A Dark Glamour - Voldemort's Appeal

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 179033

lizzyben wrote:
 
> For Snape, I think it was mostly category number 1 - "the weak 
seeking protection." Snape seemed to ricochet like a pinball from 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. <snip>

Carol responds:
I'm shaking my head in disbelief. Snape weak? We see him bullied all
of once, two against one. But we also have Sirius Black's word that he
came to school knowing more curses than most seventh years and that he
 "gave as good as he got" when he fought James alone and was not
caught off guard. We see him brilliantly inventing spells that the
Trio are still using in DH (and one Dark spell that evidently no one
can heal except Snape himself). We see the adult Snape making a fool
of Lockhart in CoS and effortlessly parrying every spell that Harry
throws at him in HBP. The only time, aside from Snape's worst memory,
that Snape looks weak is when he first comes to Dumbledore, not for
protection for himself but protection for Lily. And note that Narcissa
comes to *him* to protect her son in HBP.

Far from looking for *protection* (that's Peter Pettigrew's motive,
always looking for the biggest bully on the playground to protect
him), I think Snape above all wanted recognition for his many gifts.
The only one of DD's list of reasons why the Riddle-era slytherins
hung around Tom Riddle that fits him at all, IMOP, is "the ambitious
seeking shared glory." Those long, detailed responses to the DADA exam
and those inventive potion experiments mark him as ambitious, not in a
bad way, but eager to make his mark on wizard society. We see even as
a child that he confidently expects his brains and talent and magical
power to take him far. He chooses the house that he associates with
brains (and which the Sorting Hat tells Harry will help him on the way
to greatness). No doubt he wanted friendship and approval, too, which
he had found in Slytherin but nowhere else in Hogwarts. It's really no
wonder that he joined the Death Eaters. They recognized his brilliance
and saw him as one of them, Half-blood or no.

Far from ricocheting from one authority to another, little Severus was
apparently chosen by Lucius Malfoy as a sort of protege (but that
would have lasted only about two years), waivered between his
Slytherin friends and Lily (none of them authority figures) until Lily
rejected him, remained loyal in his heart to her even after choosing
Voldemort as his "master," then firmly and permanently rejected
Voldemort (despite the appearance of loyalty to him), loyally and
courageously serving DD instead, first to try to save Lily and then to
protect her son so that she would not have died in vain and finally
because Harry's "death" was the only way to destroy Voldemort.
Meanwhile, he saved whatever lives he could whether those lives were
directly related to Voldemort's destruction or Harry's survival till
the crucial last minute or not.

Neither Voldemort, who Cruciod or killed his own DEs if they
displeased him, nor Dumbledore, who sent Snape on dangerous mission
after dangerous mission, offered protection (except the protection of
a job at Hogwarts and his testimony to the Wizengamot that Snape was
"no more a Death Eater than I am"--though I do think he kept him out
of the cursed DADA position for as long as possible because he needed
him--no one else could do the jobs that snape could do.)

Severus Snape didn't need anybody to protect him from other DEs, and
for many years, he protected himself from Voldemort through his wits,
his cunning, and his superb Occlumency, which must have been superb
indeed to withstand Legilimency such as Voldemort used on
Gregorovitch. Snape's weaknesses were bitterness and a desire for
revenge. They were not defenselessness or cowardice or any lack of
survival skills. That he could not in the end defend himself is no
testimony to weakness. He could not "slither" his way out of
Voldemort's mistaken notion that he was master of the Elder Wand.
Voldemort also killed Lily, James, Mad-eye Moody, Amelia Bones, and
even, indirectly, Dumbledore (the ring Horcrux curse, the potion, and
his orders to Draco and Snape). He would have killed Harry were it not
for his mother's blood protection transferred to Voldemort himself.

At any rate, I do think that young Snape was desperate for approval
and recognition. He expected his abilities to take him far. And we see
what he might have become had he really been a loyal Death Eater with
his quiet superiority to the other DEs in terms of intelligence and
self-control and overall ability. Voldemort knew his value; he was
only expendable in the end because LV thought he no longer needed
servants if he had the Elder Wand.

Carol, marveling at what Snape accomplished with his intellectual
gifts and magical power and will and courage, with only an occasional
word of praise or gratitude or approval as his reward, and wishing he
had chosen a better outlet for his gifts to begin with


> Mike:
> 
> > Last clues: DE1 said, "Severus Snape was indeed a Death Eater....
> 
> He
> 
> > is now no more a Death Eater than I am." (^5) But, Severus Snape
> 
> was
> 
> > always a Death Eater because "you don't just hand in your
> 
> resignation
> 
> > to Voldemort. It's a lifetime of service or death." (^6) And we
> 
> know
> 
> > that it was both for Snape.
> 
> >
> 
> > OK, I cheated a little with the misleading and selective quotes. I
> 
> > admit, I just wanted to beat lizzyben to the punch! :D)
> 
> >
> 
> > Mike
> 
> 
> 
> lizzyben:
> 
> 
> 
> I've taught you well, grasshopper. :) Of course, DD wasn't a Death
> 
> Eater, but those quotes do reveal a great deal about his real self-
> 
> image. I think DD knows, deep down, that he could've easily become a
> 
> DE as well if Voldemort were around in his day. And he knows that
> 
> his feelings about Muggles once matched GG & LV, & perhaps still do
> 
> in some ways. I love that quote: "He is now no more a Death Eater
> 
> than I am." It has some extra resonance now, post-DH. He's saying "I
> 
> am as much a Death Eater as Severus Snape." Which is really quite a
> 
> statement, considering DD's other statements that seek to emphasize
> 
> how completely *different* he is from Snape. While talking to Snape,
> 
> DD constantly adopts a pose of, "I - righteous and noble epitome of
> goodness, You - inferior reprobate sinner." Sort of speaking down to him
> from a tower of righteousness. IMO, people who are really secure in
> themselves don't need to make other people feel inferior that way. DD
> isn't secure in his goodness, & constantly needs to remind Snape of how
> much better he is in order to hide how much he feels that they are
> really the same. It's a good microcosm of the Gryf/Slyth split in
> general - where you can't help noticing that these opposing Houses of
> Good and Evil actually have a great deal in common.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> lizzyben
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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>