Snape's culpability again (was Re: Get Fuzzy comic & RAB)

[eloise_herisson]

I'm replying to this just briefly as I'm going away, but I don't want 
it to apear that i'm ignoring Pippin's response.

> Jen: Aha! I've been trying to fathom what possibly could have 
> motivated Snape to seal his doom with the Unbreakable, and Pippin's 
> explanation tipped the scale for me in the direction of perceived 
> honor and glory. <snip> 
> So he started down the same worn path as he did when he heard the 
> prophecy.....
> 
> Pippin: 
> > 
> > So,  Snape had a choice  on the tower. He could have attacked 
> > the Death Eaters, one against four, saved Draco (and Harry), 
> > taken down the notorious Fenrir Greyback, who's  probably 
> > worth an OM all by himself, made a last ditch effort to save 
> > Dumbledore, risked everything on the chance that he could 
> > cure him and that Dumbledore knew some way of
> > defeating the vow. (No magic is foolproof, right?) Glorious.
> > The whole WW would get down on their knees and thank him.

Eloise:
I'd like to believe that, but I do have difficulty believing that 
even *Snape* could have taken on four DEs (though they're perhaps not 
the best of the bunch) *and* Greyback simultaneously and survived.

What he may have been resisting was the temptation to... well, to 
*redeem* himself by being heroic, by demonstrating his loyalty to 
Dumbledore even if it cost him his life. If redemption is of concern 
to him at all. I have my doubts about that, though *if* Dumbledore 
was correct in his remorse over Lily and James, then I guess that 
deep down somewhere in that heart of his he must feel the need at 
some level to atone for what he did. I actually suspect he wouldn't 
mind *that* much being a dead hero (he's lived with the danger of 
death for too long). To be a live hero would be better, but it would 
be something.


Pippin:
> > But Dumbledore begged him not to, IMO. Dumbledore begged 
> > him to go on with his role, though Snape will never now receive
> > Dumbledore's recognition, though it may be neither Harry nor 
> > the wizarding world will ever know what Snape did for them.

Eloise:
Which is of course the conclusion of all of us who have argued that 
the death was in some way arranged, whether by a pre-existing plan, 
as an emergency contingency only or at the last minute, there on the 
tower.

But - and this is the only thing over which I was really arguing with 
Pippin - if this is the case, then *this*, the fact that he was 
carrying out Dummbledore's will, the fact, if true, that this indeed 
was his redemptive act is the thing that exonerates him. The green 
goo is neither here nor there. Even his belief or knowledge that its 
effects could or couldn't be reversed is IMO irrelevant. In fact, if 
he could have helped him, it just makes the whole situation more - 
well, actually it gives it more Bang! It's much more dramatic if poor 
Severus actually did deliberately kill Dumbledore by request whilst 
knowing that he could have saved him.

To go back a sec...

> Pippin: 
> > 
> > So,  Snape had a choice  on the tower. 

Eloise:
Yes. He had a choice. And I think that's crucial. The decision was 
made *then* - hence the Hanged Man imagery. I suggested before that I 
thought the implication of this was that Snape might have been 
dangling from that cord, twisting, unsure of where his loyalty lay 
right up until that minute.

> Jen: Which did he choose here, glory or ignominy? The first might 
be 
> what he sees in the Mirror of Erised and the second quite possibly 
> his greatest fear. The glory would be at Voldemort's side instead 
of 
> Dumbledore's, the ignominy to stand by while Potter defeats the 
Dark 
> Lord and Snape himself is accused of Dumbledore's murder. Did he 
> rise above his weakness, or get trapped by the image in the Mirror?

Eloise:
Good question, Jen. And another point which arises from his decision 
to stay overtly close to Voldemort is the increased difficulty that 
Snape will now have, if loyal, in helping Harry, not just in the 
sense that Harry now hates him at least as much as Voldemort, but in 
purely practical terms, now that he has apparently come out as an 
active DE and will have to go into hiding.

Perhaps *that's* why we're not allowed to know his patronus.

> 
> Pippin:
> > Because only by Voldemort's side will Snape be in a position 
> > to weaken him so that when Harry  finally faces him, he'll 
> > have a chance. They're a jigsaw puzzle, Harry and Snape, 
> > each with a power the other will never have, and only with 
> > backup will Harry be strong enough to take Voldie
> > down.
> > 
> > Yeah, I think Harry can figure all this out. It won't
> > be easy, but that's what the seven hundred pages are for.
> 
> Jen: I think he made the right choice, too :). Otherwise we don't 
> have the nice parallel you've drawn here of each needing the other 
> to truly defeat the Dark Lord. 
Oh, that's a cunning plot! And maybe 
> Harry won't figure it out until Snape is dead, because that would 
be 
> the bitter irony for Snape, to sacrifice everything for Harry and 
> never get his due. 

Eloise:
I think it's rather likely. JKR has openly said that Harry needs to 
carry on his journey alone, because that's what happens in this kind 
of story, alhtough I guess that if it were only late in the narrative 
that he realised he needed Snape (and I can't see for the reasons 
already stated that it could be earlier) then maybe it would count.

Jen:
What's important to the hero's story is for Harry 
> to know and understand what Snape was willing to do in the end, and 
> it's only fitting Snape's glory, if any, will come long after he's 
> gone.

Eloise:
<sigh>
Yes.

~Eloise