Under the influence

[eloise_herisson]

SSSusan:

> Eloise, this is truly freaky.  I re-read that chapter for the first 
time last night, and I had the SAME thought -- that the words sounded 
like what Snape might say if he truly felt remorse for Lily & James' 
deaths.  
> 
> Of course, I can't for the life of me figure out how *this* 
situation -- drinking a potion that Voldemort presumably concocted & 
left there....would have any connection whatsoever to things Snape 
would have once said.

Eloise:
I think perhaps you just answered that yourself.
It's a *Potion*. Now I'm not good at time lines, but I assume this 
was brewed before Snape went back to Dumbledore. Perhaps Dumbledore 
realises who concocted it and that is what triggers that precise 
memory. That would add another lovely twist of irony to the scene on 
the Tower.

SSSusan:
>And I can't quite hear Snape being so... so... so emotional? 
>forceful? in his expression of remorse and regret.

Eloise:
Indeed, no. That's a strong contraindication. It doesn't sound like 
him, except that we *have* seen Snape very emotional in other 
circumstances. I'm guessing that someone who represses that side of 
their personality (not the emotional side, the side that recognises 
that sometimes he is *wrong*) to the extent that he does might go to 
pieces to completely once the dam had been breached. I also don't 
believe that Dumbledore is above using magical means to coerce a true 
confession from someone. 

DD apparently believes that he truly felt remorse for betraying the 
Potters. Now Dumbledore does trust where others wouldn't but he's not 
a complete fool. Canon shows us immediate disbelief from other 
characters who knew the situation that he could blindly have trusted 
him in that matter given his enmity towards James. Personally I think 
that's an immediate warning sign that things aren't all that they 
seem and that there *is* additional proof of his trustworthiness. 

Another thought. We haven't seen in canon exactly *how* life debts 
work. If you have a life debt to someone and then not only do you 
fail to pay it back but you actually betray them, what happens?
Is it something like a binding magical contract (however that works?)
Could Snape have been literally suffering the consequences of 
betraying James?

~Eloise
wishing she'd thought to grab the cheese cauldron line for her sig 
file.