Snape as lone crusader against Voldemort

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 171142

wynnleaf
A recent comment of Carol's reminded me of an interesting theory 
some of us developed on the Lexicon Forum that Snape had never been 
a true servant of Voldemort and had instead entered 
Voldemort's "employment" (to use Dumbledore's term), as a way of 
infilterating Voldemort's Death Eaters with the goal of destroying 
Voldemort.

Sounds way out on a limb?

First consider Dumbledore's words when describing Snape's turning 
from Voldemort.  Dumbledore never says Snape "turned" from 
Voldemort.  Dumbledore, in GOF, says that "Severus Snape was indeed 
a Death Eater. However, he rejoined our side before Lord Voldemort's 
downfall and turned spy for us, at great personal risk."  

We might assume that JKR simply misused a word when she chose to 
have Dumbledore say "rejoined" instead of "joined," except that 
Dumbledore then uses very similar language in HBP when he said, "I 
believe it to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that 
he returned –"

"Rejoined" and "returned?"  Why is Dumbledore using such language?   
That implies that Snape was on the good side to begin with. And then 
there's Dumbledore's reference to Snape's service with Voldemort 
about which he never refers to as Snape "serving" Voldemort, but 
instead said, "He was still in Lord Voldemort's employ on the night 
he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney's prophecy."  Snape 
was in Voldemort's *employ?*  How odd.  I can't recall another 
reference to Voldemort hiring people.

And then we have Sirius comment in GOF, where Sirius said that he 
simply couldn't believe that Dumbledore would ever have hired Snape 
if he'd been a Death Eater.  Of course, Sirius can be wrong about 
Snape and Dumbledore.  Nevertheless, it's a suggestive comment.

Okay, let's set aside those oddities for the moment.

Now we have the peculiarities of Snape's motives for following 
Voldemort.  We've never been told what they were.  Aside from 
one "mudblood" comment, in which we could easily argue he made under 
great provocation, we have no evidence that Snape hated muggleborns 
or was in any way interested in a pureblood agenda.  Neither Sirius, 
Lupin nor James speak of this as a fault of Snape's.  In fact, the 
only real evidence we have about that is that he *did* join up.  But 
while we know Voldemort is himself a half-blood, it does seem odd 
that a half-blood would join what is in essence a pureblood movement.

Then we've got Sirius' comments that Snape was into the Dark Arts, 
but we don't get any objective evidence of that and it rather looks 
more like Sirius was simply very biased and put the worst possible 
spin on Snape's knowledge of spells.  Sure we've got plenty of 
evidence that Snape knew lots of magic above his level and created 
lots of spells.  But in a potions notebook with every margin 
literally filled with notes, we only find one "dark" spell amidst 
lots of the typical jokey sorts of spells that all the students 
seemed to get into.  Certainly not what we'd expect from a kid 
supposedly "up to his eyeballs" in the Dark Arts.

Then we've got JKR drawing parallels between Harry and Snape.  Yes, 
she *could* be drawing parallels to show us two people who have 
similarities, but make very different choices.  But it's just as 
possible that she'll have those parallels go even deeper than we can 
currently see.

At this point, we see Harry and Snape, both half-bloods, both 
bullied, both pretty snarky with those who bully them, both marked 
by Voldemort (albeit for different reasons), both trusted by 
Dumbledore, both pushed by Dumbledore to agree to do something 
against their wishes (Dumbledore makes Harry agree to give him the 
Cave potions regardless how it seems to hurt him).  And Harry even 
*likes* Snape in the form of the Half Blood Prince.  There's more. 

But suppose it goes far deeper?

Here's Carol's comment from the Niggling Details thread:

<<I tend to think that his father died or walked out on
the family when Severus was small, perhaps as a result of the 
argument
involving a hook-nosed man shouting at a cowering woman, if the man 
in
the memory was Tobias and not Grandpa Prince. (I think it was Grandpa
Prince because even Harry would have noticed if the shouting man was
dressed as a Muggle and because I can't imagine sullen-faced 
Gobstones
champion Eileen Prince intimidated by a Muggle. All she'd have to do
is cast a Silencio--or turn him into a table.)

<<IMO, Severus's self-imposed nickname, *the* Half-Blood Prince,
suggests that he was the one half-blood in a family of "pure-blood
Princes." IOW, it implies that he was brought up by the Princes (his
mother and her parents) rather than by his parents together (and
rather neglected, given his appearance in SWM, perhaps the
consequence of being regarded as a "filthy little half-blood" by
pure-blood supremacist relatives).

Wynnleaf
Now here's the theory (for those who have never seen it).  

Snape's life has paralleled Harry's more than we've been told.

Snape's father (though probably not mother), was killed on 
Voldemort's orders.  Eileen had married a muggle, which ultimately 
resulted in her husband's murder.  Snape, like Harry, went to live 
with relatives who saw him as a sort of freak (the Dursley's term 
for Harry) or oddball (Sirius' term for Snape), due to his family 
heritage.  Harry's family sees him as a freak because of his 
wizarding background.  Snape is despised because of his muggle 
heritage.

Snape knows as a kid that his father was killed by Voldemort or 
Death Eaters.  Snape sees himself as the Half-Blood Prince.  He's 
proud of being a half-blood and wants to avenge his father's death, 
or otherwise take down Voldemort because of his campaign against non-
pureblood wizards.  Snape, a child of prodigious gifts, studies all 
he can about hexes, jinxes, curses, etc. even before going to 
Hogwarts.  When he goes to Hogwarts, his favorite topic is DADA.  
It's assumed by the Marauders that because he knows so many spells, 
is a Slytherin, and is interested in DADA (remember the long DADA 
exam answers) that he's into the Dark Arts.  But what Snape is 
really into is *offense* against the Dark Arts.  Just as Harry, by 
4th year, knows far more hexes, jinxes, and curses than other 
students, so Snape knows from an even earlier age more hexes, jinxes 
and curses than other students.

Snape's being bullied by the Marauders parallels Harry's being 
bullied by Dudley.  Dudley and James have "gang" members that evoke 
the parallel.  Peter is a rat animagus, while Piers (which is 
another form of Peter) is rat-faced.  This rivalry between Snape and 
the Marauders has nothing to do with Snape becoming a Death Eater, 
but may have a lot to do with his attempting to "go it alone" in a 
fight against Voldemort rather than join the Gryffindor-heavy Order 
of the Phoenix.  In any case, Snape is a solitary sort and perhaps 
preferred to work alone.

Snape's focus on DADA and hexes, jinxes, and curses is not because 
he loves the Dark Arts, but because it's his life ambition to bring 
down Voldemort.

Snape develops "friendships" with people that become Death Eaters as 
a method for getting "in" with that group. 

Snape joins the Death Eaters as a sort of independent "rogue" 
agent.   He's "employed" in some way by Voldemort and is doing 
spying work in order to ingratiate himself with his quarry.  When he 
takes the partial prophecy to Voldemort, it's not because he wants 
to actually *help* Voldemort, but simply because he's trying to feed 
information to Voldemort to build his cover as a valuable spy for 
the Dark Lord.  Taking the prophecy to Voldemort was a mistake made 
by a young, inexperienced rogue spy who is trying to take things 
into his own hands and didn't think through all the outcomes.  
Perhaps, having only the first half of the prophecy, he even thought 
the One was an adult with a July birthday who was approaching and 
who could take down Voldemort.  

After Snape discovers his mistake and that Voldemort is targeting 
the Potters, he goes to Dumbledore with all of his information 
and "rejoins" or "returns" to Dumbledore's side, now working under 
Dumbledore as his spymaster.

Dumbledore's trust in Snape therefore has little to do with Snape 
loving Lily (although they may have been friends), or being 
remorseful, or whatever, but because Dumbledore knows that Snape has 
significant reasons, even before the Potter's deaths, to seek 
revenge on Voldemort.  Dumbledore was aware of Snape's goals even 
from the beginning.  This further explains why Dumbledore didn't 
immediately stop Snape when he heard the partial prophecy, since 
Dumbledore knew that Snape had every reason to hate Voldemort and 
never expected Snape to be taking the prophecy to him.

Snape dislikes Harry for the same reasons we've always assumed – 
James.  After all, in this theory, Snape still dislikes the 
Marauders.  He additionally dislikes Harry because Harry is the 
Chosen One and Snape doesn't think Harry has the wherewithall to 
take down Voldemort.  

Under this theory, Snape is still quite unpleasant, sarcastic, 
insulting, etc.  He's just got a different set of motivations.  
Dumbledore knows the history of those motivations and even that 
Snape had always intended to fight Voldemort and never joined him as 
a true follower.  Therefore Dumbledore's trust in Snape is based 
more on knowledge than on some show of emotion and remorse.

My biggest problems with this theory?

It seems to remove the picture of the young Death Eater who turns 
from his crimes and seeks redemption.  And I really like that 
picture.  On the other hand, it keeps a certain degree of redemptive 
picture, because Snape's rogue spy actions bring about the Potter's 
deaths and he has to still seek a kind of redemption from that.  

While this isn't a theory I can *prove*, I think the theory "solves" 
for numerous problems including 1. why Dumbledore trusted Snape.  
2.  *Why* Snape was so interested in DADA and Dark Arts 3. why Snape 
knew so many curses, hexes and jinxes early on 4. why Snape joined 
Voldemort 5.  why Dumbledore didn't detain Snape after he heard the 
partial prophecy. 6.  why Dumbledore used words like "rejoined" 
and "returned" implying that Snape was on the good side to begin 
with.  7.  why Sirius' opinion could be correct that Dumbledore 
would never hire someone who'd been a Death Eater to teach at 
Hogwarts.  8. why a hooked nosed man is shouting at the woman in 
Snape's memory and doesn't appear to Harry as a muggle.  

In addition, the theory continues and deepens the parallels between 
Snape and Harry.

Any comments?  Anything that outright disproves this theory?

wynnleaf