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snapey · 2 months ago

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Snape (and Dumbledore) in The Chamber of Secrets: conspiracy theory time

A coalescing of events meant that I saw this delightful gifset at around the point I reached one of the below sections in my sporadic reread of CoS, and I was struck by how differently the staff responded to Snape in the beginning of the book, when Harry first discovered Mrs Norris compared to how how they responded to Snape in this later scene.

TL;DR: Snape was always the black sheep of the staff, who modelled their feelings towards Snape off of Dumbledore's feelings - and Dumbledore didn't trust him until towards the end of GoF. I also lowkey think that Dumbledore suspected Snape of being involved in the Chamber opening - at least for a little while.

Included below is the section after which Harry has been found near a Petrified Mrs Norris:

Here, Snape is very much sidelined by his attitude to Harry, because although every teacher knows that Harry is not telling them the full truth, only Snape seems to want to actually get that truth out of him. The truth - the thing that Snape is after - comes second even to Quidditch.

Other key takeaways from the first interaction, for me, are some of the things I've outlined in my ramble here, which include potential parallels drawn between Snape and the Bloody Baron as pale, gaunt, staring, separate from the others owing to their intimidating and/or unsettling nature. 'Gaunt' is used to describe Snape here also, where JKR usually only uses it for ghosts - and, much more notably, Azkaban prisoners. 'Gaunt' in JKR's writing signals further that Snape is Other: outcasted, depressed, isolated, and practically sick, and trapped at Hogwarts as much as any prisoner might be in Azkaban. Whether he's trapped by his memories, his obligations, or Dumbledore himself, is up for interpretation.

Snape alone is described as standing in the shadows, apart from the other teachers, rather than alongside them. Notably, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are also apart from the teachers and sat 'outside the pool candlelight'- excluded by the fact that they are students, and Dumbledore and the others are authority figures, as professors.

The other authority figures - namely McGonagall and Dumbledore - do not have his back against Lockhart, and overall Snape's more aligned with Filch, as he (sort of) was in the first book, going to Filch instead of Madam Pomfrey following his injury at the teeth of Fluffy - the same Filch who is similarly 'othered' and not taken seriously in the wizarding world, but by virtue of being a Squib.

There also seems to be some continued dismissal of Snape and his position in Dumbledore's wording, right here, in this scene:

‘Professor Sprout recently managed to procure some Mandrakes. As soon as they have reached their full size, I will have a potion made which will revive Mrs Norris.’ ‘I’ll make it,’ Lockhart butted in. ‘I must have done it a hundred times, I could whip up a Mandrake Restorative Draught in my sleep –’ ‘Excuse me,’ said Snape icily, ‘but I believe I am the Potions master at this school.’ There was a very awkward pause. ‘You may go,’ Dumbledore said to Harry, Ron and Hermione.

But what I found interesting is that Snape's "I believe I am the Potions master at this school" could both refer to Snape dismissing Lockhart trying to bumble his way through a potion he's not capable or qualified to make, and refer to this moment of Dumbledore saying "I will have a potion made" where his phrasing is virtually omitting Snape from any responsibility or involvement in the process (as in why not say "Professor Snape can produce a potion to revive Mrs Norris" in the first place, since Snape's right there, and Filch is half a step away from losing his mind. To contrast, Snape even gets full credit for making the Wolfsbane potion, despite his somewhat strained relationship with Lupin in PoA).

I probably wouldn't have noticed if I wasn't busy obsessing over Snape, but something else I've picked up on during this reread of CoS is that nobody refers to Snape being involved in brewing the Mandrake Restorative Draught. Professor Sprout is credited with growing them, which is fair, and "Madam Pomfrey was pleased to report that the Mandrakes were becoming moody and secretive, meaning that they were fast leaving childhood", and Madam Pomfrey is also credited with handing out the Mandrake 'juice' to revive people at the end of the book - which is also fair, since she is the school nurse, and that's literally her job. But whose job is it to make the potion? I'd wager that normally it would be Snape, otherwise he wouldn't have been so sniffy with Lockhart about stealing his job.

Snape likes to feel useful, likes to believe that he is essential, and he likes people to know both of those things - just look at his behaviour in OotP, proud and bragging to Sirius and Harry about his job of collecting information on Voldemort. So, as usual, Snape's comment about being the potions master also plays into his characterisation as someone who's very aware of his position (and power) in relation to others, always asserting his authority as a teacher - but also constantly being reminded of the limitations of that authority, and his (often lower) position in relation to the others. We see a similar sort of thing unfold at the start of the book, when Snape is trying to expel Harry and Ron for crashing into the whomping willow. They've broken the law - not even just school rules this time - and so, they should rightly be expelled (to Snape's mind):

Instead, however, Snape is unceremoniously invited to leave his own office. Don't get me wrong, Dumbledore was very friendly about it - jocular, even - but if anything, that only served to undermine Snape's authority further. Plus, calling Snape 'Severus' (especially within the same sentence that 'Minerva' is referred to as 'Professor McGonagall') highlights Dumbledore's (and McGonagall's) more senior positions, their higher levels of authority, and Dumbledore's more paternalistic role toward Snape. By contrast, Dumbledore's use of 'Minerva' shortly after, to me at least, reflects a more equal, friendly-professional relationship - especially given that Dumbledore and McGonagall are closer peers in terms of age and authority (both having taught and held authority over Snape during his student years, and both being deputy headmistress and head of house/headmaster, where Snape is only head of house for the often-maligned Slytherin). It's almost as though it's Snape who's in trouble, not Harry and Ron.

As pointed out by this on Quora, which I agree with:

[Snape] and McGonagall have a teasing rivalry which may well be affectionate, but she and Dumbledore can’t seem to make up their minds whether to treat him as a colleague or a student.

The upshot of all of this is that Snape's authority is routinely ignored and removed entirely; far from Snape's view of justice, Harry and Ron receive one single mild detention from McGonagall - a very light slap on the wrist for breaking wizarding law, being late to school, and damaging school property - and, at the end of the book, not only are they not expelled for doing it again, putting themselves and others in danger when they could have gone to get a teacher* - but in fact they're again rewarded, with 200 points each, promising them the House Cup for the second time.

*Yes, I'm aware that if they went and got a teacher it would ruin the adventure of a kid's book - but I'm here for the Watsonian analysis, specifically Snape's pov.

So, returning to the moment Mrs Norris has been Petrified, Snape already perhaps feels that his expertise and his authority are being ignored and tested by both Lockhart and by Dumbledore, in front of his colleagues (who perhaps don't like/respect him very much) and the students (who definitely don't like/respect him very much); perhaps he even feels he's being overlooked for a task that he thinks he's undoubtedly going to be a part of. After all, he's the potions professor. Of course he'd be involved in brewing the potion to cure those who have been Petrified.

Or is he?

Maybe we're supposed to believe that Dumbledore trusts Snape from the moment he's turned spy (or, at the very least, from the moment that Snape vows to protect Harry, even once Lily is dead). But more and more I'm beginning to wonder if that trust developed more slowly, and wasn't solidified until Voldemort actually returned in GoF, and Snape risked his life in returning to Voldemort. I know it is, in part, to do with the vibe of the books earlier in the series, being shorter, simpler, and generally more light-hearted for younger children, and therefore less interested in the more complex aspects of any of the adults' lives - Snape is presented as a generic mean teacher, he's wrong, the kids love getting one up on him, there's less suggestion that he's a prodigy or a redeemed hero or whatever, he's often the butt of the joke, etc etc. But stick with me here.

After all, there's no inkling in Snape's memories of Snape or Dumbledore growing substantially closer before GoF - in fact, Snape's memories make it seem as though Dumbledore is largely disinterested in Snape in PS:

The office dissolved but re-formed instantly. Snape was pacing up and down in front of Dumbledore. “ — mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule-breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention-seeking and impertinent — ” “You see what you expect to see, Severus,” said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from a copy of Transfiguration Today. “Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likable, and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him an engaging child.” Dumbledore turned a page, and said, without looking up, “Keep an eye on Quirrell, won’t you?”

Dumbledore doesn't even look at him here, completely disinterested in what Snape has to say. Sure, Snape is bitching about an eleven-year-old, but there's none of the level of familiarity that we see in Snape's memories - starting from the 'you're a braver man than Karkaroff' in GoF, and moving into the later books (and even then, half of Snape's life in GoF is Snape very much believing - but not wanting to believe - that Dumbledore would doubt him). There's also an argument to be made that Dumbledore is sort of Occluding Snape here, like he did to Harry in OotP, keeping Snape out of the loop in the event that Voldemort returns, so Snape can honestly say he had no idea that Voldemort was attached to Quirrel - but surely the great and talented Dumbledore could effectively Occlude Snape for five minutes? This wasn't the strange connection that Harry shared with Voldemort, nor would Snape likely try and actively use Legilimency on Dumbledore - and even if he did, we know who holds all of the power in that relationship, so I doubt Snape would even try.

Anyway, building on the idea that Dumbledore doesn't trust Snape very much: at the point at which the Mandrake is due to be prepared, the Slytherin password has been "pureblood" (and who knows what else), Harry & co point out that no Slytherins have been attacked, it's Slytherin's monster going around targeting Muggle-borns, it's Slytherin's heir, Slytherin's secret chamber. Dumbledore strongly suspects Voldemort's influence/involvement (given the similarities to Myrtle's death), and later suspects Lucius Malfoy's involvement - two people who had a not-insignificant measure of control over Snape in the past.

But, at the beginning of the year, it may not even have been clear to Dumbledore that Lucius was involved. Still, someone had to have set everything in motion - and Dumbledore obviously didn't suspect Harry. Snape is more or less narratively excluded from any hint of involvement in the Mandrake draught, despite being an expert on potions and their ingredients, and at the time when it is first mentioned, he's lurking in the literal shadows, stood apart from the other teachers, who may or may not know or have heard rumours that he has a dodgy past as a DE (given that the trial we see in GoF was hardly a private affair):

So at this point, Dumbledore can have only theories as to who - or what - Petrified the cat, and how they went about it. All Dumbledore knows for certain is that someone with some exceptionally advanced knowledge of the Dark Arts or Dark Magic could've done it, someone in the school, with a likely history of being aligned with Voldemort - and at the same time, Snape's hardly doing himself any favours here by trying to incriminate Harry, a literal child.

Side note: it is really funny to me that Snape spends the anniversary of Lily and James's deaths this year trying to get their kid into shit for killing a cat. Snape is so bitter and I love him.

It's not until the end of the story that Dumbledore is made more clearly aware of the diary, its powers, or Ginny's involvement, and pieces together that Lucius alone would've had the motive to both remove Dumbledore from the school and to frame a Weasley. Up until that point - if we assume that Dumbledore doesn't fully trust Snape - it's just as likely that Snape is working from inside the school somehow, perhaps at Lucius'/Voldemort's behest, to frame Harry and rid the school of Muggle-borns, now that Voldemort is becoming more active.

As always, Dumbledore would have many theories, "each of them as unlikely as the next".

A part of me wonders, then, if Dumbledore wasn't just hedging his bets, keeping Snape sort of distanced from the process of making the Mandrake Draught and instead giving the responsibility to Madam Pomfrey, just in case Snape decided to go back on his word or had been influenced by Lucius (or the memory of Voldemort himself) and sabotage the Draught.

It might not even have been Dumbledore doing it on purpose (we're all susceptible to bias), and it might even have influenced by some of the other staff accidentally associating Snape with the Slytherin antics - until Ginny goes missing, that is:

And suddenly, from the reader's/Harry's perspective, Snape is not on the outskirts, but at the very front, leading the charge; far from being sidelined and ignored, he is quickly supported by the rest of the staff, including a very enthusiastic McGonagall. Granted, some of this is likely due to Lockhart's grating personality finally becoming the bigger evil than Snape's general shitty attitude when the fight has escalated, combined with the need to remove Lockhart entirely so that the staff - in Dumbledore's absence - can try and formulate a plan in peace.

But I also notice that it tends to be Dumbledore who belittles Snape first/the most, not the other teachers. McGonagall and Snape share what seems to be a friendly rivalry from as early as PS, and Quirrell tells Harry that Snape made himself unpopular with the other staff when he insisted on refereeing the match, suggesting that he hadn’t been especially unpopular before.

Returning to that Quora answer, though: "After he kills Dumbledore, though, most of them seem willing to believe him a traitor. Most of them come up with some variant of “Dumbledore trusted him and I trusted Dumbledore”. Only Slughorn speaks of his direct, personal relationship with Snape (“I thought I knew him”), and only Hagrid hangs on to the idea that Snape is doing as Dumbledore told him."

So they can't have been so close that they trusted him just on his own merits, even after working together for so long. I don't know about you, but I'd be surprised and doubtful even if my least-liked colleague ever turned out to have killed someone.

I think at this point it's also worth noting that my interpretation of this scene isn't only one of friendly rivalry over points (frenemy bffs), but also an infliction of McGonagall's authority over Snape, her assertion that he was in the wrong, in a workplace-friendly way:

Don't get me wrong, I think Snape was genuinely pleased to see her, and deep down happy to acquiesce - but it was also a power play on McGonagall's part, and they both knew it.

I've yet to do my reread of PoA, but I think it's fair to say that it's a book marked by Dumbledore's (and others') dismissive attitudes towards Snape, turned up to 11. All year Snape's warned Dumbledore about Sirius, and Lupin; he's humiliated in the eyes of his students by the Boggart incident; his experience with the 'prank' (which should be renamed 'the trick', because nobody ever called it a prank in the books) has been silenced, ignored, and diminished by Dumbledore since he was a child; despite being (almost) right, despite following the letter of the law, and despite attempting to save Harry, Ron, and Hermione, Snape is made to look as though he's absolutely insane in front of the Minister for Magic, his credibility damaged, his hope for justice or catharsis snatched away at the last moment, and his only personally satisfying moment includes making himself unpopular again by 'outing' Lupin, who appeared to be well-liked. We can gather from the ending of GoF that Dumbledore doesn't even care to explain to Snape the events of PoA in full until over a year later - despite Snape preparing to return to Voldemort's side, and already offering intel which Dumbledore doesn't seem to particularly care about, diminishing both Snape's preparedness and his sense of usefulness still further. No wonder he's got such a chip on his shoulder, come OotP.

Returning to my original point, then: it seems as though Snape was always the black sheep of the Hogwarts staff; the others were led, by and large, by Dumbledore's attitude towards him - and that attitude didn't become particularly positive until Snape began to 'prove himself' in GoF, and was quickly dashed at the end of HBP. As a result, I think it's perfectly plausible that the reason Snape is socially/professionally sidelined in CoS is because Dumbledore has yet to make up his mind about whether or not he trusts Snape, and lowkey thinks that Snape might be involved in opening the Chamber or sabotaging the Mandrake Draught. No matter what he tells Harry, or anyone else, he doesn't entirely trust Snape - and the amount that Snape is 'liked' by the other staff sort of increased when Dumbledore was briefly no longer headmaster in CoS. That sense of uselessness, and lack of social power and authority, feeds into Snape's insecurities in PoA, GoF, and beyond.

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