Drunkard's Walk Forums

Something I wrote a while back, but hadn't posted anywhere. I should start writing again. That would be good.
Character study. Snape POV.

I hate Voldemort. He is an inhuman monster who delights in the pain of others. He is an abomination who should have been dead twice over and whose continued existance is a blight on reality. He is a continuing threat to every freedom-loving, right-thinking witch, wizard, squib and muggle on the face of the planet. I hate that I have to tolerate his presence on a regular basis, to come when he calls and to bow and scrape and writhe in agony at his whim. I hate that I have to constantly lie when I am near him - constantly, lest I die. I think that is why I am so adamant about telling the truth at other times, however unpleasant it may be. I hate those things and I hate him for them, but that is not why I hate him most.
I hate him most of all because when he was given a choice, of all the little boys in all the world to pick as his Destined Adversary, he picked Harry Potter. I'm not fouled in the brain enough to actually want his promised world of death and fear. I can't stand the man himself, but the thing that really gets to me, that gets under my skin and just won't leave me alone, is that everything I do - every lie, every potion, every drop of blood or scrap of pain shed to fight the Dark Lord is done as spear-carrier to that blighted child of Lily and James. I have to spend my life running third fiddle to the kid of one of the pettiest, most immature, most casually obnoxious men I have ever known, and all anyone can remember about that cretinous excuse for a human being is that he gave his life for his child. I hate that. I hate it, but I do it anyway, because this is important, because this matters. These children are stupid and disrespectful and small, but they're children, and I cannot bear the idea that they might die because I didn't do my job. I do my job. I teach, and I desperately try to instill even an inkling of the forces that they will have to fight to survive, and of the idea of discipline. Discipline. I suffer under the Cruciatus curse of the most powerful dark wizard in all the world, and I don't cry out because I am disciplined, because I am controlled. Potions aren't about magic. Potions are about discipline, and preparation, and doing everything exactly right, and if these children are to be saved from the coming storm, then that is what will save them. That and a little boy with a scar. I hate it, but I do my job. I teach them as well as I can, and I try to give them all some scrap of appreciation for the principles most likely to keep them alive. Even Harry Potter.

Thoughts?

Well, I haven't had the opportunity to read the most recent book yet, but this sounds pretty much dead-on for Snape to me.
He absolutely despised Harry's father and chaffs at the idea that Harry, like his father before, was just as reckless (prehaps even more so).

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Black Aeronaut Technologies Group, LLC
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"To the commissary we should go," Yoda declared firmly. "News
of this kind a danish requires."

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It's not entirely HBP-compatible, but it's a wonderful character study. I like it.
(Then again, Rowling has made a practice of deliberately whipsawing readers over Snape; it may well be that Book 7 somehow undoes what seems like a complete plunge into the dark side...)
-- Bob
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...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

It's not a plunge to the dark side. It just looks like one. I could explain in detail, but this is the sort of thing that people get into bizarre and horrific arguments over, so I'll hold back unless someone *wants* to hear my reasoning.
If I remember correctly, I wrote this *after* reading HBP.

I do!!!!Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.
Magic: The Gathering

Oddly enough I felt the same way about Snape after reading HBP. but then I honestly can't say whether it is the desire to hope that he isn't a total scumbag or if i'm just in denial about how easily Dumbledore got uhhh betrayed by him..
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We are the swords in the darkness, the watchers on the walls. The fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn. The horn that wakes the sleepers. The shield that guards the realms of men. -The Brothers Black
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Take Your Candle, Go Light Your World.

First, I present facts, and first-order analyses. Rereading appropriate bits of the text will corroborate these things. If anyone can find anything that contradicts any of this, I would be interested to hear it. Tenses may wobble a bit. For this I apologize, but only a little.
[spoiler space (hi, blackaeronaut!)]

[/spoiler space]
- Voldemort assigned Draco to kill Dumbledore. As of the summer before, Draco was having nough trouble with it that Narcissa pled with Snape for help. Snape agreed, and swore an oath on his life. After he had agreed, Narcissa specified the terms to include that he would finish the job if Draco could not. As of that summer, Snape knew that the year would end with either himself or Dumbledore dead.
- Dumbledore knew that the position of DADA was cursed, such that any who held it would not be with the school past the year they held it. He permitted Snape to hold the position anyway (something Snape had craved for many years, but never gotten, for just that reason.)
-- Dumbledore and Snape both knew at the end of the year, one way or the other, Snape would not have the protection of Dumbledore or Hogwarts. The both also knew that this meant that Snape would have to fall back on Voldemort both to preserve his cover and to protect him from his many and varied enemies.
- Throughout the year, Our heroes kept coming across evidence that Snape and/or Draco were plotting *something* and kept bringing it to Dumbledore, and Dumbledore kept saying, in essence, "Yes, yes, I know all about this. It's nothing to worry about."
- Dumbledore acknowledged to Harry that he was no longer the wizard he once had been. He wilingly accepted permanent and severe damage to one hand as the price of destroying one of the horcruxes, and counted it well spent. He willingly accepted further damage in drinking from the goblet - damage that he knew would be severe and likely permanent as well - as a price of acquiring another horcrux.
-- from this I can only conclude that Dumbledore had ceased to consider himself as a long-term resource, and was instead trying to spend himself as effectively as possible in the short term.
- Dumbledore knows that Voldemort has a very serious thing in for him personally. He knows that one of the big things that was keeping him alive was Voldemort's fear of his personal power. He has to know that once he burns too much of that personal power, Voldemort *will* kill him. In sacrificing his hand to destroy the Horcux he knows that he has signed his own death warrant.
- Draco was having serious moral and emotional issues with the idea of killing Dumbledore. Snape knew this.
- Dumbledore has always had a thing about believing that people can be redeemed.
- Snape spent his time as DADA prof *actually* *teaching*. To the absolute best of his ability he taught them how to protect themselves against the coming storm. In his final confrontation with Harry (during which he had the upper hand the *entire* *time* and probably could have killed Harry or at least caused him grevious harm had he wished to) he instead spent precious moments *educating* the boy, emphasizing the tactical importance of learning how to cast wordlessly, spending his few remaining instants imparting as brutally effective a lesson as he could manage before completing his escape.
- In the rooftop confrontation, Dumbledore was toast even before Snape got there. He was effectively incapacitated, and surrounded by sworn enemies and Draco. There were more than enough death eaters to take him down at any moment - the only reason he hadn't died yet was that they were waiting for Draco to administer the killing blow. As soon as Snae sees the situation, he knows it's going to end one of three ways. Draco might finally drag together enough of whatever he needs to fire off an Avada at a man he's known and respected (if not necessarily liked) for years, largely demolishing his chances at redemption. The Death Eathers might grow tired of waiting, and finish the jobs themselves, thus doing serious harm to Draco's ability to survive in Voldemort's court, and quite possibly killing Snape through the vow. Finally, Snape can storm in there, pretending impatience, do the old man in himself (thus, incidentlly, ending his pain) and in so doing get a great deal *more* security for himself in Voldemort's court while remaining able to minimize the damage to Draco, and picking up some quite large and potentially very useful favors from Narcissa. Guys, this one isn't a betrayal. It's a no-brainer.
The only conclusion I can come to, based on the evidence, is that Snape told Dumbledore what was going on with Draco, Narcissa, and the vow relatively early on. Dumbledore decided that it was his time to die, and started to sacrifice himself on the installment plan. They both knew that Snape would not be able to stay in Hogwarts without Dumbledore to protect him, so Snape got to enjoy his last year as DADA (and was, arguably, the best DADA teacher they've ever had.) Snape continued to work on Draco, trying to keep him redemption fodder while looking like he was helping him, and giving Dumbledore regular updates. I suspect that Dumbledore had at least half made the decision to die *before* the vow, and Snape knew it, but I don't have strong enough evidence to state it outright.
It's true, Dumbledore and Snape made some harsh choices here, but they'd done things like that before - Snape especially. To my eyes, they were both serving the light as best as they were able.