Inconceivable - More thoughts on Secrecy, wizarding politics, and Severus Snape
I started replying to a comment posted to "I Would Sell Out the Nation," but it developed into a rather long post thinking my way through some things. And talking more about Snape, of course. I’m just thinking out loud here though
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I almost suspect that, given how successfully he is able to convince Voldemort of his continued loyalty, he might not ever have fully repented of that one single, very particular, desire underlying his initial turn toward the Dark Lord. However much he came to understand it as currently impossible to manifest in practice in any moral way, given everything.
Which would then make his turn to Dumbledore all the more heartwrenching. Sacrificing, not only all his ambitions and reputation and life, but also all his PRESENT fellows and friends AND the very dream ITSELF for which he has already sworn away his other ambitions and life. To Dumbledore, for the merest hope of protection for Lily and family. To fight in support of SECRECY for that. To be a traitor to EVERYONE he might have hoped to save initially by ending Secrecy.
And then, Black (Pettigrew) destroys even that hope for her.
But still Severus is required to bind himself again, in secrecy, for secrecy. For the sake of a boy he's never seen, who Dumbledore will later tell him is a dead man walking anyway.
A traitor in every respect, to everyone, to himself, both to secrecy and for secrecy, in secret. To everyone but Albus Dumbledore. And betrayed, repeatedly, by everyone, but ESPECIALLY by the man he faithfully obeyed. Betrayed unto death, for no apparent REASON.
No wonder his face looked like a death mask there.
Also, given how all of the physical locations of the WW are necessarily shielded with muggle-repelling spells, would it even have been POSSIBLE for Eileen to raise Severus within the WW? At least, without ditching her husband (do wizards have divorce?) and having some sort of means of supporting herself or family willing to do so... Which she may not have had much of, or any.
And as for 'illegitimate'...I wonder how the inheritance laws of the WW work as far as muggle spouses and relatives go? From what we see, the WW still operates more or less along the assumption of inheritance through the male line. But if you have a muggle father, and muggles have essentially no actionable legal rights in the WW, what then do you inherit? And how do you claim a position and rights and social inheritance when you don't have that wizarding father-figure? It's not necessarily entirely impossible - we know Finnigan's father is muggle - but I doubt it's easy.
Also, thinking of all those books in Severus' house, and Severus' knowledge of dark magic, his ability to create new spells even as a teen, etc. ... JKR said 'there are no wizarding princes,' right? Well, what if that also meant, er, 'no more wizarding Princes?' In the male line. Eileen's father having been the last. If the Princes were particularly known for dark arts, and possibly had some Malfoy connection somewhere, and if Eileen had inherited the Prince family library to be held in trust for her son, then that would neatly explain several things: why Sirius assumed that Snape came in knowing lots of curses and dark arts; why Severus had such facility with and knowledge of the workings of magic from a young age despite being raised in the muggle world; why he felt the need to take that snarky little nickname; why the Malfoys would welcome him from the start (possibly distant cousin, plus getting access to that library and intellectual inheritance), and possibly why Potter would hate him from the start; where all those books came from; how Severus knew enough to invent unsupported flight; why Voldie would expect him to be easily hired for the DADA job; etc.
And just possibly why Voldemort would have had an interest in young Severus in the first place, as well. Was Lucius DIRECTED to hook him?
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