wilczawisnia:
raven-star7:
mollymcgiftens:
severus-snape-is-a-hero:
Severus knew more about the dark arts than most seventh year students as an eleven-year-old. Obviously, that means he is destined to be evil.
Or maybe just a thought:
He was a lonely child for nine years and obviously had to find ways to entertain himself. As a highly intelligent child, he turned to more academic interests. He turned to the intellectual pursuit of the dark arts. Sure he could have perhaps chosen a more morally sound intellectual pursuit. But do you really think a child younger than nine is going to know about the “supposed” moral issues with dark magic? (Because JKR isn’t clear on what the issues with dark magic are. ) No a child would just look at a dark magic book in their mother’s library and think “ooohhh that looks like it could be useful.” Especially a child living in an abusive environment who never knows when his dad might turn on him.
Adult: Hm what are the moral consequences of dark magic? Is it immoral? Why? Maybe I should be careful about this.
Child: Oh my gosh I can use this to protect myself just in case!
So let’s say dark magic is immoral for whatever reason. Can we please not accuse a CHILD that knows dark magic due to possible circumstances I’ve mentioned above as definitive proof he was always meant to join Voldemort.
Kohlberg’s theory of moral development
PRECONVENTIONAL LEVEL The child at the first and most basic level, the pre-conventional level, is concerned with avoiding punishment and getting needs met. This level has two stages and applies to children up to 10 years of age.
A child under ten or younger: “Doing that will get me punished so I must not do it.”
Whereas adults moral perspective is: “Doing that is wrong, so I must not do it.”
He was too young to know it was wrong. All he knew was that as long as he wasn’t getting punished for it, it was okay to do.
Adult: I won’t learn dark magic because it’s wrong, or because it’s disapproved of by most other people I know of.
Child: I will learn this dark magic because I won’t get punished for it. So it must be okay for me to study the book.
I’ve never been convinced that he knew that much more than the kids raised in dark aligned houses did. It’s not like he could do much magic till he got his wand, he’d still be under the trace for anything practical so he probably only had theoretical knowledge at the start.
By 5th year he is inventing his own spells so he is gifted and had a base of knowledge to work from.
This is my biggest pet peeve. Blaming a child for their curiosity and love of knowledge. To a young Sev, I’m sure magic was just magic, and he wanted to know everything! If darker spells seemed more effective for defense, then yeah…he may have been more drawn to those for a very obvious reason. We don’t actually know the circumstances, or the reasoning, as Jo never elaborated, and all we’ve got is hearsay from Sirius Black (wholly unreliable). Knowledge of the Dark Arts isn’t a bad thing (otherwise why DADA?) and as an irl witch I’ll be controversial by saying, there’s nothing wrong with the DA intrinsically, its just a different manner and style of magic, a different polarity, a tool, and its the intent of the witch or wizard that matters.
The main problem I have with the initial statement, which is so often used in certain pars of the fandom, is that in fact Sirius says this: Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year (GOF, chapter 27). Just how exactly did Sirius check it? Severus is not one to attack unless provoked (even if his definition of being provoked may be quite wide at times) and it shows in the Prince’s Tale and throughout the books. Even with Harry, something usually set him off first (btw, it doesn’t mean Severus was right reacting in the way he usually did – you know for which parts of fandom this statement is). So what did Sirius do to check that supposed Severus’ knowledge? Assuming he did check it and not just assumed things.
It’s not to say that Sirius lied. Quite the contrary – I think that Sirius said what he thought was true, which doesn’t mean he was right in his assessment. I’m more inclined to think that Sirius was projecting his own upbringing on Severus and assumed that as Severus was so inclined to be a Slytherin, he must be a pureblood and thus possessed the knowledge similar to his.
This is not to say Severus wasn’t interested in the Dark Arts. The truth is that I can easily see Severus learning as much as he can about the Dark Arts after he started Hogwarts. But before that? Not so much, for the very same reasons that @mollymcgiftens brought. He didn’t seem to have right resources for that in Cokeworth, but all the resources were in place at Hogwarts.
And as @raven-star7 stated above me, I don’t think that knowledge of the Dark Arts is a bad thing per se. After all how are you supposed to protect yourself from something you don’t know? I’m pretty sure that Aurors must be taught about the Dark Arts to know how to deal with them and quite possibly curse breakers acquire similar knowledge. Perhaps some healers, too. And neither are considered criminals because of their knowledge, are they? It’s the use of the Dark Arts that should be frowned upon.
To give a real life example. I teach accounting. Sooner or later the subject of accounting frauds always appears. And guess what? To be better at discovering them, you should first learn the mechanism used for such purposes – all the how, where and when. So let me ask you. Does the knowledge how these frauds work immediately makes anyone a criminal? Or is it rather participating in the fraud itself?
I have to agree with the headcanon theories that a young Snape’s interest in so-called “Dark Arts” was likely for defensive purposes. After all, to defend against something you must understand it, as @wilczawisnia and @raven-star7 noted. I’ve studied martial arts ever since I was a teenager and a major component of learning defense is understanding the ways that you may be attacked; you cannot defend yourself adequately without also getting into the mindset of an attacker and working through the different ways an assault is possible (be it physical or with weapons).
Severus Snape was seemingly an abused child via canon, which means that he would have developed survival instincts and defense mechanisms by necessity that some of his other classmates likely wouldn’t have developed until later in life as a result of any bullying by their peers or during the first Wizarding War. I find it interesting that Sirius Black was the one to make the statement, as it could speak to projection on his part and also give us more insight into his own childhood environment. Could it be that Sirius noted Severus’s hyper-awareness and quick defenses and rather than recognize them as characteristics of abuse (perhaps ones they even shared) regarded them as evidence he had been taught Dark Arts for malicious purposes, as was the case in his own family?
Additionally, I do believe that what many antis are forgetting that use Sirius Black’s words as evidence to vilify Severus Snape’s character is there was another abused boy who was drawn to a book of curses because he saw its potential to defend himself against his abusers. That’s right, in the very first Harry Potter book, Harry himself it drawn to a book of curses and hexes while doing his shopping and considers the way he could use them against Dudley and his friends to scare them off and defend himself (HP: PS Ch. 5 p. 80). This creates yet another parallel between Harry, Snape, and Voldemort and the Three Brothers.
Indeed, Harry’s own interest and skill for DADA culminates in HP:OOP, wherein we acknowledge that Harry is a capable teacher of DADA (as opposed to Umbridge) in the DA classes in the Room of Requirements due to the necessity of DADA in his life up to that point. In his third year, Harry felt he had to learn to cast a Patronus charm to defend himself against the Dementors and he’s able to cast a powerful and fully formed Patronus by the end of the book. Keep in mind, Remus Lupin tells us that the Patronus charm is advanced magic and not easy for even adult wizards and witches to master, yet by the fifth year Harry has not only been forced to defend himself and Dudley from yet another Dementor attack but he is leading his own class and instructing other kids on how to cast this charm.
Why? Because Harry understands what is coming and the necessity of defense due to his past experiences; he’s experienced helplessness and he prioritizes the ability to defend oneself whenever possible. All of the fifth year Harry ardently sets himself up against the Ministry’s, and more specifically Umbridge’s, slander and their attempts to keep the students of Hogwarts and the Wizarding society in general ignorant and unprepared for what is coming at a great personal cost to himself and his own reputation. To Harry, people being left “in the dark” is what makes the Dark Arts so dangerous and insidious and he’s willing to sacrifice to ensure everyone he can help learns some form of defense they would otherwise be unable to learn through Umbridge’s “sanitized” DADA classes.
This is also why I believe we see Harry form such a connection with the “Half-Blood Prince in his sixth year when he finds Snape’s textbook. Rowling is effectively re-establishing her parallel again in having Harry feel a sense of kinship with the Half-blood Prince. Notably, Snape’s own invented spells are relatively playful and mischevious (not unlike something we’d expect from the Weasley twins or the Marauders) until we get to Sectumsempre and I would argue that part of the reason for Harry’s shock upon discovering that the Half-blood Prince had such a devastating spell would seem to be due to the sense of kinship he had come to feel he shared with the erstwhile unknown author.
We could go further into the symbolic connection between Draco and Harry’s antagonism and how the first book has Dumbledore parallel it to Snape and James’s antagonism and the potential significance of Harry casting that spell (one Snape possibly developed following the Whomping Willow incident) to defend against Draco but even without an in-depth analysis the connection between Harry and Snape seems readily apparent for all those willing to look for it.
Most poignantly, of course, we have the scene at the end of HBP when Harry chases after Snape and attempts to use his own spells against him. I would argue that the entire exchange follows almost as a final teaching lesson imparted by Snape to Harry. We have the one person who could possibly understand the necessity of being able to defend oneself more than Harry expertly defending against Harry’s attacks and taking the time to impart to him how and why he can before Harry is faced with the ultimate reveal, Snape is the Half-Blood Prince he had felt such a connection to all that year. Twice Harry used the Halfblood Prince’s Sectumsempre spell “for enemies” against a perceived enemy, once on Draco while unaware of what it did (defensively) and then later he attempts to use it on Snape (offensively); this time knowing full well it’s devastating potential, which only adds to the irony and poignancy of Harry’s revelation and the connection he and Snape share as two people whose circumstances in life have helped to shape them into people who not only take defense seriously but are prepared to fight when backed into a corner and emotions are high.
Truly, the antis who are taking Sirius Black at face value and stopping there are missing one of Rowling’s finer connections within her narrative and robbing themselves of a nuance that could merit book-by-book essays. Not to mention the entire concept of Dark Arts seems to be a bit debatable and subject to interpretation. We have Sirius Black claiming Snape arrived at Hogwarts knowing more curses than older students without an explanation for how he knew that (Projection on his part? Rumor? Did a young Snape spread that around assuming it would discourage people from harassing him? Did Lucius or another of his peers find a bit of humor in spreading that around due to his size and seemingly “unimpressive” appearance? Did Sirius form that assumption without confirmation based on his later experiences going up against him? Was it justification when confronted with Harry’s disapproval? etc.). Interestingly, we also have Snape in POA referring to the Marauder’s Map as something dark to Lupin. So just what are the Dark Arts? Besides the obvious Unforgivables what truly constitutes as “dark magic?” Is it possible that the “Dark Arts” can occasionally be a term that members of the Wizarding society use more arbitrarily to define any bit of magic that they perceive as personally hostile, threatening, objectionable, or even merely to cast stigma upon a person when one wishes (as in the case of Sirius vs. Snape or Snape vs. the Marauders)?
Just a thought among many.
Slytherblogging 