[HPforGrownups] Re: LID!Snape rides again (was: High Noon for OFH!Snape)

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 149965

Neri:
What the Potterverse *doesn't* have are artificial, arbitrary,
schizoid *characters*. Except for DDM!Snape, that is. No other
character of JKR gets even close to be so convoluted, so conflicted.
It's almost like DDM!Snape wasn't created by JKR. Maybe he was simply
created by somebody else. Say, by 100,000 Snape fans?

Magpie:
Leaving aside the fact that it's hard for me to see how a Snape who is mean 
and bitter but also tormented by guilt is "schizoid" or arbitrary, people in 
the books don't seem to think it's so mysterious.  In the first book Quirrel 
says, "Oh he does [hate you]," said Quirrell casually, "heavens yes.  He was 
at Hogwarts with your father, didn't you know?  But he never wanted you 
dead."  (He hates you, but doesn't want you dead.)

And then Dumbledore elaborates when Harry asks him about just this:

"Funny how people's minds work, isn't it?  Professor Snape couldn't 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 quits.  Then 
he could go back to hating your father's memory in peace...."

Seems to me Dumbledore is talking about Snape's personality there--did you 
find this absurd when he explained it?  Because to me it makes perfect 
sense.  It's Snape's personality all over.  He's bitter and petty, but also 
has set ideas about the way things are supposed to be, some of which are 
related to a code of honorable behavior. He hates Harry personally, and so 
tries ever harder to be in a superior position.  DDM!Snape, to me, is the 
one I trust most to include everything.

-m