Daddy dearest

[Barry Arrowsmith]

OK.
A stray thought this afternoon has set me to the keyboard once more.  
It's mostly tentative musing at the moment, though if any reasonable  
evidence turns up it'll flower into full-blown proselytising.
You have been warned.
Can't find any evidence that this one has been tackled before (if  
anyone has information to the contrary, please post).

So - how do you fancy Snape as son of Voldy?
Right. You can stop laughing now. Thank you.

I admit that there are certain difficulties in constructing a  
coherent theory, but when has that ever stopped a hair-brained idea  
from the posters? Never, so far as I can recall.  And if it falls  
apart like a badly made meat-loaf - well, consider it practice for  
what's to come in 6 weeks - a sort of exercise for the reader.

Let's look at the difficulties first, 'cos if I don't everybody else  
will.

Within minutes of the post suggesting such an abomination, there  
came, winging its way across the aether, a mail from Carolyn.
Labelled "an irritating bit of canon for you", it said:

 >
See:

JK Rowling's World Book Day Chat, March 4, 2004

Q: Has Voldermort any children?
JK Rowling replies -> No. Voldemort as a father... now that's not a
nice thought.
 >

Good point.
As counter-move I'll use the JKR/Dobby gambit. What? You don't  
remember it? Really? Oh, all right, I'll explain. The necessities of  
the plot in CoS found it quite acceptable for Dobby to regard Tom and  
Voldy as distinct personages - and not Diary!Tom, the original Tom.  
Something I thought was a bit of a swizz. I clearly remember throwing  
the book against the wall, foul language rent the air and the dog  
(sadly no longer with us, alas) hid behind the TV.  But if such  
sophistry can be used to split hairs once, why not again? Fine,  
that's one difficulty out of the way.

The next one that will occur to most is the Heir of Slytherin/Last of  
the Line
objection. Not a problem. I've long posited that if anyone could get  
into the Chamber they become the de facto Heir to Salazars bequest.  
Blood has nothing to do with it. Harry didn't seem to have any  
difficulty getting in and he's not a blood relation.

Last of the Line can be finagled as well. If (like Sirius) an off- 
spring is disowned, discredited, cast out never to darken this door- 
step again, then so far as his progenitors view the matter he no  
longer exists. The line has ended so far as dear old dad is concerned.

There we go! That was easy, wasn't it?
Back to the drawing board.

Timeline. Tom was in his final years at Hogwarts in '44/'45. GH was  
in '81. At  a rough estimate, that's a 36 year gap. Allow a number of  
years of conflict before GH, plus his world tour searching for who- 
knows-what, and it still leaves time for a bit of old how's-yer- 
father with some willing maid - with or without the benefit of formal  
social sanction - to bring forth a squalling Sevvy in '59 or '60   
before setting up as He-who-must-be-obeyed-and-that-includes-you- 
sunshine. (All dates from the Lexicon.)

Now I'll admit  that there's not a great deal of positive canon  
support for this febrile contention, not that leaps out and socks you  
in the eye, anyway. But there wasn't all that much to indicate Crouch! 
Moody was a ringer or that Scabbers was going to be the subject of  
gross over-acting in that damn film. As usual, the canon looks  
different in retrospect.

So I'll throw in a few points for consideration. His name - not  
Riddle, that's for sure. Nor yet Voldemort minor. Maybe there were no  
marriage vows and he took his mother's name. Anyway if you were  
related to the most evil person in the world wouldn't you change it?  
And Severus. Generally accepted as deriving (for HP purposes) from  
'severe'. Why not 'severed' as in cut off by his family?

All this Dark Magic he was supposed to know when he started at  
Hogwarts. Must have been a hell of a lot - Sirius comes from a nasty  
family that dabbled in stuff like that, highly likely he knew more  
than a modicum himself, yet Snape is regarded as knowing  
significantly more. He must have been influenced by some seriously  
evil people.

Lastly - there's been mention in recent posts that maybe Sevvy had  
some dark secret that DD used to shut him up about the 'Prank". What  
could be darker than this? And is this why DD keeps Snape out of the  
DADA job - because blood might tell?

Must see what else I can find to give support to this speculative  
line of thought.

Kneasy