Snape's the Rescuer - Really?/Justice to Snape

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 170745

> Alla:
> 
> Ah, but you see, sure, if Harry witnessed Snape putting them on 
> stretchers, sure, I would have considered to be a positive moment 
of 
> Snape character no matter how much I hate him.
> 
> But the thing is the fact that Snape stands near the Shack and 
> listens to Lupin going on and on and on eradicates any doubt in my 
> mind that kids safety was anywhere close to be Snape primary 
> motivation in acting that night.

Magpie:
But I'm not making a case for Snape being nice or saying what his 
motivations are. I'm saying putting people on stretchers=image of 
someone taking care of people. It's what paramedics do in our world. 
I know everyone--especially Harry--can come up with a thousand 
reasons why Snape doesn't really care about any of them and wants 
them all dead, and I know it's easy enough to have theories about 
how what Snape wants for Sirius isn't "justice" even on his own 
terms, but I'm talking about the image the author put in there. 

This: "He [Snape] was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp 
forms of Harry, Hermione and Black onto them. A fourth stretcher, no 
doubt bearing Ron, was already floating at his side. Then, wand held 
out in front of him, he moved them away toward the castle." Like it 
or not, is an image of Snape making stretchers and lifting bodies 
onto them and walking them back to the castle, with Snape associated 
with the healer role by being the one conjuring stretchers and 
lifting limp forms onto them and walking them back to the castle. 
And it's not the only image of Snape in healer positions in canon.

To use another example, in GoF Peter is being mothering to 
Voldemort. Voldemort's a baby that he's taking care of. Of course we 
know that their relationship is actually weirder and more abusive 
and everything else, but JKR chose to use that imagery, a parody of 
mother and child. If she had a problem with Voldemort being 
associated with the infantile, she wouldn't have used it.

Lanval:
Oh, where to start...

Of course Snape is calm, efficient, and responsible here. He usually
is, no? How placing people on stretchers makes anyone a healer, that
I don't understand.

As I said before, to me it's about being practical. Do tell me what
other options Snape had that would *not* have made him look like a
complete ass when walking into the castle?

Magpie:
It's not about being practical--this isn't real life. The author has 
chosen to show Snape in the role of "healer" (which is not the same 
as making him a healer in terms of giving him a title or a degree) a 
lot. I don't think she chooses those images lightly. As in the 
example with Voldemort, obviously Voldemort isn't a baby, but it's 
not a coincidence that she's using that imagery. With Snape it seems 
like she pretty carefully keeps these two sides to him going--she 
could just as easily have *not* included an image of him putting 
anybody on stretchers, or made his healing of Draco different, or 
just had Madam Pomfrey be in charge of healing everybody in HBP. Of 
course all of these things can be explained away in a sinister way, 
but I don't think any of them weren't carefully chosen or were just 
the only thing the author could do. It's just noticing that the 
author uses this kind of imagery with Snape a lot.

Lanval:
Draco? Indeed. He saved Draco from the effects of a Dark Curse that
SNAPE HIMSELF invented. I will never understand how peforming the
proper countercurse to a nasty, potentially fatal Dark Curse Snape
himself invented somehow elevates him to Healer-hood.

Magpie:
But that's the point! It's not unusual to have characters who are 
associated with dark arts and death also be healers. There's a whole 
Anubis theory about Snape that points this out as well--the two are 
often linked with each other. Explicitly in HBP--Snape has to heal 
all these dark curses because he's familiar with them. "Healer" if 
we just mean "one who is familiar with healing arts" or "one who we 
seeing healing people" or whatever and not "the Wizarding World's 
equivalent of a doctor who works at Saint Mungos" does not mean the 
person is good or fluffy or not a killer or a bad guy. I don't see 
how it can be denied that Snape is that given all the healing he 
does in HBP where Pomfrey can't. His being a Dark Arts expert makes 
him a better healer for those types of things. Being called a healer 
because he heals people isn't elevating him anywhere, it's just 
describing the role he's fulfilling there.

-m