...About Snape - Edgar Bones was killed, with his wife and children...

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 171358

I (vmonte) wrote:

Snape wasn't the average wizard on the street. Snape was working in
close proximity to Voldemort. He knew what was happening to the
community around him.

According to JKR, the second Reign of Terror started in the 1970s.
Snape did not graduate from Hogwarts until 1976. The prophecy was
heard sometime between late 1979 and early 1980.

Edgar Bones was killed, with his wife and children, during the 1970s.


houyhnhnm responded:
A Death Eater could "know" that Voldemort's father was a Muggle but
not experience the inconsistancy because no connection is ever made.
A follower of the Dark Lord could "know" that Voldemort was carrying
out murder, but not experience the revulsion with which a normal
person would react to killing because the emotions are disconnected.
It isn't real.

That is what I think happened with Snape. Even though
we have no canon that speaks to Snape's actual role
among the Death Eaters during the first Voldemort war,
common sense tells us that he had to have known what
Voldemort was up to. As Rowling said, he saw things.
But it wasn't real because there was a massive disconnect.

vmonte responded:
I'd like to read where JKR said that Snape saw things but they
weren't real to him because there was a massive disconnect. Can you
point me to that quote?

houyhnhnm responded:
Just as killing had no meaning for Draco until he was face to face 
with Dumbledore, I think killing had no meaning for Snape until it 
was the Potters' death he had to contemplate, not because he was 
fond of them-he wasn't-but because they were real to him in a way
Voldemort's other victims had not been. Something about their 
projected murders flipped the switch in his brain that had been 
turned off, back on.

vmonte again:
The previous poster mentioned that Snape did not know that a child
was going to be targeted by Voldemort. And that Snape never realized
that Voldemort was evil enough to go after a child.

My comment was that Edgar Bones family (including his children) were
murdered in the 1970s--before Voldemort's fall. Hence, Snape knew
full well, what Voldemort was capable of.


Aside from that, what is your argument really saying?

All killers are able to shut down their "good feelings" when they
are murdering people. Just because there is a disconnect from
emotion does not make what they have done/seen any less horrible or
wrong.

My point is that there is no canon that says that Snape has ever had
any kind of epiphany regarding his horrid past. Would he have gone
to Dumbledore if another classmate's family were targeted in the
prophecy? I don't think so. Snape told Voldemort the prophecy
knowing full well that Voldemort would go after someone. Making 
pretend you don't notice your neighbor being hauled off to a 
concentration camp is a lot different than what Snape did. It was 
Snape's choice to do wrong.

When book 5 came out, JKR told an interviewer that they shouldn't
think that Snape was too nice, and that it was worth keeping an eye
on him. Well we know what happened in book 6. After book 6 came out
JKR mentioned that someone had loved Snape and that fact made him
more culpable than Riddle, who was never loved.

>From Yahoo Dictionary

culpable:
Deserving of blame or censure as being wrong, evil, improper, or
injurious.