Snape, redemption & Regulus WAS: Re: Would Harry forgiving Snape be character

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164272

Finwitch wrote:
> 
> Well, for some reason I believe that - Snape being on the same year
as Sirius, therefore older than Regulus - somehow became Regulus'
guide among the school... AND possibly Snape was the one who
introduced Regulus to the DE-party. At the very least, Sirius blamed
Snape for it. What else could have caused him to say: 'he deserved it'
- about the old werewolf-business? I mean, there must have been some
*Reason* for Sirius Black to hate Snape so much. It goes beyond
school-boy rivalry -- this is personal. Regulus, maybe. I certainly
hope the 7th book will shed some light into this.

Carol responds:
I agree that Severus and Regulus were probably friends (Regulus didn't
witness the Pensieve incident because he wasn't one of the group of
students who had just taken the DADA OWL). And I do think that Sirius
blamed him, fifteen years after Regulus's death and not necessarily
correctly, for Regulus's decision to join the Death Eaters. 

But that can't be the reason that Sirius lured Severus into the
Shrieking Shack in the first place or that he believed that snape
"deserved it" in PoA. Sirius and the Marauders were only sixteen at
the time of the so-called Prank, and Reggie would only have been about
fourteen--surely, too young to be a Death Eater even by Voldemort's
standards. More important, as late as GoF, Sirius Black doesn't know
that Snape had been a Death Eater. (He doesn't know that the DEs have
Dark Marks on their left arms, either.) So in the Shrieking Shack
scene, which occurs the previous year, he can't be placing the blame
for Regulus joining the DEs on Snape. He says himself in OoP that his
parents must have considered Regulus (whom he calls an "idiot") "a
right little hero" at first for joining the DEs. It was in keeping
with the pureblood ideology that Regulus had been raised with, and
hardly a surprise given his Dark wizard heritage and the Slytherin
symbols all over the Black house. In fact, the only surprise is that
Sirius Black was able to reject that heritage (perhaps because he was
sorted into Gryffindor, where it would not be nurtured as it would in
Slytherin).

At any rate, maybe by the time we get to OoP and Sirius knows (because
Snape has revealed his Dark Mark to Fudge) that Snape was once a DE,
he's subconsciously blaming him for recruiting Regulus, and he may
blame his friendship with Regulus and his (ostensible) interest in
Dark magic for corrupting Regulus before that (even as early as the
Pensieve incident), but that's speculation. I see no canon evidence.
Therir sniping seems to be a continuation of their earlier feud, snape
sneering at Black as a coward and Black calling Snape "Snivellus" and
no doubt considering his newly revealed DE background as an additional
reason not to trust him. Neither trusts the other, apparently, despite
Dumbledore's faith in both.

But as long as we're speculating, *if* Severus and Regulus were
friends despite being about two years apart (and I agree that it was
likely), witnessing Regulus's murder could have been one of the things
that caused young Snape to defect to Dumbledore's side and risk his
life by spying on Voldemort. I keep thinking back to JKR's response to
the question of whether Snape can see Thestrals: "As a Death Eater, he
will have *seen*--" suspiciously broken off. Obviously, he saw at
least one person killed by the Death Eaters ("seen" is important, IMO,
in indicating that he didn't kill anyone himself), but it makes sense
for that one person to be another young Death Eater whose name we
know, his acquaintance and perhaps his friend, Regulus Black.

Carol, definitely expecting a connection of some sort between Severus
and Regulus in DH