Snape Reconsidered
[I haven't finished responding to your fascinating comments on my last Snape post, but this is about a different aspect of Snape]
Okay. I was afraid this would happen. I always feared that if I unstoppered the potions bottle and started writing about my favorite character, I would never stop. I also note, somewhat shamefacedly, that despite my full intention to keep in mind my lack of objectivity about this character, clearly warn everybody about my bias, and refrain from committing myself to any definite conclusion, I instead said not one word about having any bias and composed a heartfelt and strongly-worded defense of the "Snape is Innocent" theory. *sigh* I blame phoenixsong13 and taintedrocky. Alas, I am as vulnerable as Snape is to flattery about my abilities.
Anyway, Snape Reconsidered... no, not reconsidered since my last post, but aspects of him that I must reconsider after reading Book 6. I'm happy to say that I've long anticipated Snape would have one more go-around, more serious than ever before, as Chief Evil Suspect -- Jo practically told us as much -- though I'll admit I didn't expect he'd do quite this convincing a job at looking guilty as sin. But here are some ways Book 6 did surprise me and force me to reconsider things:
Snape and Lily ~ Okay, I think it's obvious that we now have a lot more reason than we did before to suspect that these two Potions whizzes were friends, or even more than friends, though I was very impressed by piperx's comment in my last post that Snape would have had a hard time hiding a longtime infatuation from Harry by simply putting three memories in the Pensieve (one of which didn't show any romantic feelings at all). Actually, I suspect we already know what the three memories were that Snape withheld from Harry:
1. Snape's Worst Memory (which we saw),
2. Snape overhearing the prophecy and running to Voldemort with it, and
3. Snape's repentant scene with Dumbledore in which he confesses his Potter-related sins.
But this is far beside the subject, which is, again, Snape and Lily. I've seen a lot of speculation that the handwriting and/or discoveries in the Potions book might be partly from Eileen Prince or that "dab hand at Potions," Lily Evans. What I haven't seen is the nasty suspicion that instantly presented itself to my mind: that Lily got her "intuitive grasp of potion-making" from the exact same place that Harry did -- from the Half-Blood Prince. It seems far more likely to me that an unattractive unpopular boy with a special talent might share it with a charming, beautiful and popular girl than the other way around. I know Lily was supposed to be nice and all, but... if Snape wasn't already good at Potions, I can't see why she would have any interest in a nasty greasy git from a rival house, and if he was already good at Potions, he wouldn't have needed her help. No, I'm afraid that the scenario that instantly leapt to my cynical mind was some good old-fashioned classroom assistance motivated by sexual attraction, and that's why JKR said that it's relevant that Lily was a popular girl. I mean, we don't want Lily to be perfect, do we? She needs to have a bit of a James-like fall in Harry's mind, and I can't think of anything better (or more ironic) than that she, too, unfairly shone in Potions thanks to the Half-Blood Prince. And I like the idea of Snape having a bit of resentment against both of Harry's parents.
Snape and Slughorn ~ Another thing I've seen several different people allude to is that Snape was in the Slug Club... that he might have gotten to know Lily there, might have met Riddle at one of the reunions, etc. I will accept evidence otherwise, but I have a strong impression that Snape was NOT in the Slug Club and that he wasn't one of Slughorn's favorites, despite being in his House and despite his great Potions skills. Snape was not well-connected, not attractive, not charming -- he was not the kind of student Slughorn singled out. I don't remember Slughorn every saying anything more positive to or about Snape than...
"Ah, Sybill, we all think our subject's most important!" said a loud voice, and Slughorn appeared at Professor Trelawney s other side, his face very red, his velvet hat a little askew, a glass of mead in one hand and an enormous mince pie in the other. "But I don't think I've ever known such a natural at Potions!" said Slughorn, regarding Harry with a fond, if bloodshot, eye. "Instinctive, you know-like his mother! I've only ever taught a few with this kind of ability, I can tell you that, Sybill-why even Severus-"
And to Harry's horror, Slughorn threw out an arm and seemed to scoop Snape out of thin air toward them.
"Stop skulking and come and join us, Severus!" hiccupped Slughorn happily. "I was just talking about Harry's exceptional potion-making! Some credit must go to you, of course, you taught him for five years!"
Trapped, with Slughorn's arm around his shoulders, Snape looked down his hooked nose at Harry, his black eyes narrowed.
"Funny, I never had the impression that I managed to teach Potter anything at all."
"Well, then, it's natural ability!" shouted Slughorn. "You should have seen what he gave me, first lesson, Draught of Living Death-never had a student produce finer on a first attempt, I don't think even you, Severus-"
Slughorn pays tribute to Snape's skill at Potions -- he could hardly forget that, considering Snape's career -- but he doesn't treat him the way he does his protegées. And here is Slughorn's reaction when he learns what Snape has done:
"Snape!" ejaculated Slughorn, who looked the most shaken, pale and sweating. "Snape! I taught him! I thought I knew him!"
He says "I taught him," not "one of my favorite students" or similar, the kind of things he says about Lily and Gwenog Jones. No, I suspect that not being in the Slug Club, in spite of it being led by his Head of House and the instructor of a subject he was a prodigy in, was just another in a long line of slights and disappointments Severus Snape suffered. Unless, of course, the text says otherwise and I missed it. [aside: I also see no evidence that Regulus Black was in the Slug Club. When Slughorn says "I got his brother, Regulus, when he came along, but I'd have liked the set" he is clearly talking about Slytherin House, not his club of favorites.]
I also feel honor-bound to point out to the Snape-is-Ever-So-Evil set (if they haven't already noticed) that in the excerpt quoted above Snape was clearly eavesdropping on Harry before Slughorn grabbed him. Not Draco, like he was supposed to be doing, but Harry, Luna, and Trelawney. I... don't know why, but I'm sure it was for Harry's own good! ;)
Snape and Sirius ~ Okay, this is actually something I could have, probably should have, thought about before Book 6 but I didn't so I'm thinking it now. I have taken another look at Snape's Book 3 passion for finding and executing Sirius Black. Why is this? Because Sirius Black was responsible for making Snape a murderer. Yes, Snape went running off to Voldemort with the prophecy that made Voldemort decide to kill the Potters, but (I strongly suspect) Snape came running back to Dumbledore with this information and tried to save their lives. But that didn't work, because beautiful, brilliant, talented Sirius Black, the one everybody loved, the one who had literally "got away with (attempted) murder" at sixteen, betrayed them. Remember how angry Harry was with Snape over Sirius's death, mostly because it was better than blaming himself? I suspect that is an exact parallel to how angry Snape was with Sirius over the Potters' death. Snape had risked everything to save them, and Sirius had thrown his hard work away. Snape must have told himself over and over that it wasn't his betrayal that had killed them, but Sirius's. Sirius, whom he already hated. Sirius, whom he'd warned everyone about years earlier. Yes, it was all Sirius's fault.
By the way, this places an interesting perspective on Snape sharing a house with Peter Pettigrew a couple of years later. Hmmmmm... very interesting indeed.
Snape and Harry ~ For some reason, though I had certainly seen speculation that it was Snape who overheard the prophecy and told Voldemort about it, I had never taken it seriously enough and followed the speculation through. Now I have. When you re-read all the books looking for scenes of Snape interacting with Harry (everyone does that, right?) you need to remember that Snape knows the whole time that Harry is The Chosen One. Every time he depresses Harry's pretensions and tells him he's not special and he's not important, he knows it's not true. Every time he saves Harry's life, or attempts to save his life, he knows both that he's saving the only hope of wizardkind and that, according to the prophecy, Harry can't be killed by anyone except Lord Voldemort, anyway. What's going on with that?
Also, I can't help wondering if in the first few books Snape shares Dumbledore's and Hagrid's conviction that Voldemort will return, or if he thinks that Harry has already fulfilled his prophesized destiny and defeated the Dark Lord, and has been coasting on the glory of this accidental act ever since. Is there a change in his behavior to Harry when it becomes clear that Voldemort will return, or has returned? Does he stop pushing for Harry's expulsion when Voldemort returns and it becomes clearly too dangerous for Harry to be expelled? And why is he so darned sexy when he yells at Harry? Sorry.
And when will we see the Draught of the Living Death in action???
Oh, and here is an interesting line from Book 1:
He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon.
See, Horace was foreshadowed all along!
Okay. I was afraid this would happen. I always feared that if I unstoppered the potions bottle and started writing about my favorite character, I would never stop. I also note, somewhat shamefacedly, that despite my full intention to keep in mind my lack of objectivity about this character, clearly warn everybody about my bias, and refrain from committing myself to any definite conclusion, I instead said not one word about having any bias and composed a heartfelt and strongly-worded defense of the "Snape is Innocent" theory. *sigh* I blame phoenixsong13 and taintedrocky. Alas, I am as vulnerable as Snape is to flattery about my abilities.
Anyway, Snape Reconsidered... no, not reconsidered since my last post, but aspects of him that I must reconsider after reading Book 6. I'm happy to say that I've long anticipated Snape would have one more go-around, more serious than ever before, as Chief Evil Suspect -- Jo practically told us as much -- though I'll admit I didn't expect he'd do quite this convincing a job at looking guilty as sin. But here are some ways Book 6 did surprise me and force me to reconsider things:
Snape and Lily ~ Okay, I think it's obvious that we now have a lot more reason than we did before to suspect that these two Potions whizzes were friends, or even more than friends, though I was very impressed by piperx's comment in my last post that Snape would have had a hard time hiding a longtime infatuation from Harry by simply putting three memories in the Pensieve (one of which didn't show any romantic feelings at all). Actually, I suspect we already know what the three memories were that Snape withheld from Harry:
1. Snape's Worst Memory (which we saw),
2. Snape overhearing the prophecy and running to Voldemort with it, and
3. Snape's repentant scene with Dumbledore in which he confesses his Potter-related sins.
But this is far beside the subject, which is, again, Snape and Lily. I've seen a lot of speculation that the handwriting and/or discoveries in the Potions book might be partly from Eileen Prince or that "dab hand at Potions," Lily Evans. What I haven't seen is the nasty suspicion that instantly presented itself to my mind: that Lily got her "intuitive grasp of potion-making" from the exact same place that Harry did -- from the Half-Blood Prince. It seems far more likely to me that an unattractive unpopular boy with a special talent might share it with a charming, beautiful and popular girl than the other way around. I know Lily was supposed to be nice and all, but... if Snape wasn't already good at Potions, I can't see why she would have any interest in a nasty greasy git from a rival house, and if he was already good at Potions, he wouldn't have needed her help. No, I'm afraid that the scenario that instantly leapt to my cynical mind was some good old-fashioned classroom assistance motivated by sexual attraction, and that's why JKR said that it's relevant that Lily was a popular girl. I mean, we don't want Lily to be perfect, do we? She needs to have a bit of a James-like fall in Harry's mind, and I can't think of anything better (or more ironic) than that she, too, unfairly shone in Potions thanks to the Half-Blood Prince. And I like the idea of Snape having a bit of resentment against both of Harry's parents.
Snape and Slughorn ~ Another thing I've seen several different people allude to is that Snape was in the Slug Club... that he might have gotten to know Lily there, might have met Riddle at one of the reunions, etc. I will accept evidence otherwise, but I have a strong impression that Snape was NOT in the Slug Club and that he wasn't one of Slughorn's favorites, despite being in his House and despite his great Potions skills. Snape was not well-connected, not attractive, not charming -- he was not the kind of student Slughorn singled out. I don't remember Slughorn every saying anything more positive to or about Snape than...
"Ah, Sybill, we all think our subject's most important!" said a loud voice, and Slughorn appeared at Professor Trelawney s other side, his face very red, his velvet hat a little askew, a glass of mead in one hand and an enormous mince pie in the other. "But I don't think I've ever known such a natural at Potions!" said Slughorn, regarding Harry with a fond, if bloodshot, eye. "Instinctive, you know-like his mother! I've only ever taught a few with this kind of ability, I can tell you that, Sybill-why even Severus-"
And to Harry's horror, Slughorn threw out an arm and seemed to scoop Snape out of thin air toward them.
"Stop skulking and come and join us, Severus!" hiccupped Slughorn happily. "I was just talking about Harry's exceptional potion-making! Some credit must go to you, of course, you taught him for five years!"
Trapped, with Slughorn's arm around his shoulders, Snape looked down his hooked nose at Harry, his black eyes narrowed.
"Funny, I never had the impression that I managed to teach Potter anything at all."
"Well, then, it's natural ability!" shouted Slughorn. "You should have seen what he gave me, first lesson, Draught of Living Death-never had a student produce finer on a first attempt, I don't think even you, Severus-"
Slughorn pays tribute to Snape's skill at Potions -- he could hardly forget that, considering Snape's career -- but he doesn't treat him the way he does his protegées. And here is Slughorn's reaction when he learns what Snape has done:
"Snape!" ejaculated Slughorn, who looked the most shaken, pale and sweating. "Snape! I taught him! I thought I knew him!"
He says "I taught him," not "one of my favorite students" or similar, the kind of things he says about Lily and Gwenog Jones. No, I suspect that not being in the Slug Club, in spite of it being led by his Head of House and the instructor of a subject he was a prodigy in, was just another in a long line of slights and disappointments Severus Snape suffered. Unless, of course, the text says otherwise and I missed it. [aside: I also see no evidence that Regulus Black was in the Slug Club. When Slughorn says "I got his brother, Regulus, when he came along, but I'd have liked the set" he is clearly talking about Slytherin House, not his club of favorites.]
I also feel honor-bound to point out to the Snape-is-Ever-So-Evil set (if they haven't already noticed) that in the excerpt quoted above Snape was clearly eavesdropping on Harry before Slughorn grabbed him. Not Draco, like he was supposed to be doing, but Harry, Luna, and Trelawney. I... don't know why, but I'm sure it was for Harry's own good! ;)
Snape and Sirius ~ Okay, this is actually something I could have, probably should have, thought about before Book 6 but I didn't so I'm thinking it now. I have taken another look at Snape's Book 3 passion for finding and executing Sirius Black. Why is this? Because Sirius Black was responsible for making Snape a murderer. Yes, Snape went running off to Voldemort with the prophecy that made Voldemort decide to kill the Potters, but (I strongly suspect) Snape came running back to Dumbledore with this information and tried to save their lives. But that didn't work, because beautiful, brilliant, talented Sirius Black, the one everybody loved, the one who had literally "got away with (attempted) murder" at sixteen, betrayed them. Remember how angry Harry was with Snape over Sirius's death, mostly because it was better than blaming himself? I suspect that is an exact parallel to how angry Snape was with Sirius over the Potters' death. Snape had risked everything to save them, and Sirius had thrown his hard work away. Snape must have told himself over and over that it wasn't his betrayal that had killed them, but Sirius's. Sirius, whom he already hated. Sirius, whom he'd warned everyone about years earlier. Yes, it was all Sirius's fault.
By the way, this places an interesting perspective on Snape sharing a house with Peter Pettigrew a couple of years later. Hmmmmm... very interesting indeed.
Snape and Harry ~ For some reason, though I had certainly seen speculation that it was Snape who overheard the prophecy and told Voldemort about it, I had never taken it seriously enough and followed the speculation through. Now I have. When you re-read all the books looking for scenes of Snape interacting with Harry (everyone does that, right?) you need to remember that Snape knows the whole time that Harry is The Chosen One. Every time he depresses Harry's pretensions and tells him he's not special and he's not important, he knows it's not true. Every time he saves Harry's life, or attempts to save his life, he knows both that he's saving the only hope of wizardkind and that, according to the prophecy, Harry can't be killed by anyone except Lord Voldemort, anyway. What's going on with that?
Also, I can't help wondering if in the first few books Snape shares Dumbledore's and Hagrid's conviction that Voldemort will return, or if he thinks that Harry has already fulfilled his prophesized destiny and defeated the Dark Lord, and has been coasting on the glory of this accidental act ever since. Is there a change in his behavior to Harry when it becomes clear that Voldemort will return, or has returned? Does he stop pushing for Harry's expulsion when Voldemort returns and it becomes clearly too dangerous for Harry to be expelled? And why is he so darned sexy when he yells at Harry? Sorry.
And when will we see the Draught of the Living Death in action???
Oh, and here is an interesting line from Book 1:
He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like. He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon.
See, Horace was foreshadowed all along!