[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape and Draco again was I see no difference

[Magpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 160878

a_svirn:
The real question is why should we try so hard to interpret it any other 
way?

Magpie:
Had it not come up a lot in fandom I don't think I'd ever have given it a 
second thought since no other interpretation seems to make sense in context. 
It's a little different for Snape in that usually I think what bugs him 
about Hermione is her being a know-it-all so he goes after that, but I don't 
think, as some others do, that Snape would never have noticed this issue of 
Hermione's.  I'm sure he's seen Draco do buck-tooth impressions plenty of 
times and noticed the resemblance.  He may usually not go for looks because 
he himself was sensitive about his own in high school, but given the obvious 
set up of the charm he'd make the connection.

Pippin:
I just think Draco's always been too messed up to have an honest 
relationship with Snape. Yes, he respects Snape's abilities, but hey, even 
Harry does that. I can see that it would make Draco  a more
attractive character (also a common fandom reading) if he was always capable 
of having an honest non-expoitative relationship with an adult, but  IMO, it 
barters ugliness now for ugliness in the future. If Draco's been straight 
with Snape all these years, what's going to happen when he  finds out, 
assuming DDM!Snape, that Snape's been playing *him* ?

Magpie:
That's a question I'd always asked in the past, and I thought HBP was a 
creative answer to that--that is, a set up to a creative answer.  I don't 
think a child/adult relationship in these books has to be completely 
non-exploitive to be honest in its connection, and with Snape and Draco one 
of my main issues is just that I don't see scenes where Draco is playing 
Snape and Snape is falling for it. He seems like up until HBP he was pretty 
consistently behaving in a way Snape liked and not getting so very much in 
return besides Snape's favor. I think Draco can pester his parents for 
presents and still genuinely love them as well.  It's not all or nothing, 
and Snape seems to me anyway to see Draco for who he really is.

The creative solution, I thought, was that instead of having Draco shocked 
and betrayed that Snape is really on the other side and so playing him 
(which often goes along with the interpretation that he never really liked 
him at all and it was all an act, though I'm not sure if you're giving that 
interpretation here), Draco himself began to have trouble with DE!Snape and 
had trouble with that side on his own. Now they're potentially both on the 
same page about Voldemort so Snape's being a spy for Dumbledore isn't as 
much of a betrayal.  Snape can be genuinely on Draco's side and also on 
Dumbledore's.  Since Draco himself faced a similar situation in the Tower, I 
think he could understand that now.

-m