A Dark Glamour - Voldemort's Appeal

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 179020

> lizzyben:
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> 
> 
> For Snape, I think it was mostly category number 1 - "the weak
> 
> seeking protection." Snape seemed to ricochet like a pinball from
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> one authority figure to another in his youth, arguably up to his
> 
> death. Voldemort offered protection to his subjects (at the time),
> 
> as did Dumbledore. I think Snape even saw Lily as a kind of
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> protector - in almost all his memories, she is trying to save him
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> from something. When he lost one source of protection, he turned to
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> another. And even more than protection, I think he was seeking
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> affirmation. Young Snape strikes me as someone who was positively
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> desperate for approval & love, & didn't really care where that
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> approval came from. If the Death Eaters told him he was worthy and
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> valuable, he'd join them. If SPEW told him he was a talented wizard,
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> he'd join them. I don't think he really ever cared that much about
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> the underlying ideology. IMO, he joined for attention, affirmation &
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> protection - the same reason teenagers join gangs in the Muggle
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> world.
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> 
a_svirn:
I would agree on the whole, except that it's not immediately clear 
what sort of protection Voldemort had to offer if any. I didn't get 
it from canon that Voldemort "offered protection to his subjects". 
Besides, protection from what? If Snape had joined Voldemort when it 
looked like he (Voldemort) was likely to win (as, say, Pettigrew did) 
then it would have been the case of "seeking protection". But it 
seems that Snape joined the club while still at school (though he 
probably received the mark only after his graduation).