Sirius, Bella, Snape WAS Re: Snape the Half-Blood Prince

[Eileen Rebstock]

Alec:
>"That 
>is in fact not unlikely - Snape does seem to be a loner, when he's 
>glimpsed in the pensieve scene - and doesn't seem to have a gang 
>that will come round and support him, either then or later. There 
>seems to be no prospect at all of that!"

Me: 
>I think it's clear Snape was a barely tolerated member? Tagging
>after them? Derisively nicknamed "The Halfblood Prince?"

I had a bit of an inspiration last night thinking about the problem. It
came to me that there's actually a perfectly reasonable explanation for
why no one steps forward for Snape in the pensieve scene in OotP. The
identity of the aggressor. 

Sirius Black may have displeased his family by being sorted into
Gryffindor and hanging out with the wrong sort, but he didn't break with
them till the end of fifth year. The end of fifth year is also when he
last saw Bellatrix, if we can believe his "I last saw her before Azkaban
at your age" story he tells Harry in OotP as precisely accurate.
Bellatrix two years ahead of Sirius at least makes it credible she could
have had some collaborative acquaintance with Snape. The more I think
about it, I think that, dating problems with Andromeda's pregnancy
aside, this is probably what JKR has in mind. 

Anyway, why no one intervened for Snape. I don't think Bella and Sirius
interfered with each other much at school. A mutual dislike would not
have changed the fact that they were family and bound to present a
united front or reap the consequences at home. Towards the end, Sirius
may have stopped caring. Bella, on the other hand, would have felt the
need to maintain family unity keenly until Sirius betrayed the family
entirely. 

Was Sirius's targeting of Snape a *safe* way to show his anger against
his family? Unable to take out his anger on Bellatrix, or on her close
friends, all of whom were likely linked to the Blacks by centuries of
friendship and marriage, did Sirius focus on the half-blood Snape who
was only on the fringes of the Slytherin group? In fact the person that
Bellatrix and the others would lose their reputation as properly proud
pureblood wizards and witches by defending too vigorously? "You took a
half-blood's side against your own kin?" would be the question at home. 

But when Sirius leaves home, he becomes a blood traitor, and suddenly
it's all very different. Up till then, Snape was perhaps more sinned
against than sinning. After all, Lily challenges James to explain why
Snape's being bullied so, and James can't even come up with a list of
evil things Snape's done to the younger kids. Now however, Snape can be
'supported' by his fellows. Of course by 'support,' I mean 'get
recruited into the Death Eaters.' He is so very bitter. He's become
increasingly nasty over the years, trying to fit in, leading up to
calling erstwhile friend and potions partner Lily a mudblood. (One gets
the feeling from that scene he'd never said that to her before.) The
Shrieking Shack incident cements his hatred for not only Sirus and
James, but for Dumbledore who lets them get away with it. Suddenly, he's
presented with an opportunity to fit in. Bellatrix isn't at school
anymore, but be sure she's keeping tabs on the Slytherin students via
her friends in the younger year, perhaps even via the most amiable
Slughorn who thought Bellatrix was hot stuff. Did Bella get invited to
his school parties even after she left school? Are those parties where
Snape got to know the older Lucius well enough for Narcissa to refer to
him as "my husband's friend?" No doubt Bella was encouraging people to
take revenge against her disowned cousin. 

All of which begs the question, how did Bella first connect to
Voldemort, anyway? 

Eileen