A Dark Glamour - Voldemort's Appeal

[lizzyben04]

No: HPFGUIDX 179036

> a_svirn:
> Even for pre-DH Snape it doesn't really seem to work. Judging from 
> his "worst memory" he got precious little protection from his 
house-
> mates. Actually, if it was protection from the Marauders he wanted 
> his best bet was to stick to Lily. Besides, we know that he 
followed 
> them around spying and probably trying to get them expelled. It's 
the 
> behaviour of someone who seeks trouble rather than protection.
>

lizzyben:

Yeah, I agree that he got very little protection from his housemates 
as Severus Snape, greasy oddball. Which is even more reason for him 
to seek an "in" to the group of Slytherins - he was probably 
flattered when he started getting attention from the Death Eater 
crowd. Hanging with the DE would be like, I don't know, being chosen 
for the cheerleading squad or the varsity football team.  


> a_svirn:
> Oh yes, in that sense I agree. Though I wouldn't call it 
protection. 
> The other two you mentioned upthread – affirmation and affection – 
> suit better. He was unpopular, a loner and he wanted to belong. 
And 
> the junior death eater league was elite of a sort in Slytherin. 
Does 
> it mean that he was weak? He seemed to be emotionally crippled, 
> almost pathetic in his neediness and that is certainly a weakness. 
He 
> was weak in the same sense Lupin was weak, but it's not the sort 
of 
> weakness that brought the likes of Pettigrew to Voldemort.

lizzyben:

Yeah, I'd agree that affirmation is a better description than 
protection, but that's not an option. And really, that's a failure 
of DD's categories. He was describing LV's contemporaries, IIRC, who 
would have been the same age & had the same ideology/ambitions as 
Riddle. But by Snape's generation, LV is recruiting kids, teenagers. 
Almost every member of Snape's class became a DE - really the wonder 
would be if Snape *didn't* join. Peer pressure is a powerful factor 
at that age - and here all the Slyth kids are grouped together, 
alienated from the rest of the school, and indoctrinated in pure-
blooded ideology from an early age. Hogwarts & Slytherin House was 
basically a Death Eater factory. It's like DD never actually sat 
down & thought about why all these kids become Death Eaters. (Or 
probably just thought "oh well, born evil") 

Totally agree with the description of Snape as "pathetic in his 
neediness." The Prince's Tale makes me cringe for this very reason. 
He was so very *needy* in the earlier memories - this kid just 
needed a hug! Or an afghan! He's the classic at-risk child - abused, 
bullied, angry, & vulnerable. He just seemed so emotional, so 
desperate for any recognition of worth & so lacking in any kind of 
self-esteem. Young Snape was an easy, easy target for recruitment. 
Was this a weakness? I think Snape thinks it was. In OOTP, he warns 
Harry: "Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who 
cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow 
themselves to be provoked so easily - weak people, in other words - 
they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind 
with absurd ease, Potter!' Snape's talking about himself here, IMO. 
That's how he got into the DE. 

And there is a distinction between someone seeking emotional 
security & protection, like Snape, & a lackey who wants physical 
protection, like Pettigrew. I don't mean that Snape was a 
syncophant, but that his emotional neediness & desire for 
affirmation led him to join any group that would have him. Snape was 
looking for love in all the wrong places. And that's a weakness, but 
it's also a common reaction for many neglected or unloved children. 
That's why Snape's character kind of breaks my heart. The wizarding 
world's response to unloved or at-risk children seems to be to toss 
them in the Slytherin dungeon, ignore them, or dismiss them with 
contempt as "weak" (see: Merope). IMO, DD's categories reveal the 
rather fascist ideology of "contempt for the weak" that runs 
throughout the WW. It's somewhat fitting that the real reasons that 
teenagers join these organizations never seemed to occur to him. 
It's like he'd rather judge & feel superior from on high in place of 
actually understanding the dynamics of his school. 



lizzyben