[HPforGrownups] Re: Trusting Snape

[P J]

No: HPFGUIDX 149098



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

Dumbledore says "Professor Snape could not bear being in your father's 
debt... I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year because *he 
felt* that would make him and your father even.  Then he could go back to 
hating your father's memory in peace..." (SS pg 300 US - and emphasis mine)

So, as I read this there is really nothing concrete to this debt since the 
man he owed it to is dead. We're told "he FELT" rather than he owed... This 
was one man's decision to rid himself of his Potter curse and not a 
magically enforceable thing at all.   Dumbledore's "I do believe" tells us 
that much since if it were a magical reality he'd have told Harry so just as 
he did with Pettigrew.

I will grant you that I prefer this theory over Lollipops though.  That one 
always made my flesh crawl.  :-)

>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.

Naturally I agree but why accepting "almost" everything?  What exactly do 
you think he lied about?

>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).

We are told that Snape had a life debt to *James* due to the prank but we're 
also being told that Snape *chose* to unofficially transfer this debt from 
father to son as a matter of honor... of sorts. (yes, I think Snape has 
honor within his own personal moral confines)  So he actually owes Harry 
nothing.


>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.

I believe this to be the most critical question for OFH!Snape but see no 
reason for LID!Snape to worry about it since the there is no debt owed in 
the legal sense of the word.

>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 he has to find a way to do it that won't alienate Dumbledore either.  
Engineering a way to make Harry at fault was brilliant but then I've never 
heard anyone say Snape was stupid. :-)  He played Harry like a violin and 
got Snape off the hook with both Dumbledore and Voldermort.

So far I can't see any canon for a life-indebted Snape (other than the 
UNofficial debt Snape takes  on himself) at all.  What I see is a real good, 
first class explanation of OFH!Snape's motivations.  ;-)


PJ