GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry redux

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 182289


> 
> Potioncat:
> Everyone had better sit down. I agree with Alla. I don't think 
> there's any doubt about this. In a panic, expecting he might be 
> killed---had DD ever killed a DE I wonder?--Snape comes to the 
> headmaster and asks for protection for Lily. Snape didn't care what 
> happened to Harry and James, and hadn't even considered the 
> possibility of saving them too.
> 
> At this stage of his life, Severus is a nasty piece of work. We 
only 
> see this one moment while he is still truly a DE. He does whatever 
it 
> is Death Eaters do. He rushed to LV with information that would 
> possibly put a child in danger. I've argued in the past that Snape 
> didn't know the prophecy referred to an unborn child. Clearly the 
> child's fate doesn't seem to matter much to him right now.  Yet I 
> don't think Snape's murdered. In DH we see that he asked DD about 
the 
> effect on his soul if he kills the headmaster. 
> 
> It's not what I would have expected from the young wizard who 
> befriended Lily, nor of the boy on the Hogwarts Express. 

Julie:
No need for me to sit down because I agree with you and Alla also.
I don't think Snape had any interest in saving James or Harry. It's
true that he could hardly ask Voldemort for all their lives, but
I don't think he even thought about James or Harry. He was consumed
by his fear for Lily, even when he came to Dumbledore. He didn't even
consider the logic of asking Dumbledore straight out to save all 
three, when he should know Dumbledore-guardian-of-the-light is not
going to try and save Lily only. But Snape wasn't thinking, only
feeling. 

So I agree that Snape was a nasty piece of work at this point,
and whether he's killed or tortured himself, he's accepted the
practice--even against children and babies--and buried any
misgivings somewhere deep in his currently absent conscience.
He's definitely no longer the boy who befriended Lily or was
on that first train to Hogwarts, he's been hardened (or has
hardened himself) by his years of disappointments at Hogwarts.

But obviously a glimmer of that boy who still had some good
in him remains, as Snape later accessed that part of himself
during his many years of working for Dumbledore. (Yes, I know
Snape was mean and even verbally abusive to Harry and Neville,
but I'm referring to his acts of protecting Harry and working
with the Order as well as doing things he didn't have to do 
just because they were the *right* things to do--like saving
Lupin during the seven Potters flight. So while Snape still 
acted sometimes from his own destructive pettiness, in the 
larger picture he acted from his reclaimed morals/conscience.)

> 
> 
> > Alla:
> > What will you give me in return Severus? Huh, Dumbledore? You 
would
> > not save Order members unless Snape will give you something in
> „« return? NICE.
> 
> Potioncat:
> DD would have taken care of the Potters.  He is testing Snape. He 
is 
> offering the opportunity for redemption that was also given to 
Draco 
> and Tom Riddle. (via Harry in Riddle's case.) Does DD see a glimmer 
> of potential in Snape? Or does he offer the opportunity to everyone?
> 

Julie:
I don't know. I've kind of lost my view of Dumbledore as one who
is deeply concerned about second chances and redemption. He too
often used manipulation and put his goals above the welfare of
others like Sirius, Snape, Lupin and even Harry as a boy (left
with the Dursleys). In fact, it seemed like only Harry ever 
broke through Dumbledore's impassive regard and enjoyed the
headmaster's personal concern about his individual well-being. 
(Dumbledore's concern for Draco's soul comes off as a plot
manipulation as he never cared that dozens of mostly Slytherin
students past and present basically sold their souls to LV
without so much as a hint of any effort to persuade them against
such an action at Hogwarts.) Or that could just be my own
bitterness talking ;-)

Julie