DDM!Snape & the UV

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 149779

Tonks wrote:
> It makes sense [to agree to the third provision] if DD told Snape to
do whatever it took to maintain his cover. Having Snape in LV's camp
may be even more important than we think. DD would give his life and
the lives of the members of the Order as long as it brings an end to
LV. More is at stake here than just the life of one or two men.  This
is war and the stakes are very high. The fate of both the WW and the
Muggle world hang in the balance. I see no problem with DDM Snape
taking the vow.
> 
> Tonks_op 
> Who thinks that it is not DDM, LID, etc. It is ALL of them together
that makes sense. = HMS.DESIRE. We have extra cabins available for
anyone that wants to join up.
>
Carol responds:
Hi, Tonks. I agree that DD would give his own life to defeat and that
he trusted Snape to do the same (which is not quite the same as DD
sacrificing Snape or anyone else to the cause, which makes him sound
like Bellatrix sacrificing her imaginary son to the cause of LV). But,
yes, the whole WW is at stake and both DD and Snape know it. And, yes,
DD would expect and *want* Snape to agree to vow, third provision and
all. It's Snape who, quite understandably, doesn't want to do it.
Killing Dumbledore costs him everything he has. Much easier to die
than to murder your mentor and suffer infamy, mental anguish, and a
fractured soul as the result.

The part of your theory that troubles me is having Snape "damned" for
the relatively small transgression of revealing the Prophecy when he
had no idea that it involved the young man to whom he owed a Life Debt
(or by James' death at *Voldemort's* hands). That doesn't seem
consistent with the WW (which doesn't involve damnation as we know it,
though the Dementors provide something close to Limbo--poor unbaptized
babies who didn't deserve that fate!). The whole idea behind
Christianity (besides belief in Christ, which doesn't apply here) is
that if you repent, you'll be forgiven. And surely the crime or sin
for which Snape most needs forgiveness is not the eavesdropping or the
death of James (and Lily), which he tried to prevent and has been
trying to atone for, but the murder of DD on the tower. And JKR, as a
Christian, will (IMO) find a way for him to atone for that sin and
receive forgiveness (not God's but Harry's). I can't see him eternally
damned. He may die, but I think he will die reconciled to himself and
to the Order and to Dumbledore, whose spirit he will encounter beyond
the Veil.

I think the Life Debt was *part* of Snape's reason for turning to
Dumbledore for turning to DD and risking his life spying on LV
*before* Godric's Hollow, but it probably wasn't the whole reason. It
certainly doesn't explain his remorse (anguished regret for a misdeed
that can't be undone) as opposed to selfish concern for his own soul
(or whatever the consequences of an unfulfilled life debt may be). I
do think that in his own mind, the Life Debt was transferred to Harry,
but I don't think that debt is magically binding, nor do I think it
was transferred to Dumbledore, fulfilled by saving DD from the ring
Horcrux, and then transferred back to Harry, whom he managed to get
safely off the tower and rescue from a Crucio. Far from explaining
anything simply, LID!Snape just complicates matters needlessly.

Another thing, too. If Snape's soul was already eternally and
inevitably damned, why go to DD at all? Why not just stay with LV and
be a murderer and torturer and poison maker? Why risk his life spying
for DD? Why try to save Harry's life? Why continually "slither out of
action" as Bellatrix accuses him of doing.

Carol, not ready to sign up for a bunk on HMS.DESIRE till it's
seaworthy but liking the acronym almost as much as ACID POPS ;-)