Draco's debt to Snape (Was: LID!Snape rides again)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 149876

<snipping the Life Debt discussion, which I think only partially
accounts for Snape's motives, and skipping to this interesting tidbit>

Magpie wrote:
> <snip> Draco does not owe Snape for the UV or the Sectumsempra
counter spell.  There's no magic at work in those relationships. <snip>

Carol responds:
But there *is* magic involved in Snape's saving Draco. He's made a UV
to protect the boy. I believe that he would have saved Draco anyway
for a number of reasons, ranging from his duty as DADA professor and
Draco's HOH to personal affection to the probability that he's the
only person in Hogwarts or even the whole WW who knows the
countercurse to Sectum Sempra, his own invented spell. However, if it
weren't for the UV, or at least Snape's promise to DD to keep an eye
on Draco, he probably wouldn't have been following the boy around in
the first place. So while I agree that Draco owes Snape no Life Debt
in the sense of a magical bond to an enemy who has saved him as an act
of mercy (Magpie's definition, which I see no reason to dispute), he
does owe his life to Snape: If Snape hadn't been there to save him,
Draco would be dead (and Harry in a cauldron of hot water).

Consequently, Draco owes Snape at the very least a debt of gratitude
not only for the countercurse but for the UV. Surely Draco knows what
a UV entails. Surely he knows that Snape did a lot more than merely
"promise my mother" to protect him; he risked his life by taking the
UV in the first place, a risk that Draco chooses to ignore both when
Snape informs him of it during the Christmas party and when he's
talking to DD on the tower--months after Snape has saved his life.

Setting aside the question(s) of whether Draco is worth saving and why
Snape agreed to take the UV in the first place, which are not relevant
here, it seems to me that Draco should acknowledge his debt even if he
thinks he no longer needs Snape's protection, especially after Snape
saved his life a second time on the tower.

We don't know whether the UV still holds. I personally think that
whether the vow is still in effect or not, Snape's sense of duty and
his promise to Narcissa would lead him to protect Draco from LV's
wrath by pointing out that he fulfilled his mission of allowing the
DEs into Hogwarts and making the death of DD possible. So, IMO, Snape
will use his position as LV's most trusted lieutenant, the man who
killed Dumbledore, to save Draco from punishment. But how Draco will
respond is an open question. The mission is now at an end and the UV
is probably void, and Draco is either seventeen or very close to it at
this point, a "man" in his own eyes and those of the WW. But surely he
understands now, after Snape has saved him from Sectum Sempra and the
DEs (and quite possibly from the wrath of LV) that whatever Snape's
motive in wanting to know what he was up to in HBP, it was not to
steal his "glory." Surely he understands that Snape could have died,
that his "promise" put his own life in jeopardy for Draco's sake.

Will Draco, arriving belatedly at these conclusions, be man enough to
express gratitude to Snape, or will he want to escape Snape's
influence and act on his own, fugitive from justice though he now is?
Does anyone think that Draco will end up turning the tables by saving
Snape's life, or at least risking his life for Snape's sake? How do
the rest of you think the events of HBP will change their
relationship, aside from ending the formal teacher/student (or
HOH/student) connection?

What Draco owes Snape may not be a true Life Debt, but it's at the
very least a debt of honor that deserves acknowledgment, and I'm
curious to see how, and whether, Draco will repay it. Also, it seems
to me that Draco's loyalties are up for grabs as of Book 7 and that
Snape alone is in a position to direct him. (I don't think that he'll
choose Bella, who would willingly use him as wand fodder, as a mentor,
and LV certainly won't take Draco under his wing. It's Snape or no
one, IMO.) Snape's influence on Draco seemed to be waning in HBP, but
I'm wondering whether that will change if and when Draco realizes what
Snape has done for him--and maybe even realize that Snape would not be
the second most wanted wizard in the WW if it weren't for him.

Opinions, anyone? And am I the only one who sees parallels between the
Draco/Snape relationship and Harry/Dumbledore?

Carol, avoiding the question of Snape's loyalties in this post because
it concerns the relationship between him and Draco and what, exactly,
Draco now owes to Snape if it's not a true Life Debt