[HPforGrownups] Re: Dumbledore: Patronus and Dementors (specifically Snape's)

[Christine Maupin]

No: HPFGUIDX 173898

 Anne Squires
>Another thing to remember is that DD continued to trust Severus Snape
  >because his patronus continued to be a doe after all those years. 
>That's why Snape cast a patronus in DD's office, to prove his
 >continuing loyalty.  If a caster could consciously control the form a
 >patronus takes then DD would not have accepted this as proof of
 >Snape's loyalty...

I'm responding from memory because I'm too lazy to run downstairs to get my book...
I thought Snape showed Dumbledore his Patronus to prove that he still cares for Lily (which is what drove his loyalty) and that it occurred the night that Dumbledore told Snape that Harry had to die, which happened during Harry's 6th on the same evening that Hagrid overheard Snape and Dumbledore arguing (the same argument that Hagrid relates to Harry in HBP).  In response to Snape's anger over learning that Harry had to die, Dumbledore wonders if he (Snape) is starting to care for him (Harry).  Snape said something like, "for him?" and then conjured his Patronus which showed that after all of those years (decades now) he still cared for her.  He protected Harry for Lily, not for Dumbledore and certainly not for James or for Harry himself.  Upon seeing Snape's doe Patronus twenty odd years later, Dumbledore couldn't deny just how much Snape really did care for her and continues to care for her 16 years after she died.  The whole memory made me think that Dumbledore hadn't
 seen Snape's Patronus for a while or even if ever.  (Since Snape is at Hogwarts, he wouldn't necessarily need to communicate with Dumbledore that way.)

I was attempting humor (and apparently failed) when I asked if the other Patronus laughed and suggested Sirius teased him.  Whether or not anyone in the Order ever saw Snape's Patronus, I love the fact that that that dark wizard, that cruel, vindictive man had such a meek creature as his Spiritual Guide (which is how JKR  refers to Patronuses on her website).  I love Snape -- I don't see him through rose-colored glasses though -- and his Patronus makes me love him even more.

Christy