[HPforGrownups] Re: Hermione must be stopped/Snape's half truths in "Spinner's End"

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 149523

> houyhnhnm:
>
But Snape is not just any Death Eater. He is someone that Bellatrix is
trying to out as a traitor.

Magpie:
Here's my big picture problem with the scenario (besides just feeling like 
the reasons given for why he takes the vow still don't seem clear enough: 
The UV is a very important thing to do.  It's life or death.  It's a turning 
point in Snape's life; no going back. I have a really hard time believing 
that the motivation behind this is that he's trying to get a minor villain 
to stop thinking he's a traitor, or find out about Voldemort's latest plan. 
It's just too small.  I think the UV must go straight to Snape's entire 
raison d'etre, either as Voldemort's man or DD's (I think he's Dumbledore's, 
myself).  If either of these things (convincing Bella or finding out this 
information) seemed really tied to Snape's fundamental nature or story, I 
could see it working.  But it doesn't seem to do that.  The explanation is 
just a throwaway--a risk that went wrong.  Even the "Snape is arrogant" 
explanation is a problem for me because a) this doesn't seem like the 
character I've seen and b) the scene doesn't really seem to be about that.

If the vow doesn't get to the heart of Snape for me it's like...it's like if 
instead of Lily dying to save Harry by throwing herself in front of him, she 
actually died because she was running to call 911.  Or Peter betraying the 
Potters because he was trying to get information about Voldemort's plans and 
got Legimensed or something.  It's not that oopsies and things that the 
person themselves didn't think was important don't ever turn into major 
things--they do.  But a conscious decision like this seems all about "it's 
our choices that show who we are."

Life changing moments, imo, are going to be about the heart of the 
character, not just some passing thing in the plot.  A Snape making the vow 
because he thought maybe this was a good way to find out what the latest 
plan was, or this was a good way to look like a tough DE to the other DE 
goes nowhere for me.  It's an idea brought up and discarded in one chapter 
in book six--the vow is important, but the reason for the vow is totally 
not.  It makes the biggest climax in HP history--right up there with 
PoA--into something that sounds like it's only there to get to the climax 
instead of coming out of the character.

If we'd seen Snape taking risk after risk like this and this is the one that 
finally brought him down, that would reflect on his character, but this is a 
first.  If Snape made a fatal mistake because of his resentment or not 
believing Harry or Sirius, that would make sense.  But Snape's not about 
this, imo.  He's at home with vows in general, oh yes.  But vows that have 
lifelong consequences.  I think of all characters in canon Snape's one of 
the last one's who'd take a vow for any other reason than he felt it was his 
inescapable duty to do the task that came with it.

-m