Canon for OFH!Lucius

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 160908


> Neri:
> Hmmm, it seems to me that you don't compare Lucius and Snape on equal 
> footing here. You compare Canon!Lucius against DDM!Snape. No wonder 
> you find that Lucius is more OFH. That's basically managing to prove 
> what you were assuming from the outset.
> 
> If you want to be fair to Lucius you need to compare Canon!Lucius 
> against Canon!Snape. In this case killing Dumbledore would hardly 
> appear "rigid" of Snape.

Pippin:
Now, now. Canon doesn't prove Snape killed Dumbledore. Quite
the contrary. Dumbledore's blood cries out from the ground, and
what it cries is that Snape is innocent. You may speculate of
anti-coagulants, poetic license or Flints, but the straightforward
reading is that Dumbledore was alive when he hit the ground and
for some thirty minutes afterwards. Blood will tell. Specifically,
a trickle of blood that can be wiped away thirty minutes after
a man is supposed to have died.


But if you insist that Snape did kill Dumbledore despite this,
then the most obvious reading is ESE!Snape, who never left
Voldemort's service at all and is thus has more traction than
DDM!Snape could ever have.

But perhaps we mean different things by slippery.
If Snape remains loyal to one character or side  and is
deceiving everyone else, that is slimy but not slippery, IMO.
Slippery means to me that allegiance shifts as a 
matter of convenience. I think Canon!Lucius wins that one 
hands down. 

In contrast, the canon  case for OFH!Snape
is terribly weakened by Spinner's End. There's just no
reason for OFH!Snape to take that vow, which is why
Bella is simply astounded when it happens.

This isn't obvious at first because we think Bella suspected
Snape of being a Dumbledore loyalist.  But she couldn't have,
not given the duelling ability Snape reveals in the end.
A cornered DDM!Snape would have to kill or silence her,
yet there's no sense that Bella thinks she's taking her life 
in her hands by confronting him. She's merely contemptuous.

She could afford to be contemptuous of OFH!Snape. 
Voldemort does permit his servants to think they can use him
to further their own ends, as long as they're not too obvious
about it.  Indeed it's the only kind of loyalty he 
understands. But he will not tolerate desertion. She
knows that  DDM!Snape could never afford to let her bring 
his true loyalties to light.

No, her aim was not to smoke out a DDM!Snape but to 
prove that Snape was not as thoroughly committed to her
Master as she was, and did not deserve the favor he
currently enjoyed, in fact that he was Out For Himself.

The vow silences her, as well it should. Even if we go with 
ACID POPS, again we have a Snape whose true loyalty 
is to Narcissa, not one with no true loyalty at all. 

Pippin