by Mistress Siana » Monday 18 July 2005 3:57:14am
Strangely, I've spent the past three years trying to convince people of the theory that Snape was in fact working for Voldemort, not for the Order. Now, having the 'proof' in form of Snape killing DD directly before me, I'm desperate to find a reason for it other than Snape being just rotten to the core, because, I admit, I really don't want him to be. And I do have a few points that bother me.
-The argument between Dumbledore and Snape that Hagrid has witnessed. Snape told Dumbledore he was taking too much for granted, and that he, Snape, didn't want to do it anymore. It also had to do with Slytherin. What was it? Keeping a closer eye on the son of a known but discredited Death Eater would hardly be too much to expect of a spy, and if Snape had planned to kill DD from the start, he would have been wise to keep his mouth shut. However, DD ordering Snape to kill him could pretty well cause such a reaction.
-Snape accepting to do the Unbreakable Vow was, in my opinion, beyond reason. He had nothing to gain, but very much to lose. His life, mainly, but also some of Voldemort's trust since the Vow was made behind his back. So...Snape, who's spent the past 16 years a double agent, always careful to save his own neck regardless of whom it might hurt, is supposed to risk his life so thoughtlessly, only to do Narcissa a favour? He wouldn't have needed to swear it to protect Draco, it was nothing but an insurrance for Narcissa. How Slytherin, or, how Snape is that? Not at all, if you ask me.
-So, Snape's apparently one of the highest ranking Death Eaters, being "the Dark Lord's favourite, his most trusted advisor", as Narcissa puts it. He must have seen and done things to get there. So, Mr-give-me-one-reason-Black-and-I-swear-I'll-do-it is supposed to break down and regret his oh-so-evil ways because an information he passed on to his master sent him after James Bloody Potter and his mudblood wife? I don't buy it for one second that DD honestly believed that. There must be something else.
-Why did Snape leave Harry on the Hogwarts grounds when he could very well have dragged him along for Voldemort to finish him off? Why did he spare Hermione, who's such a great help for Harry, as Snape himself stated in his conversation with Narcissa?
-What actually is the point of letting Snape teach DADA, now, after all those years, when Slughold seemed quite apt to do so as well? Especially as Dumbledore is well aware that DADA teachers at Hogwarts last only a year since Voldemort cursed the position. What did DD plan? (I wondered...DD kept repeating how absolutely he trusted Snape. Maybe the real question is not why, but what exactly it was that DD trusted Snape to do. Maybe he counted on Snape being some kind of ticking bomb that, brought in contact with his beloved Dark Arts, could be used for a special purpose)
Though those are certainly points that keep gnawing at me, and though I would more than anything like to believe that there is a redemptive pattern in Severus, I come to a different conclusion the more I think about it.
I think it's possible he might have really hated Dumbledore. Noble as it might have been of Dumbledore to offer him a second chance, I think in Snape's eyes, he never had a first. Gryffindor's golden boys got everything while he got nothing, he even must have felt that his life mattered nothing in comparison to their good name. I expect he never forgave Dumbledore for his own personal form of favouritism. He always kept his hatred well, nurtured it, waiting for a chance to make Dumbledore pay, even if it took half a lifetime. He might have killed Dumbledore with that very hatred.
On the other hand, there's Voldemort. After all we get to know in the HBP, I'm not surprised Voldemort favoured Snape, even though he is a half blood. Possibly even because of it. Voldemort must have seen very much of himself in young Snape, who despised and was ashamed of his Muggle father, who never had a friend, who loved the Dark Arts, not only the power they promised but their very beauty itself, who showed a talent for the human mind and manipulation, who loathed everything mediocre, and who I believe has also long passed the point at which he could love. Snape is very much like Voldemort, yet he lacks the decisive sparkle of insane brillliance that makes Voldemort the wizard he is and thus, Snape could never become a threat to the Dark Lord. Still he craved for recognition, for greatness, he gave himself the title of Half Blood Prince, he's been waiting for his moment for almost twenty years, like a spider in its web - mostly fitting, isn't it, that Snape lives at Spinner's End?
Now, all the whealthy pure bloods having failed, Snape had his one chance become greater than all of them, to be rewarded above imagination and most certainly become Voldemort's second in command, which - with Dumbledore gone - would make him one of the most powerful men of the country. Could Snape refuse? I don't think so.
