Thoughts Regarding Snape

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 171159




vmonte responds:
Why would Dumbledore go through the trouble of  having himself be 
dramatically murdered (to keep Draco safe) only to then  have Snape 
take Draco back with him to Voldemort? I'm not sure Draco is  going 
to be safe with Voldy, especially since he failed in his  task.

>From what we have seen of Death Eater action in the books I think  I 
can safely assume that part the modus operandi of a DE includes  
murdering or at least torturing people. 
Julie:
I don't think Dumbledore went to any "trouble" to get himself  dramatically
murdered. I'm sure he went to a good deal of trouble trying to *avoid*  just
such a scenario. But it didn't work in the end, partly because he  couldn't
or didn't foresee Draco ever managing to get the DEs into Hogwarts. 

As for "having" Snape take Draco back to Voldemort, again I don't  think
this was planned. It was simply the end effect once the action was  set
in motion. All Dumbledore could do was keep Draco alive and his soul
whole *at the moment*, by trying to convince Draco that he isn't a  killer
and hoping Snape shows up before the DEs lose patience with Draco and
likely kill him as well as Dumbledore. (Remember, Dumbledore never  once
tried to save himself. Either he was truly unable to do so, or he knew  that
buying a bit more time for himself would not aid the  ultimate goal of Harry
defeating Voldemort. Especially not if he truly believed a whole  and healthy
Snape could do more toward achieving that goal. Which is  presumably also
why he didn't summon Fawkes. He can't or doesn't want to be  "saved."
But he *is* determined to defeat Voldemort, whatever the cost. Certainly 
his own life, one lived long and productively, is a small price in his  mind.)
 
Dumbledore does relinquish control of Draco's future, not because  he
wants to, but because the events give him no choice. Or they do  give
him a choice between taking Draco down with him, if he was going to
die no matter what, and turning Draco over to Snape, who even within 
Voldemort's camp would have *some* chance of keeping Draco alive 
and in possession of an intact soul. And some is better than none.
 
<snip>
Julie wrote:
His other "persona" was something he  adopted as a teenager, not 
something we have any evidence he considers  relevant as an adult 
(other than to let Harry know the spells in the Potions  book were 
his).

vmonte responds:
I think I remember Snape bragging  to Harry that he was the Half-
Blood Prince in book 6. 
 
Julie now:
I guess it's all in how you interpret it. I got the impression Snape  was
not bragging so much as furious that Harry was using the  HBP spells 
without even realizing it was his despised Potions professor who'd 
invented them. And while he may be proud of his teenage ingenuity,
I still didn't get any impression Snape currently sees himself in  those 
terms (Half-Blood Prince). Though since we aren't in Snape's mind,
I'll admit that we can't really know ;-)

vmonte:
According to what we do know about Snape he told Dumbledore  about 
the prophecy once he realized that the prophecy was going to target  
Harry's family. But doesn't that also imply that if it turned out to 
be  some other shmucks family that he would have been okay with it? 

 
Julie:
Actually I don't think that is implied at all. Certainly finding  out that it
was the Potters Voldemort ultimately decided to target was a wake up
call. But we don't know enough about Snape's state of mind at the  time
to know if Voldemort's reign of torture and murder had already pushed
at Snape's conscience (for instance, if he was affected by Regulus's 
death), and targeting the Potters was the final "straw" that  toppled 
Snape's tower of justification built upon his anger and resentment,  or
if Snape was fine and dandy with Voldemort's terror tactics and only
balked when the family of the man to whom he owed a life debt was
targeted. (And that's only two of a dozen possible theories for  Snape's
decision to defect at that time.)
 
Like everything else connected to Snape, until we know more about  him,
we are left guessing at his motives. And one guess has pretty much  the
same amount of factual canon to support it as another (which is  practically
none). Excluding the truly unlikely of course, such as Snape having  faked
all his meanness and being truly fond of Harry underneath ;-)
 
Julie 



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