18. Whose side is Snape on?

[Victoria]

Snape is by far my favourite character. What on Earth is he really up to?

[voldyrules369]

hes not on any of those. hes the leader of a group of crazy homeless people... jk i think hes with dumbledore

[philomath]

I know that there was a theory about Snape posted somewhere else but I could not find it. Anyway - I was reading GOF last night and it occurred to me that Snape has on several occasions been really mad at Harry and made fun of him because he is always getting publicity and for being famous and all. I think that he might be like this because of James.

Maybe, while Snape was in school, DD trained him in Occlumency and asked Snape to be a spy for the Order on Voldemort. (Maybe he saw some talent that Snape had and he was in Slytherin which would make him an abvious choice for a DE spy). Snape agrees and goes under cover.

We know that James was in the Order. Maybe James was getting "publicity" or becoming "famous" from his encounters with Voldemort. (Some link to defying him 3 times.) And, maybe James' success was, in part, because of the information Snape was passing on to the Order. Now that would create a situation where Snape is sacrificing himself - to the point of letting Voldemort permanently tattoo his arm - and James is now getting to be more popular than he had been while in school. If I were Snape I would be rather upset too.

Also, something else that may have irked Snape was that James was married to Lily and maybe who Snape liked her as a result of standing up for him like in the Pensive scene. So that would leave Snape: (1) as picked on by the popular kid, (2) as making sacricies and taking risks without credit, and (3) in a situation where the guy he hates most getting the girl he like and getting famous a result of his work. Snape would have obviously already hated James from school. This new popularity would have added fuel to the fire and would have made Snape hate James even more.

Now all those feelings are naturally transferred to Harry when Harry shows up at school because of the physical resemblance to James and because of all the attention Harry gets. (not to mention the rule breaking that Harry and James both seem to get away with that also bothers Snape) This would create an ironic situtation indeed if the information that Snape was getting was the reason that the Potters were able to defy Voldemort three times which obviously resulted in the attack on the Potters and resulted in Harry's celebrity title "The Boy Who Lived".

[ToysInTheAttic7]

hmmmm, i found this from an interview with JKR

Then there's characters like Snape, who are bad but there is a certain ambiguity about him. You can't quite decide because there's something quite sad about him. Something very lonely. We're slowly (after five books) getting the idea that maybe he is not so bad after all.

JK Rowling:
Yes, but you shouldn't think he's too nice. Let me just say that. It is worth keeping an eye on old Severus Snape, definitely."


so what does this mean? is he going to do something in the next book maybe?

[philomath]

It will be interesting. Maybe he finally has enough of the Potters and finally cracks.

[prophecyone]

We're all aware of several threads from CoS, PoA, GoF and OP that build the intense dislike between Snape and the Potters (and Sirus, and Lupin). Rowling did point out in GoF that Dumbledore admitted to mistake (pg. 833: "But I forgot - another old man's mistake - that some wounds are too deep for the healing" ). I'd offer a couple of thoughts to the Harry/Snape conflict:

One, the obvious one based on the rumor we've all heard that Snape may have had a thing for Lily (uncofirmed).

Two, again from GoF, we know that James and crew never missed an opportunity to humiliate Snape.

My thought is when we compare good/evil between what's not necessarily right and what's easy (from Rowling's interviews), Snape is one of those characters who made a mistake taking an easy path to strike back at those who victimized him - perhaps why he fell in with the Death Eaters. I think respectively he's a character who is trying to do the right thing, even though Harry is most likely representative of everyone who made him (Snape) out to be a victim. And it is like Quirrel said back in Book 1: Snape may hate Harry, but he doesn't want him dead. My own personal take is we'll get into Snape's history in Book 6 (maybe 7) - and while he'll never stop hating what Harry represents to him, he may succeed distinguishing Harry and James as different people.

My two cents, for what its worth

(Ironic Harry and Snape suffered through their respective school years... there is a common ground between them)

[philomath]

Yea - maybe Snape has a scar of his own - it's just inside.

[computermouse]

Yeah. I read this fan fic about SS. It was so sad! If yo have the time, you should read it. The girl who wrote it DID sent it to JK to see what she thought:

www.fanfiction.net/read.php?storyid=7588

[Black]

[glow=red,2,300]Snape is 1 of my Fav. characters as well...hes dangerous n BAD n he makes it interesting but i think hes againts Voldermort BUT he doesnt exactly agree with Dumbeldore either[/glow]