My current opinion of Snape (Longish) / Re: Clues to Snape's Loyalties

[Charles Walker Jr]

No: HPFGUIDX 170804

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Kathryn Lambert <anigrrrl2 at ...>
wrote:

<snip> when Harry and Hermione disagree about something, Hermione is
always right. And Hermione believes Snape is DDM, so I believe she
will be right again.
<snip>

Charles:

I hate to say it, but this statement is wrong on two points. 

First, Hermione is not always right. She was, to quote just one
instance, dead wrong about Draco Malfoy throughout the majority of HBP.
Second, by the end of HBP she does not believe Snape is DDM. Nobody in
the WW except possibly Snape and the portrait of DD would think so at
this point, and I have my doubts about the portrait.

On to my own statement on Snape here. We have seen a pattern of clues
and red herrings throughout the series. There is one clue to Snape's
loyalty that I feel is overlooked. The dream Harry has his first night
at Hogwarts: 

 "Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very
strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept
talking to him, telling him he must transfer to Slytherin at once,
because it was his destiny. Harry told the turban he didn't want to be
in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but
it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he
struggled with it — then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher,
Snape, whose laugh became high and cold — there was a burst of green
light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking." (HPSS)

We see a prophetic dream spanning six books here. Quirrel's talking
turban representing book one, the argument about Slytherin represents
book two. Malfoy's laughing spans all six books so far. But
ultimately, the end of the dream represents HBP. Malfoy turns into
Snape, and a flash of green light- the events on the tower. 

We have a major red herring that spans the books as well. We keep
seeing Snape be exonerated. Over and over again we have Harry and crew
suspecting Snape and Malfoy, and Snape and Malfoy being red herrings.
But when taken to span a six book stretch, I believe that JKR is using
the tactic of distracting us from Snape's real loyalty by using those
red herrings as a red herring. I think that it will become clear that
Snape was playing the part of DDM for himself and then later for his
master. 

I have read many theories about a setup on the tower where Snape would
kill DD to save Draco from the dark side. Or how Snape didn't really
AK DD. Both fall at DD's exhortation to "come over to the right side,"
as Severus Snape was under an unbreakable vow to kill DD. If Draco had
decided to become a good guy all of a sudden, Snape could not be
involved, nor could he be at the same place as DD without either
killing him or losing his life. Whether Snape was DDM or not before
the tower is irrelevant, after the tower he is at best OFH. Whether
the hatred seen in Snape's face was for himself, DD, Bellatrix, or
Narcissa, that one curse destroyed his alliance with DD, by destroying
DD. 

I believe that what Hagrid overheard was Snape trying to tell DD about
the UV, and DD refusing to hear it. Snape did not want to be DD's spy
anymore, and made a choice at Spinner's End that he was afraid to tell
 DD about. When he did try to tell DD about it, he was most likely
playing his cards very close to the chest and not revealing
everything, in case DD would decide to chuck him out of the school and
thus cause Snape to have inadvertently broken the vow and die.

Like I have said, Snape could very well have been DDM before HBP. When
he made that vow to Narcissa, however, he became at the very least
OFH. Yes, that hand twitch could have been a moment of doubt, but he
still decided to perform the deed. He chose to kill DD in that moment.
DD did not choose to have Snape kill him, Snape chose to do so. We do
know that an UV can be stopped in the casting from the conversation
that Harry and Ron have. But, as Harry said, "passing over Fred's left
buttock," we know that Snape did not choose to go that route. It could
have been explained. Very smoothly, in fact, if you believe that he
was lying to Narcissa and Bellatrix off the cuff for the entire
Spinner's End scene. Again, rather than choose another route, Snape
chose, in that moment, to make sure that DD died. Whether or not he
fully chose Voldemort at that point, or chose to finally play both
ends against the middle, or even just showed his true colors to those
of us reading the book, he was most certainly no longer an agent of
Albus Dumbledore. 

My personal take on Snape is that he is evil, but not Voldemort's man.
I think he is out for himself, to be a powerful dark wizard in his own
right. Snape wants to be the final authority on everything. He chose
LV as a means to learn and gain power, and DD as a safeguard from
Azkaban. In the terror of the time, when everyone connected with LV
was getting chucked into prison, he used that safeguard to gain
himself a position that would allow him both to study all those
restricted dark arts books at Hogwarts he never got to see as a
student, and an unlimited number of kids to bully, terrorize and
otherwise cow into submission. When LV came back, he had to keep up
appearances on both ends again. By the time of the UV, he is sick of
burning the candle at both ends. He has to make a choice. He chose to
kill DD. 

It is debatable as to whether or not he is still trying to teach Harry
at the end. I personally think that he was. As loath as I am to admit
it, in his own way he is trying to get Harry ready for that battle.
His pitiful misunderstanding of Harry and what is needed to defeat LV
gets in the way, but I do think Snape wants LV dead, so that he can be
free. I cannot remember who said it, but I do remember once hearing
that "A man who serves two masters will eventually want both of them
dead." Whether Snape will live to see the demise of both of his
masters will have to wait until 21 July.

Charles, who thinks this may well be the longest post he has ever made
to this group, and apologizes if any part of it does not make sense,
as he has been very ill today.