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

[Charles Walker Jr]

No: HPFGUIDX 170817

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "toonmili" <toonmili at ...> wrote:
>
> Charles then:
> > 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.
> 
> 
> Toonmili: I really have to disagree with you because JK is not
> in the habit of using the same characters over and over. I
> think Voldemort is a loner. Snape, though is always alone, is
> not a loner. Just by the way he reacts to compliments you can
> tell he has a desire to be accepted, unlike Voldemort.
> 
> To me there is only one character that screams evil but is actually
> good, and that Snape. For the sake of proper storytelling. Snape is
> now working for himself.
>
 
Charles Now:
Actually, I don't think Snape wants to be a dark wizard like Voldie,
but his own kind of dark wizard. Rather than a means to an end, I
think he wants to study the dark arts for the sake of the arts, not
for power or immortality. Evil without megalomania, if that makes
sense. When I say, as quoted below that he wants to be the final
authority on everything, I mean on everything that pertains to Snape,
not everything that pertains to anything.

> Charles then:
> > 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.
> 
> Toonmili: You are suggesting that Snape is Seer. Are you forgetting
> that he joined DD before the knew the outcome of the incident. He
> told DD about his mistake without knowing that Voldemort would die
> (or disappear or whatever). So there was really no way he could
> have known he would be in Azkaban. The DE all thought that Voldemort
> would win.
> 
Charles now:
Actually, I think that Snape went to DD on LV's orders, and being the
plotter that he is, saw a chance to rid himself of two masters by
using the double agent role that both of them want him to play.
> 
> Charles:
> > 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.
> 
> Toonmili: Ask yourself. Why would Snape, who knows he is no way
> near as powerful as DD put his life on killing DD when Voldy
> himself couldn't do it. Again you are assuming that Snape is
> a seer. He had no way of knowing that DD was going to drink a
> Goblet of Potion that would weaken him.
> 
Charles now:
No, I think Snape knows that the hand-withering injury has weakened DD
to the point where he can be killed. He would obviously prefer Draco
to do it, so that his hands are clean of DD's blood. I do believe that
Snape had told DD of the original plan to have Draco kill him, but not
anything about the UV. I think LV would have ordered him to, just to
see what lengths DD would go to to stay alive.
> 
> Charles then:
> 
> > 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.
> 
> Toonmili:
> I never saw Snape as a leader. He seems very good at taking orders
> and to me it seems like he is taking them from Dumbledore.
>
Charles now: I don't see Snape as a leader either. I see him as a
moral weakling, somewhere on the level of Pettigrew, but without the
large streak of pure yellow. A great bullying git who wants to do
anything he damn well pleases with no consequences, who thought he had
found that way, but will be getting his comeuppance in book 7,
probably from both sides. (I see anger from LV for not making Draco do
the deed on the tower. "I needed a spy in the order longer, Severus.
Crucio...")

Charles, who has to drag himself off to work now.