Maybe Snape really is DDM!

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 163692

Hi Carol, 
>  When I read this thread I immediately thought of your post about
the curse, I highly recommend it. 
> 
> fr Chancie and CDR the gist of Carols Theory is not unlike yours in
> proposing that the curse acts in a specific way. I'm not totally
> agreeing with Carols take on it, personally, so I'll give mine for
now and let you read both -
> 
> If we look at the Dada teacher successively, I think we can see that
> the teachers worst intentions are turned upon them by the curse. 
> 
> Quirrel's darkest intentions were to kill, ad Quirrel ended up dead.
> Lockharts darkest intentions were to steal others memories, and he
> lost his.
> Skipping Lupin for the moment.
> Crouch, another killer who tortured Mad Eye Moody for a year, dies
in a most awful way to be tortured for eternity.
> Umbridge, her intentions were to punish and oppress, the centaurs
> punish her and keep her captive for quite a long time. 
> 
> So we come to Lupin and Snape. It's possible Lupin didn't have any
bad intentions to use against him, he lost his job when Snape leaked
his werewolf status, this was an emotional blow to Lupin, and fitting
if his worst intentions were to give Snape a hard time ocassionally.
> 
> So what were Snape's worst intentions.... I think they were to
> deceive. And so it is deceit in the end that has turned on him and
> prevented him from returning to the DADA post. 
> 
> This again could lead to DDM snape, as the thing preventing him from
> returning is tat he is Dumbledores murderer.. so then is this the lie? 
> 
> If we first establish that anyone who intends to kill while they
hold the position will die, if they intend to torture they will be
> tortured, if they intend to harm, that same harm will return upon
> them; If we establish that this is how the curse works, then Snape
> never intended to kill anyone, if he had done *he* would be the one
> who died as per the curse. 
> 
> And so my conclusion. Snape intended worst of all, to lie, and so
now a lie is his downfall. That is, the lie that he killed Dumbledore.

Carol responds:
Interesting take, Valky. I don't think it's intentions, though, so
much as a hidden flaw or secret in the DADA teacher. For Quirrell, I
think he had a hidden desire to learn Dark Magic  (which would explain
his first term as DADA teacher ending in a leave of absence that takes
him straight to Voldemort. His secret during the second term is
obvious--he's a follower of Voldemort and the curse strikes early on
when he's possessed by Voldemort. Once we know what that involves,
it's pretty clear that he won't survive the school year. Lockhart we
pretty much agree on--poetic justice and the irony of fate.
Fake!Moody's secret is that he's a Death Eater. He doesn't die, but
his fate is worse than the death he wishes for Harry, again, poetic
justice. Umbridge tries to appear as a nice person, protecting the
little children against lies told by Harry and Dumbledore, but she's
really a sadist who tortures the students who flout her dictates. Her
punishment, however, seems to fit the lesser crime of prejudice
against nonhumans. She gets a taste of her own medicine from the
Centaurs. 

Lupin also has a secret, that he's a werewolf, which is revealed at
the end of his year. But more than that, he's concealing what he knows
about Sirius Black--he's an Animagus and he knows more than one way of
getting onto the school grounds or even into the school itself. The
very fact that Lupin holds onto the Marauders' Map shows this tendency
to secretiveness, which rebounds on him when the map shows him Peter
Pettigrew being pulled into the Shrieking Shack and runs out onto the
grounds on a full moon night without taking his potion. Snape or no
Snape, Lupin revealed himself as a werewolf, endangering three
students in the process. I don't see Lupin as an innocent victim at
all. If Sirius Black had really been intending to kill Harry, Lupin
would have been an accessory to murder by not revealing what he knew.
At the very least, he's weak and secretive, and his condition, though
not his fault, poses a danger to the students--or would if it weren't
for Snape. It's Lupin's own fault that he ran out without taking his
potion, knowing that HRH were on the grounds. It's his own fault that
he didn't reveal what he knew about Black to Dumbledore. He deserved
to lose his job, and he knows it.

As for Snape, his secret (and I'm sure the WW as a whole does not know
it) is that he was a Death Eater--and Voldemort and the DEs still
think he is one. Dumbledore and Snape must have known that the DADA
curse would reveal this secret and that he would have no choice but to
return to Voldemort at the end of the year. For that reason, IMO,
Dumbledore put off giving him the DADA position until he really needed
Snape's services in that post and would find it either necessary or
advantageous to send him to Voldemort. Once DD's hand was injured and
his time became short (not to mention Snape's revelation of the plot
to have Draco kill DD or die in the attempt), it was obvious that the
time had come to give his DADA/Dark Arts expert the post, using him to
full advantage for one last year before the curse struck. I see the UV
as the instrument of his downfall, the culmination of his years of
tale spinning as a double agent. Being forced to kill his own mentor
and suffer ostracism and infamy and the anguish of remorse is the
ultimate punishment for his joining the DEs and revealing the Prophecy
to Voldemort. Now he has yet another sin to atone for, thanks to the
DADA curse. (We're being set up for Redeemed!Snape or Forgiven!Snape,
I think and hope.)

Are you suggesting that Snape *didn't* kill Dumbledore, that, say, it
was a fake AK and DD really died from the poison? That's an idea I've
considered and haven't wholly rejected, but I'm surprised that it
would come from someone who sees Snape as unfavorably as you seem to.
At any rate, DDM!Snape as a theory (or set of theories) doesn't
require Snape to be innocent of killing Dumbledore. It just requires
killing Dumbledore to have been the right choice and in accordance
with what DD wanted him to do.

Carol, thanking Valky for helping her clarify her views