Severus Snape and the Deathly Hallows

[rabidsamfan]

I should really be working on an essay for work. Ah, well.

As I venture out into the net I'm finding a number of indignant essays about how JKR handled Snape in the Deathly Hallows, but I have to admit, my first reaction to what was done in the book was positive. And it still is. I don't think he's been turned to cardboard, or done an injustice, and even if JKR herself doesn't understand what she's done, it doesn't matter... since when has literary analysis ever depended entirely on an author's intentions?



You see, I've been convinced that Snape loved Lily since before the Order of the Phoenix came out. (Check out the Snape Dursley story comments, if you don't believe me and look at the dates.) I've also been convinced that Lily was no plaster saint herself, since Half-Blood Prince. So neither of those things surprised me, or made me feel like Snape was lessened.

Let's take the sequence in the Shrieking Shack first, shall we? Snape is doing his level best to get permission to go find Harry. Knowing what we know, I'd guess that he wants to tell Harry something important, rather than drag him back to Voldemort kicking and screaming... When Snape learns that Voldemort has the Elder Wand, he freezes and says "let me go to the boy". (To warn him, perhaps?) You'll notice that Voldemort doesn't take the chance of duelling Snape. He has Nagini get him from behind. (And as Jinx has observed so often, Snape doesn't do well against animals. From the three-headed dog to the hippogriff, being a superb Legilimens doesn't give him an advantage against something that sees him as sitting in an engraved supperdish...)

When Harry steps out into the Shrieking Shack to look at Snape (who he still hates, the narrative tells us very plainly) he doesn't know what to feel. Snape grabs him and manages one last piece of magic, one last order to Harry to "take it", as his memories flow out of him.

These are a dying man's memories, remember, and a man dying with his last most important task -- telling Harry what he needs to know about the final Horcrux -- undone. And when Harry has the vial Hermione conjured as full as it can go, Snape has one last thing to say. "Look at me."

I've seen at least one person interpret that as "Let me pretend I'm looking at Lily's eyes as I die," but I see it as something much simpler. Snape is asking Harry to actually see him -- to look at the memories and see him for who he is. There's no hint, either here or in the earlier scene with McGonagall, that Snape is sneering or being hateful to or about Harry, by the way, which is very noticeable considering how he behaves in earlier books.

Snape dies, Harry takes the memories, and goes back to Hogwarts. There we discover that Lupin and Tonks are dead, and that discovery propels Harry away from the general grief and up to the Headmaster's office. I wonder what McGonagall thought of Snape using the name "Dumbledore" as a password? I know what I think...

The first memory is of the first meeting between Snape and Lily. It's at an age much younger than I thought it would be -- I thought Petunia's "awful boy" was Snape or Pettigrew on one of Lily's school holidays -- but it makes even more sense this way. The little we know tells us that Snape's home life was pretty awful -- and if he lived in his father's home instead of a magical enclave, he was isolated from the start. To find another magical child must have felt like a miracle. And then when he finally tried to talk to her it all went wrong. (It makes me wonder how many times Harry, dressed in Dudley's castoffs, tried making a friend at school only to be rejected or to see Dudley discourage the contact before he gave up trying.)

The conversation under the trees, when Petunia has turned the tables and she's the one spying on Snape. (He did start being an observer early, didn't he? That's the trouble with being an outsider.) Lily's worry about being Muggle-born and Snape's assuring her that it doesn't matter. The breaking of the branch and the instant denial. I can't think of a nine or ten year old who'd have admitted that one -- and Lily's too young to understand that anger and fear are an impetus to mistaken magic.

Platform 9 and 3 quarters, and the Hogwarts express. Petunia's lost hope of being a witch too, and her rejection of Lily. Again, the theme of spying, of looking where one hasn't been invited. Snape saw the letter and wanted to know...

On the train, and the introduction of James Potter. Severus changing as soon as he can into his school robes, hunting the train to find Lily. He wants Lily to go to Slytherin and I think it's because he has no choice but to want the house his mother has told him is the only one he should want. The sparks striking, right from the beginning between James and Severus. It isn't clear whether Sirius or James comes up with "Snivellus" first, but from that moment it's a declaration of war.

The sorting. That's the moment that they begin to part, when Lily goes to Gryffindor and Snape goes to the tender mercies of Lucius Malfoy and a bunch of roommates who aren't going to care how he learned all the hexes he knows. (Did his mother use them as discipline on a young boy? Or did she just aim them at his father?)

We know from the Half-Blood Prince that he was brilliant from the beginning. If he hadn't wanted Slytherin I think he'd have fit into Ravenclaw. But his is a fluid nature, as befits a future master of Potions, and like any fluid he adapted to the shape he was poured into.

I think, perhaps, of all the Marauders, only Remus Lupin ever had any clue about how important it was to Snape to fit in with his roommates -- and I don't think he actually heard the clue phone until they were adults. That he stayed friends with Lily for as long as he did was something of an accomplishment.

At fifteen/sixteen, of course he was in love with her. Throw hormones into the mix and a girl who actually talks to you like you haven't got greasy hair and bad skin and I defy any fifteen year old boy who doesn't fancy boys not to fall in love. And Snape can see that James fancies her too. She's bright, she's brave, she's pretty... I think half the boys in that year probably looked at her more than once. And James, who hasn't managed to get Lily to talk to him like a human being yet, egged on by Sirius, who isn't a Death Eater only because he's not doing anything Regulus is doing thank you, is busy making Severus' life a misery. (Note to file... James saves Snape's life before Snape's worst memory... Even nearly getting a classmate killed didn't stop the Marauders from being a load of prats.)

Even when I was reading "Order of the Phoenix" I didn't see Snape calling Lily a "mudblood" because that's how he thought of her. I thought then, and even moreso now, that he was trying to get her to go away -- either because he didn't want to be humilated in front of her, or more likely because he was trying to keep her out of the line of fire. His vigil outside the Gryffindor common room only makes me sure of the latter. And here is where Lily proves that she is human and fallible. She doesn't accept his apology. With the black and white logic of an adolescent she condemns him to a path away from hers. And in the black and white logic of adolescence, Snape who is unforgiven, decides that he must be unforgiveable. What other mistakes matter, now that he's made this one?

But of course, once he's made the mistake of telling Voldemort what he overheard about the prophecy, he discovers that his mistakes still do matter. That no matter how much he might have consigned Lily off into the dark reaches of "I don't care" because she's gone off and married James the-Quidditch-Hero Potter, when his choices threaten her life he is filled with remorse. He goes to Dumbledore, warns him, chooses to save James and Harry too if it means saving Lily, and then agrees to pay the price of saving them.

Let me clarify something here. I think this represents the time that Snape realizes that he might not be "in-love" with Lily Evans Potter, but that he loves her still. That her safety is worth "anything" -- up to and including his life.

And then she dies. And in his grief, Snape is truly transfigured. This, perhaps, is the moment that Dumbledore recognizes the remorse for what it is (although I see it clearly in the earlier memory.) Snape wants to die -- he is forced, by Dumbledore's relentless logic, to live. But he is relentless too. He recognizes, I think, the quality in Dumbledore that makes him so excellent a secret keeper, and asks for one more secret between them.

Ten years pass before the next memory -- ten years which have wrought a change in the relationship between Snape and Dumbledore. No longer is Dumbledore a towering figure who uses every ounce of leverage he can find against Snape -- now he is almost absentmindedly friendly, pointing out Snape's blind spots almost casually before entrusting him again with a task too delicate for others.

That snippet from the end of the Yule ball. What's that doing in Snape's memories? Why, of all the things that Snape is thinking at the end of his life, does he pass that memory along to Harry? "I sometimes think we Sort too soon." Ah, but where would the first years' sleep until you'd Sorted them? (Some of you may remember the little drabble I wrote months ago. I thought of it, reading this bit.)

And now we see Snape trying to keep Dumbledore alive, their friendship at a place where he can scold the most powerful wizard he knows for doing something foolish. Dumbledore is still commanding -- there is no question who is the mastermind and who is the agent -- but Snape has earned a certain license. I howled with glee at his offer to allow Dumbledore a chance to compose an epitaph.

As the two of them discuss the danger to Snape's soul it is clear that Dumbledore truly is choosing the manner of his death -- that he is asking for a mercy, not a murder, and it is only then that Snape agrees.

And yet he is still human. He is hurt that Dumbledore is confiding in Harry. And he still can't understand what it is about Harry that has made him worth his mother's death. (That, I think, is what has truly made him hate Harry all these years. He needs someone to blame...) Dumbledore keeps talking about Harry like he's something shiny, and all Snape can see is a boy who keeps getting lucky. And it's worse when he finally finds out why he has done all these things for all these years. Has protected the boy only to see him be killed. Has failed Lily's memory as he failed Lily. He still loves her, has never stopped grieving for her. (Why do you think he always wears black?) She died to save Harry's life, and Snape has to let Harry die. But we see tears in his eyes here -- the first sign of a thaw.

Another memory, Snape still taking Dumbledore's orders, still bound by his own word to the service of a man who is dead. If the Fidelius charm changed upon Dumbledore's death, surely any Oath Severus might have given would be broken magically. But he has promised to do his best to protect the students at Hogwarts, and he is sticking to that task. You'll notice here, as I did, that Dumbledore isn't using Harry's safety as any kind of bait. It's Hogwarts that Snape is defending now.

The escape, and Snape's attempt to save Lupin, that goes wrong. Is that why he went to Grimmauld place? Whatever he was seeking, he found something else.

Now, the general consensus seems to be that Snape is weeping over that letter because of Lily. I've got a different interpretation. I think that Snape has been learning -- just as Harry has been learning -- how very much different Albus Dumbledore was than the man they thought he was. Why wouldn't Snape take the whole thing? Yes, the picture of Lily -- my personal bet is that he hasn't got a single one left to him -- he'd take that. But why only take the part of the letter that mentions Grindelwald? Why leave for Harry (because honestly, who else might ever find it) the part of the letter that describes that happy home and the one-year-old terror on a toy broom. (I love it that Harry is just as destructive as Dudley at that age. I've worked with toddlers!)

And one last memory. Snape, still taking Dumbledore's orders, still not knowing why he's doing it, but going blindly on faith for the sake of the wizard -- not the witch -- that he'd come to love as much as ever he loved Lily. Snape, the alchemist, knowing that Harry must go through water and fire and air and earth to reach where he is going, and setting out to place the sword where only courage can reach it. Snape, who has somehow forgiven Dumbledore for being a manipulative, secretive old bastard, and is going on...

Comments

[cacopheny.livejournal.com]

Oh, this is excellent. I've been reading a ton of Snape meta lately, and I think this is one of my favorites ^^ Thank you for posting your thoughts!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you for finding them! I should probably post this over at "rabbitandjinx" but I hardly ever use that LJ, so it seemed more reasonable to do it here.

[elendiari22.livejournal.com]

This chapter just killed me. I too think that Snape meant for Harry to see how he truly was when he said "Look at me." And then there's the bit when Snape casts his Patronus and says "always" in response to Dumbledore's query if he cares about Harry. I'm not sure how to take that, unless we look at it as Snape liking Harry for the five percent of Lily he saw in him, and hating him for the nintey five percent of James. I don't know. I need to read the whole thing again.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think that Snape casts the doe because he is still grieving Lily, not because he acknowledges any sense of fondness for Harry.

In a sense he's a tragic figure because he only realizes things too late. He doesn't realize that he is endangering Lily until it is too late to truly protect her. And he doesn't realize that he will miss Dumbledore like he does, either. The portrait isn't much of a substitute.

I think Harry and Snape had to forgive each other for the same reason. They cannot move on until they have learned not to hate. And I think Snape managed it first. The pensieve was out, visible, in that office. It gives you an objective look at your memories. How many evenings do you think he had to spend looking back at his memories of Harry, as he tried to figure out why Dumbledore insisted on the long charade? But once he's become Headmaster his capacity for love has become enlarged. He always knew he loved Lily, from the time he was fifteen or sixteen. He discovered after Dumbledore was gone that he loved Dumbledore. I think he may have suspected that he loved Slytherin house, although he wouldn't have called it love, during the tenure where his students won the house cup for him for so many years. And once he had the lives and safety of all the students of Hogwarts in his care, I think he discovered that he loved Hogwarts most of all.

He wants to find Harry to tell him how to end the battle, to save as many lives as he can manage to save. Yes, it means sacrificing Harry. But I think by the time that he's facing Voldemort in that shack, Snape has come to feel the sacrifice is worth it, that if only Harry can be persuaded to do what his mother has done before and die for what he loves (and by now, Snape is sure that Harry can rise to the task) will most of the students he promised to protect survive.

[sayhello.livejournal.com]

This is great. I love a lot of the points you make. Snape was always one of my favorites, and I love that JKR gave us so much more of him at the end. Just love it.

I don't have time to say much, I'll come back later, but I did want to comment that I think Snape took the second page of the letter because that, like the torn piece of the photo, contained all he really wanted, something of Lily. He doesn't care about Harry's toy broomstick or gossip about Bathilda or Dumbledore. JKR specifically says "Snape took the page bearing Lily's signature, and her love, and tucked it inside his robes." If you look at just the part on the second page, Snape could, if he wanted to, pretend that the "Lots of love" was directed at, not Sirius, but himself. Someone who's suffered from unrequited love -- destined to remain unrequited -- for *that* long tends to grasp at straws. It makes no rational sense, but it comforts, somehow.

Hewene

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I have always sniggered mightily at that icon...

Oh, I can see that Harry sees it that way. And I do agree with you about unrequited love. But Harry's not always good at seeing Snape's motivations, and even at this point I find him an unreliable guide. I think if all he'd wanted was the signature block, Snape would have torn it out of the letter, much as he tore the photograph.

But as the memories go on, they're far less about Lily and far more about Dumbledore. If it weren't for that snippet from the Yule ball, perhaps, I'd see things differently. But all that stuff at the beginning of the book about Harry discovering what he never knew about Albus can't help but make me wonder about what happened to Snape's world when he picked up that screed by Rita Skeeter...

You see, Harry and Snape make the same mistakes. They decide about people once and for all on very little evidence. (Or even on a lot of evidence.) But from the moment that Harry manages to overcome his basic mistrust and accept that Dudley has more dimensions than he thought he'd had, this book is about forgiveness -- about understanding. And I think that Snape has to be making the parallel journey, even if we don't see it on the page.

It's an essential journey, though. Harry isn't actually worthy of being the sacrifice that he walks into the Forbidden Forest to be until he's abandoned hatred. He has to forgive Snape first.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Which makes the thing a very christian pilgrimage, now that I come to think of it... okay, not only now. It is - strangely enough - the same idea, though. I must confess that I like it.

[melilot-hill.livejournal.com]

I really like your analysis. I never believed Snape was as black as Harry painted him, but I've never been able to put my feelings and believes into words. I'm not really good at that. So I loved reading this!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've been thinking about Snape for a long time!

[lily-the-hobbit.livejournal.com]

The chapter about Snape is one of my favourites. I've only read all books in May and still I feel I have forgotten many important bits and pieces. I was never sure whether I could trust Snape. I dind't see him on "the dark side" but sometimes he made me doubt whether he was really on the Order's side. One thing I never doubted though, was that he killed Dumbledore because he was asked to do it.

That he loved Lily shone through in a way but I never expected it to be the way it is presented in DH - though it makes perfect sense.

As for Snape's "Look at me." I totally agree with you - he wanted Harry to see him as he was not what Harry thought was true.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Thank you! It's been a long row for the Snape fans to hoe, it must be admitted, and some of them are still throwing hissy fits, but I think this is as close as JKR could ever come to telling us his side of the story.

[elycia.livejournal.com]

This is fascinating and extremely thought-provoking. You must have spent AGES putting this together. Thanks for posting it and giving us some new perspectives to ponder!

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

Naah, only a couple of hours I should have spent being productive... but I did enjoy writing it!

[clevertoad.livejournal.com]

It's the Tom Sawyer principle: it's not work if you're doing it for fun no matter how much work it takes. And it's always MUCH more fun that what you're actually supposed to be working on.

Lovely analysis. Now go finish that flippin' essay.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

I finished it and sent it in. I don't actually want the job, so it wasn't that hard. I just wanted to get across to them that they're screwing up...

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

Wonderful, thank you. And it is beyond amazing for me that many an excellent fanfiction author has understood Snape much earlier than Rowling ever revealed her personal truth. I came to trust him completely when I saw him showing that moron Fudge the Dark Mark on his arm - a fierce protector of the truth, an angry man, showing himself as a fighter for the good side. And this scene miraculously blended with the tiny moment in the movie of Prisoner of Azhkaban when the werewolf shows up and Snape for a glorious second instinctively spreads his arms to protect his students - again a glimpse of what he so desperately tries to hide: that he has a sharp eye for what is right, and that his true nature is a good one. The things Harry sees in the Pensieve moved me deeply; they made me think of the impressive scene in YASMTDS, the one I mentioned to you.

Ah yes, I'm back, btw. That was the hell of a scout camp. Oy vey.

[rabidsamfan.livejournal.com]

You're back you're back! *hugs tightly* I'm glad you're home and intact. Which scene in YASMTDS? The one where he goes to Dumbledore? There have been so many comments on that I can no longer keep track of which is which. (2000 hits on the last chapter in two weeks. Yikes!)

Snape has fascinated me since book three, and like you I love that bit in Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm really hoping they do him justice in the last two movies for a change.

[lame-pegasus.livejournal.com]

I thought of the scene when he remembers a pregnant Lily, literally taking him by the hand and leading him to Dumbledore, to change sides. That was an extremely great piece of writing, my dear.

Yep, still working my way through the backlog of bookmarked posts...

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Thank you for that beautifully laid-out piece of exposition; I very much like your take on Snape. I have been a Snape-fan from the start, in the sense of appreciating him as an interesting, multi-layered, more-sympathetic-than-the-POV-character-allows character; of course he is not always a *likeable* man, but that's different. I do have a problem with the petty, nasty ways in which he abuses his power *as a teacher*, which is the crucial point: there are things you can forgive in 'just a man' where it does seem appropriate to hold a teacher to a higher standard of behaviour, however understandable that behaviour might be in the circumstances. I suppose one can also hold Dumbledore responsible too, for knowing that about Snape and still appointing him in charge of vulnerable children, though really it all fits in with the rather more brutal and dangerous nature of schooling at Hogwarts compared to our world. (I hold Dumbledore responsible for the Dursleys, too: in real-world terms he was exceptionally lucky Harry didn't come out of that abusive upbringing as a completely damaged child incapable of D's all-important emotion of love, let alone the task of saving the world! But that's really getting off the point now...)

And may I congratulate you on spotting all along that the "awful boy" might have been Snape; I had to have it pointed out to me after this book, having at the time accepted Harry's misapprehension at face value.