Snape and Draco again was I see no difference

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 160843

> > Pippin:
> > It depends on what you mean by 'favors'. I think Snape wants a positive
> > relationship with Draco and his family, which he thinks he can get
> > by being soft on him. It works, at least as far as Narcissa goes, but
> > fails with Draco himself, whom we see in HBP actually has little
> > respect for the teacher he knows has indulged him.
> 
> Magpie:
> I couldn't disagree more.  Draco shows consistent respect for Snape for 5 
> years (which is why Harry himself is shocked to hear him speak to him 
> disrespectfully).  

Pippin:
I'm not so sure.
I agree that's Harry's PoV, but I think Draco had been sucking up to Snape 
the way Dudley was to Aunt Marge and for the same reason, to get favors. 
Draco being a better actor than Dudley,  Harry was taken in. I'm not so
sure that Snape was. I think Snape knew that Draco was trying to 
manipulate him, but felt, like Petunia, that being indulgent was the way 
to show love.  

Then, in HBP, Draco came under the spell of  the bigger bullies on the
playground  and didn't think he needed Snape any more, just when 
he actually needed him like never before.

Snape protests that he took the vow to help Draco, and I think that 
seemingly offhand explanation is the whole truth. Snape saw Draco 
about to be crushed between Dumbledore and Voldemort (neither 
being dragged into the arena nor choosing to enter, but sauntering 
in with the idiotic predatory instincts of a kitten who thinks
it's a jungle cat) and he had to do something. 

If there's an adolescent rebellion here, it might be Snape against 
Dumbledore. I can just imagine Dumbledore at his most infuriating
don't-worry-I-have-a-secret-planishness as Snape discovers that
Draco is being drawn into this plot, and Snape feeling that if he 
doesn't try to save Draco, nobody will.

Much as I'd prefer ACID POPS or a convoluted SpyGames! explanation
where Dumbledore's behind it all, this is a reason for the vow that
fits the parents and children theme. It also provides an explanation 
that Dumbledore could conceivably accept  without compromising
his trust in Snape. Dumbledore would accept that Snape risked
everything in a desperate attempt to save a child. 

In a way, the climax of Half-Blood Prince isn't the fall from the 
tower, it's what happens a moment later when the former Half-
Blood Prince grabs Draco by the scruff of the neck. I think that's 
the first honest interaction between them, and maybe the first 
step out of Snape's own very protracted adolescence. For that one 
moment, he's not playing any role, he's being who he truly is.

Pippin