Snape: Friend or Foe?
If you are not a fan (or a reader) of Harry Potter, it’s probably best to stop reading this post now, as it won’t make much sense.
In The Sorcerer’s Stone, Professor Snape turns out to have challenged Professor Quirrell’s loyalties—not, as Hermione, Harry, and Ron thought, tried to get the stone for himself. It seems clear enough that Snape suspects Quirrell’s intentions, whether or not he suspects that Q. has got himself tangled up with Voldemort. Right? He even confronts Q. on this matter, once overheard by Harry (under the cloak of the Invisibility Cape), and once when Snape tries to head Q. off on the forbidden third floor (after a troll diverts the rest of the teachers).
But by the end, it is known that Voldemort has used Quirrell as a host body. So Snape must know, at least after the fact, that all his confrontations have been witnessed by Voldemort, his old boss (and whose name I keep typoing as Voldemart).
So how, much later on, does he convince Voldemort that he is worthy of spying at Hogwarts? Surely Voldemort is suspicious after the Sorcerer’s Stone incident? Or am I forgetting something?
Posted 8 July 2007
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are you sure you’re ready to open this up? i’ve been waiting for a window to leap through…
we don’t know what snape says to voldemort when he returns to him at the end of goblet of fire to prove his loyalty. he tells bellatrix at the beginning of half blood prince that he admitted to voldemort that he remained at hogwarts because he thought voldemort was gone, for which he was ashamed. & that voldemort forgave him because he trusted his loyalty & was still useful as a spy at hogwarts. in fact, he had all those years so very close to dumbledore & so much information to share.
my heart says that snape is friend. i think it’s way more interesting than foe & i can’t bring myself to believe that dumbledore could be that wrong about someone. but, i gotta admit: i’m skeered he’s foe.
also:
since snape didn’t know that quirrel was working with or enchanted by or taken over by voldemort, there’s no reason that he would have helped quirrel steal the stone. i think that he could easily have told voldemort that he would have helped had he known, but by the time he knew, it was too late. this is sounding familiar to me. maybe he says something like this to bellatrix, as well?
either way, i don’t think it’s that big of a stumbling block. snape admits to bellatrix that he didn’t believe the dark lord was returning & since he was still at hogwarts under the guise of ex-death eater, he would have stuck to his cover.
i need to complain AGAIN about something from the movies that just isn’t translated very well from the books. it’s a little thing, really, but also super important: the way that none of the characters flinch when harry says voldemort’s name. & the way that other people say his name rather than dark lord. it sucks.
I just rewatched Movie #1 and thought the exact same thing about saying Voldemort’s name. It was especially noticeable because I was in the middle of Book 5, in which Hermione starts to use V’s name and Ron keeps freaking out.
Maybe you’re right that the Snape/Quirrell thing isn’t that much of a stumbling block. I hadn’t thought of it in terms of Snape not helping Q. steal the stone—since obviously he doesn’t know V. is back—but more in terms of Snape seeming to be clearly loyal to Dumbledore. And we know from Goblet of Fire that V. doesn’t take kindly to the Death Eaters who tried to excuse themselves by saying, “but we didn’t know you were back!”
So I guess I just find Snape more puzzling than ever. He seems to get the benefit of the doubt both from Voldemort and from Dumbledore.
Also:
I guess I can let this one go by as just literary license or whatever, but… if Voldemort is back at Hogwarts via Quirrell’s host body, why doesn’t V. reveal himself to Snape?
okay, this is all sounding familiar to me. i do think that in the snape/bellatrix conversation at the beginning of half blood prince that snape says that voldemort wasn’t sure of his loyalty, but then he suddenly is sure of it. so maybe whatever he said to convince voldemort of his loyalty was just really good & he’s such a good legilimens or whatever.
he’s slippery either way he goes.
at what point will your other readers tell us to get a room?
I’m supposed to start Half-Blood Prince tonight, but I’m all nervous about it. I really don’t know if I can take Dumbledore dying all over again. I’m already torn up about Sirius. But maybe you’re right, maybe there is a Snape/Bellatrix conversation I just don’t remember.
On that note, I started to wonder last night about my feelings toward the series. By the end of Book 5, I get pretty heartbroken. It’s still good, mind you, but the series becomes a little less… fun. Perhaps it is just testimony to J.K. Rowling’s successful creation of this other world that it can make me so emotional.
i went back & re-read the snape/bellatrix conversation last night & it is, indeed, all covered in there. never fear.
i kinda get what you’re saying about the series being less fun, except that harry’s parents are brutally murdered in the beginning of the 1st book. sure, we don’t see it & we’re not that invested in them as characters, but it’s a pretty not fun way to start the series. & harry is abused by his foster family his whole childhood. to me, the stage for impending darkness & doom was set right from the start. not to mention that voldemort tries to kill him in every book.
rather than saying less fun, it seems to me that it is less innocent and isn’t childhood kind of like that? as you learn more & become more mature, innocence wanes, and you end up with a different kind of fun.
certainly kudos to j.k. for creating a fully realized all-encompassing world. & kudos for you for being sucked right into it. otherwise, what’s the point of reading?
yeah, i called you a sucker. takes one to know one.
Yes, I started Book 6 last night and got to the Snape/Bellatrix conversation immediately. It feels a little bit like Rowling’s doing housekeeping, but I’ll take it, because it does answer a lot of questions.
I think I’ll have to answer the second part of your comment in a separate post…