Snape contiued (was Re: XPOST: Lupin is Ever So Evil Part One -- The Prank )

[fritter_my_wig]

> > 
> > Eloise:
> > AFAIC, Snape is a character in search of a father. Those particular 
> > Pensieve memories accorded with what I already pretty much believed 
> > about his back story, so yes, I do take them at face value. And I 
> > believe the reason he knew all those curse was because he hated his 
> > father so much and had been practising what he'd *like* to do to 
him.
> > 
> 
> Kneasy:
> Um. With DD as surrogate? Or is it a diabolical fluffy plot?

Eloise:
No fluff, I promise.

It's just that fathers (well, parents, but fathers in particular) seem 
to play such a significant role in the books.

We have the relationships between Voldemort and his father (or rather 
thethe lack of it through abandonment and consequent hatred), that 
between the Crouches (or again a relationship that turns to hatred and 
rejection), Harry and James (lack of father, idolisation, 
disillusionment), Neville (absence of father again - who knows what's 
going on with him), Sirius rejecting family, Vernon abusing both Harry 
and Dudley in their different ways (and I seriously wonder if we're 
going to see some kind of consequence of that regarding Dudley), the 
relationship between Arthur and Percy.... I may have missed some.
But anyway, repeatedly we have the themes of absent 
fathers/disappointment in fathers and the effect that has on the son in 
question.

I do believe that Dumbledore is a father figure to Snape and that their 
interactions have much of the parent-child relationship about them. 
Consequently I see his Death Eating days and defection as a bit of a 
Prodigal Son episode (and note the parallel resentment of the son who 
didn't go away - Sirius).

I think I also came to the idea through a belief that JKR wanted us to 
draw parallels between Snape and Draco. I can easily see Snape as 
someone who had the kind of father for whom nothing was ever good 
enough.

And then there are those curses. *Why* did he know so many?
Well, possibly just because he came from a Dark Wizarding 
background...but so did Sirius and he was the one who commented on it.

And then JKR drops in the Pensieve scene which I take at face value 
because it accords with what I already thought.

FWIW, my own back story for Snape is that he was the product of a 
loveless marriage (I like to fancy that his father married for money 
and when he had run through it abandoned his family - no canon at all, 
for that), that his father was cruel and his mother weak (not defending 
him against his father) and that Snape despised them both. He is cold 
and aloof and unkind because those who provided his childhood role 
models were also cold, aloof and unkind. 

He might be in for a bit of a crisis when Dumbledore bites the dust.

> Pippin:
> But he *has* to be getting away with it, or he's dead--there seems to
> be this idea that he's safe if he doesn't go back to Voldy, but good
> grief!
> 
> If everyone knows he betrayed Voldy, then the rest of the DE's know
> too. What Death Eater wouldn't want the glory of picking him off?
> Lucius especially -- he needs to convince the Master that he's
> serious  about Death Eating, after that fiasco at the QWC.
> 
> Sirius even makes a point of telling us that Voldemort doesn't 
> insist on doing this kind of thing himself. 

Eloise:

Why the whole world doesn't know about Snape's defection is one of the 
great mysteries of the Potterverse.

1) Would the parents governors accept an ex-DE on the staff of Hogwarts?
2) Why doesn't Sirius know that Snape is a DE? He heard stuff in 
Azkaban, but apparently *nothing* about Snape.
3) Why is Snape's Dark Mark such a shock to Fudge?

I can only assume that,
1) Snape was working under cover for *both* sides i.e. other DEs didn't 
know his identity in a similar way as it was apprently unknown to 
Sirius that Snape was working for Dumbledore(although of course Crouch 
Jr and Karkaroff knew).
2) That the trial/hearing/whatever was protected by something like a 
Fidelius so that what was said, at least about Snape, remained secret.

But I can't work it out. Why *isn't* he dead?
Actually, that would be a good question to put in for that book release 
interview.

~Eloise