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In Snape’s defence ...

By Susan Wight - posted Wednesday, 11 July 2007


What Harry sees as Dumbledore’s “insane determination to see good in everyone”, was really a refusal to accept other people’s prejudices. He was willing to give people a chance - Hagrid, Lupin, Black, even Lockhart, but he did not do so naively. He gave them a chance to rise above their own weaknesses. The way he kept an eye on young Tom Riddle showed that he did not do so blindly. Dumbledore also gave the young Harry a chance to prove himself but he watched over him “more closely than you can have imagined”.

Harry believes that Dumbledore’s reason for trusting Snape was his remorse over the death of Harry’s parents, but before setting off in pursuit of the Horcrux, Dumbledore seemed to consider telling Harry something else about his trust in Snape; “he looked as though he was trying to make up his mind about something”. We must assume that Dumbledore did not completely confide in the young Harry and there was something that he held back.

I put it to you that it would have taken more than a glib profession of remorse on Snape’s part to convince Dumbledore of a change of loyalty and there must have been some strong evidence of Snape’s remorse in order for Dumbledore to accept it so implicitly and yet not to divulge it, to the best of our knowledge, to any other member of the Order.

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I put it to you that this missing piece of evidence could have been that Severus Snape loved Lily Potter - Harry’s mother. In support of this theory, I offer you the fact that, although Harry believes that Snape hated both his parents and dismissed Lily as a “filthy little Mudblood”, he has only the evidence of the Pensieve for his belief in Snape’s hatred of Lily - evidence, yes, that the teenage Snape at one time was derisive of Lily but not conclusive proof that an older Snape felt the same way.

I remind you that the very same incident in the Pensieve offers proof that people’s feelings towards each other do change with time. Harry witnessed Lily Evans, as she then was, chastising James Potter with considerable venom and Harry subsequently wondered how she ever came to marry James. I put it to you that Snape’s feelings towards Lily could have changed significantly over the course of time.

Who, I ask you, was the schoolboy Snape (or as he styled himself at that time, “The Half-Blood Prince”) writing instructions to in the margins of his potions book? Oh yes, many of those notes were instructions, consider the phrase “just shove a bezoar down his throat”: it is not a recipe, not a note for his own later study, it bears the unmistakable marks of being a frantic message to help a fellow student being questioned by a teacher.

I put it to you that Lily Evans’ astounding talent in Potions which impressed Professor Slughorn so much could have been because she was receiving help from none other than the talented Severus Snape, just as her son was to receive such help from the messages scribbled in his book years later - help which ironically led Harry to say he had learnt much more about Potions from the Prince than he had ever learnt from Snape.

Again and again Snape has derided Harry’s father. Who could blame him given the bullying he received at James’ hands during his student years? Even Harry was shocked to find out how his father had treated Snape.

We can assume that much of Snape’s dislike and mistrust of Harry was based on the fact that he saw Harry as very like his father. “How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter.” It is even possible that Snape believes that Harry has bullied Draco Malfoy during his school years much as his father bullied Snape.

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On many occasions Snape arrived on the scene after an altercation between Draco and Harry and believed Draco’s version of events. Yes, there is plenty of evidence that Severus Snape hated James Potter and disliked his son intensely. However, during all Harry’s years at Hogwarts, Snape has never once referred to Lily Potter in a derogatory manner.

If Snape did love Lily Evans, imagine his remorse and inconsolable grief when he realised that the information he provided to He Who Must Not Be Named brought about her death and orphaned her son. I submit that love would convince Dumbledore and that it was Snape’s love, grief and remorse that was the iron-clad reason for Dumbledore’s belief in Snape.

I remind you also that not only did Snape have to convince Dumbledore of his change of loyalty initially but that he had to maintain Dumbledore’s belief in him for 16 years of close contact. Snape apparently served Dumbledore without raising suspicion for 16 years. In fact he spent far more time with Dumbledore than with He Who Must Not Be Named. It was therefore more difficult to deceive Dumbledore effectively in terms of maintaining that deception over a prolonged period of time as Bellatrix pointed out, “And through all this we are supposed to believe Dumbledore has never suspected you? He has no idea of your true allegiance, he trusts you implicitly still?”.

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About the Author

Susan Wight is a Victorian mother who, together with her husband, home educated her three children who are all now well-educated adults. She is the coordinator of the Home Education Network and editor and a regular writer for the network’s magazine, Otherways.

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All articles by Susan Wight

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