Dumbledore: Patronus and Dementors (specifically Snape's)

[anne_t_squires]

No: HPFGUIDX 173907


>
>  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...

Then Christy wrote:
> 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. 

<snip>

Anne Squires responds:

I just reread that passage.  In the US edition it's from the last
couple of sentences on page 683 through page 687.  You remember
everything absolutely correctly.  You have an excellent memory.

I suppose when I wrote that I meant two things:  1.  Even though
patronuses change, a person cannot consciously choose the form their
patronus will take.  2.  I was thinking of the scene in HBP when DD is
assuring Harry that he trusts Severus Snape.  IIRC, Harry asks how DD
could continue to trust Snape.  I got the impression that DD was on
the verge of telling Harry why he trusted Snape.  I realized when I
read DH that one of the reasons DD continued to trust Snape even after
all those years was because of the doe patronus.  I think that if DD
had proceeded to tell Harry why he trusted Snape he would have
included the patronus in his explanation.  In DH, of course, we
learned that part of the bargain was that DD was to keep silent and
not reveal "the best" of Snape to anyone.

But, at any rate, you are correct and I was mistaken in the way I
remembered the scene in which Snape casts his patronus in DD's office.

Christy continues:


> 
> 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.


Anne Squires:

Actually, the image of different patronuses laughing at Snape's doe is
 humorous.  :)  :)  :) Yet, the doe is so pure and noble that I think
she would be impervious to their taunts. :)  :) She's above all that.

I also love Severus Snape.  Like you though, I see all of his faults;
but I love him despite all of his failings.  To me he is truly tragic
in the classic sense ---  A man who because of hubris and pride
condemned himself.  His story made me cry especially when he wanted to
look into Lily's eyes as he died.  (Then, of course, the next chapter
was "The Forest Again" and I completely lost it.  My sister thought a
family member had died when she found me in the kitchen with a box of
kleenex.) I was so emotional while reading those two chapters that I
think my memory of them is distorted.  I need to reread them properly,
without tears.  If I can.

Anne Squires (who wonders if the plural of patronus is patronuses or
patroni.)