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Hey everyone,
Welcome to another installment of Harry Potter Theory. In today’s video, we’re going
to be discussing Severus Snape, Harry Potter, and the Deathly Hallows. More specifically,
we’re going to be addressing one large aspect of the Harry Potter story: Harry’s trust
in Snape.
Throughout the series Harry flip-flops with Snape- the two go back and forth constantly.
Snape is Harry’s professor- his instructor- his elder, but he’s also the man that was
turned down by Harry’s mother. What this meant for their relationship is that they
would never truly get along. Furthermore, Snape saw so much of James Potter, his childhood
bully, in Harry- this was an aspect that he found difficult to overcome.
However, what’s revealed in his final moments, is that Snape also saw an aspect of Harry’s
mother in Harry- her eyes- this is something that he wouldn’t admit until he was an inch
from death. You see, Snape was a proud man- he always tried to remain stoic and didn’t
like to admit when he was wrong. But the truth is that Snape was wrong, and he knew it, he
knew that he shouldn’t have ever blamed an innocent young boy for the actions of his
parents. But at the same time Snape is Snape, and he did what he had to do to cope with
his unfortunate circumstance.
So, provided that Snape was a former death eater, bullied Harry immensely throughout
of the course of his life, and murdered Dumbledore in front of him- it’s hard to imagine how
Harry could have ever trusted him- even on his deathbed. Nevertheless, in the Deathly
Hallows, when Snape is falling to pieces after being viciously attacked by Nagini- Harry
walks up to a vulnerable shadow of the Snape that he knew. At this stage, Harry collects
Snape’s tears:
A terrible rasping, gurgling noise issue from Snape’s throat.
“Take… it… Take… it…”
Something more than blood was leaking from Snape. Silvery blue, neither gas nor liquid,
it gushed from his mouth and his ears and his eyes, and Harry knew what it was, but
did not know what to do —
A flask, conjured from thin air, was thrust into his shaking hand by Hermione. Harry lifted
the silvery substance into it with his wand. When the flask was full to the brim, and Snape
looked as though there was no blood left in him, his grip on Harry's robes slackened.
In this scene Snape gives Harry his tears so that Harry can bring them to the pensieve.
The purpose of this is simple: give Harry the full story- and help him to understand
his tragedy - ‘The Prince’s Tale’.
Harry approaches the pensieve exhausted, withered and wartorn, welcoming an escape from his
own reality:
“The stone Pensieve lay in the cabinet where it had always been: Harry heaved it on to
the desk and poured Snape’s memories into the wide basin with its runic markings around
the edge. To escape into someone else’s head would be a blessed relief...nothing that
even Snape had left him could be worse than his own thoughts.”
At this point, Harry finally figures out that Snape was actually one of the good guys. Snape’s
past is put on display- his tragedy. Bullying at the hand of Harry’s father, a desperate
attempt to save the life of Harry’s mother, and conversations with Dumbledore revealing
his true motivations. Suddenly, everything was so clear.
But what I’ve always wondered about this scene is- why did Harry trust Snape? At this
stage, Snape hadn’t proved himself as one of the good guys. Sure, Voldemort had attacked
Snape- but, Voldemort was a ruthless dark wizard who was known to have turned on his
own out of anger. Couldn’t Snape’s tears have been one final distraction? One last
service for a devout follower of the dark lord? To me, there are two things that immediately
come to mind for how Snape could have played Harry.
The first possibility is of course that Snape WAS dying, but remained loyal to Voldemort
regardless. In this scenario, Snape very well could have tampered with his memories, and
sent Harry to his death.
The next possibility is that Snape wasn’t actually dying at all, and that it was all
a big ruse. As Malfoy was the one to disarm Dumbledore, it’s not entirely unreasonable
to deduce that Malfoy would have told Snape about this- a message that he would have relayed
to Voldemort- explaining the possibility of taking ownership through disarming. Playing
on Harry’s emotions, the whole Snape dying thing could have been an elaborate set-up
in order to put Harry in a compromised position.
Ok- so there are some reasons for WHY I think that Harry maybe shouldn’t have trusted
Snape. However, I’ve also got some points supporting why Harry made the right decision
in that moment.
First of all, seeing Snape like this was entirely uncharted territory, and, though apprehensive,
Harry knew deep down that Snape would never, in any circumstance, put himself in this kind
of compromised position.
“He did not know why he was doing it, why he was approaching the dying man: He did not
know what he felt as he saw Snape’s white face and the fingers trying to staunch the
blood wound at his neck. Harry took off the Invisibility Cloak and looked down upon the
man he hated, whose widening black eyes found Harry as he tried to speak. Harry bent over
him, and Snape seized the front of his robes and pulled him close.”
Harry wasn’t going in blind, he knew the deception that Snape was capable of, but here
Harry was witnessing a man that prided himself on his stoicism, completely falling to pieces-
more helpless than ever. At this stage it occurs to Harry that perhaps Snape is not
quite as bad as he always thought.
Harry didn’t know why, but he somehow knew that he needed to approach Snape in these
final moments, and he was certainly right about that. Snape died looking in to the eyes
of a boy that was more significant to him than Harry ever knew. This was the boy that
shared the same face of the man that bullied him for his entire childhood, and the eyes
of the only woman that he ever loved- the same woman that spared her own life to save
this boy. With his final breaths (in the film version) Snape looked straight in to Harry’s
face, and uttered the iconic line: “You have your mothers eyes”. These were the
same eyes that caused Snape more pain than anything else in his entire life, but at the
same time, they were the eyes that enabled Snape to feel love- to feel...alive. In the
book he simply says to Harry - “Look at me”.
I think that Snape’s fragility, paired with the fact that Dumbledore had always maintained
that Snape was on their side, was enough for Harry to give him a chance.
Throughout the final books Dumbledore constantly re-affirmed that Snape was on their side,
even when repeatedly questioned on this fact by those around him. Everyone else was unconvinced.
Furthermore, Dumbledore never explained why he trusted Snape- only that he did so unconditionally.
Even on the day that Snape kills Dumbledore, Harry raises the topic of Snape’s loyalty
with him:
"But he's a very good Occlumens, isn't he, sir?" said Harry, whose voice was shaking
with the effort of keeping it steady. "And isn't Voldemort convinced that Snape's on
his side, even now? Professor... how can you be so sure Snape's on our side?"
Dumbledore did not speak for a moment; he looked as though he was trying to make up
his mind about something. At last he said, "I am sure. I trust Severus Snape completely."
And that’s it for this video! I hope that answers the question of why Harry trusted
Snape. Did you guys ever think about this? If you enjoy the content please LIKE the video
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Until next time
Remember
The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure.