of the
lessons to Voldemort. So LID!Snape is ambivalent about this. If Harry
can learn occlumency very quickly –- mission accomplished! But if he
can't, Snape is in big trouble.   

But LID!Snape would also have another motivation here. He'd want to
find out which side has the better chances to win. On which side must
he bet in the end – this is the most critical question for LID!Snape.
Well, he had heard the first half of the prophecy, which asserts Harry
has the power to vanquish Voldemort, but he can't be sure the prophecy
is true, and anyway *having* a power and *using* it are two different
things. Direct observation tells him that Harry is not even close to
the Dark Lord, that he's lousy at potions and can't match Snape's own
abilities at a similar age. And yet Snape knows that Harry somehow
survived Voldemort several times, that he speaks parseltongue and that
he has shown an ability to resist the Imperius curse. So occlumency
lessons would be Snape's golden opportunity to study Potter up close
and find out once and for all if he is really (as he says to Bellatrix
in Spinner's end, again straightforward reading) "a great Dark wizard,
which is how he survived the Dark Lord attack."   

And what do you know, from the first occlumency lesson Snape digs as
deep as he can into Harry's mind, mining it for the most secret and
painful memories. And quickly he finds out that Harry has no flair for
occlumency, that he can't control his emotions and discipline his
mind, and that he has no hidden powers that Snape can see. As Snape
tells Bella in Spinner's End (again straightforward reading): "it
became apparent to me very quickly that he had no extraordinary talent
at all. He has fought his way out of a number of tight corners by a
simple combination of sheer luck and more talented friends. He is
mediocre to the last degree". Snape realizes that Potter has no chance
against the Dark Lord, and that he'd better find a reason to terminate
this fiasco in a hurry, before Voldy finds out about the lessons and
accuse him of helping the enemy.

But LID!Snape still has to find a way to save Harry's life before he
can bet on Voldemort's side, and he still has to do that without
Voldemort finding out and before the double-agent game is over. And
now Snape's rather questionable behavior during the night of the MoM
battle suddenly starts to look straightforward too. But it's now very
late so I leave this for another post.


Neri