The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Millions of Chosen Ones

Introduction

Hello everyone. In a few days I’d like to present the Redemption Arc of Severus Snape, but before that, I feel it is essential to address some issues about this character. Indeed, a frequent accusation is that “Snape didn’t care if James or Harry died”. Another is, “Snape knew a baby was going to get murdered and he was ok with it”. See, while we can argue that Snape was in the wrong for being a Death Eater and bla bla bla, it seems that a lot of fans have missed important elements surrounding Professor Trelawney’s Prophecy, the one that predicted Harry could be the boy who would defeat the Dark Lord. Could Snape expect a baby to be targeted after delivering the Prophecy to Voldemort? Is it fair to accuse him of asking for Lily–and only her–to be spared? Hopefully, after this video, you will see that things are much more complex than you might have initially expected.

The First Half

For those who didn’t know, Snape gave Voldemort the prophecy that had him trying to kill Harry and murdering his parents in the process. You would think that Snape could expect Voldemort to try and kill a child if he ever learned about the Prophecy. Assuming that Snape gave it truly willingly, it would make him actively complicit in the attempted murder of a baby. This could have made sense if not for an important detail: Snape couldn’t know that Voldemort would interpret the Prophecy in such a way he would be tracking a baby. Want some proof?

So the Prophecy goes like this:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…

However, Snape only heard the first part, so we have:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies…

That’s the only part he knows of, as confirmed by Dumbledore after the Battle of the Ministry when Voldemort had tried to get the rest of the Prophecy:

“[…] Voldemort’s information about the prophecy was incomplete. […] He [Snape] heard only the first part, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort.”

And this is referred to yet again in HBP:

“He was still in Lord Voldemort’s employ on the night he heard the first half of Professor Trelawney’s prophecy.”

The main problem is: where is it said that the Chosen One should be a baby? Only here:

The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies…

Which Snape never heard. It is at the very end of the Prophecy, so we know Snape hasn’t told it to Voldemort. What Snape – and thus Voldemort – know about the Chosen One is that it’s:

• The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord, approaching
• Born to those who have thrice defied him
• Born as the seventh month dies

Okay. So, given the three points above to describe the Chosen One, here’s our hero:

Our Chosen One Harriet was born at the end of July… 30 years ago. Her parents thrice defied Voldemort because they are Muggles, they dare exist and they don’t fear his name since they don’t even know who he is. Harriet is approaching because she just returned from a trip to Japan and she’s got the mysterious power of gunfire to kill Voldemort off.

…As far as we know, “defied” could mean anything; eat Voldemort’s cookies and you have defied him: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNi0PtNdoUU

« Approaches” is a strange way to say someone’s gestating; it immediately brings to mind travel, not pregnancy. As for the “power he knows not”, if HP can define it as the simple capacity to love, then 99% of the Earth’s population is eligible.

“So, when the prophecy says that I’ll have ‘power the Dark Lord knows not,’ it just means — love?” asked Harry, feeling a little let down. 

“Yes — just love,” said Dumbledore. 

Finally, I know it’s not a part that Severus could hear, but I really want to impress upon you with how vague that prophecy is. It says:

“And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…”

But isn’t it kind of… false? Harry and Voldemort both lived as the other survived. Unless you mentally add “for long” in the prophecy after « live », this last sentence makes no sense and is patently wrong.

The point? This prophecy is more subject to interpretations than religious texts. Following the first half, Harry and Neville weren’t the only Chosen Ones by far; thousands, perhaps millions of other people could have been selected. Nothing said that the Chosen One had to be a baby, let alone a baby boy. Hell, the second half never argues the Chosen One has to be magical!

I think the Prophecy was just badly conceptualized. It feels like it was a shortcut to make Harry special and justify the plot – the why Harry had to be the protagonist killing the main villain, and no one else – that Rowling took without realizing that the first half could have meant anything. Narratively-speaking, why didn’t Voldemort ever think that an adult wizard or witch could match the description? Well, we could think that he did know it, and yet, Voldemort chose a baby on purpose, to humiliate Dumbledore’s side, ruin their hopes and pull off a big joke on the Prophecy that predicted his possible defeat. By choosing a newborn as the prophesied, he is not only making an example of those who resist him by sending the message that their children will be murdered, but he also ensures that the one with “the power to vanquish the Dark Lord” is basically defenseless and powerless. Yes, Harry’s got the power to defeat the Dark Lord. Theoretically, everyone has the power to defeat him. But having this power doesn’t mean you have a higher probability to achieve it. Not at all. Had Voldemort chosen an adult able to defend themselves from him, he would have made things unnecessarily harder. However, by choosing a baby, he truly offers himself no resistance at all. Well, at first sight, in truth…

All of this to say: it’s very likely that Snape thought the Prophecy referred to an adult, and he could not expect a baby to be the Chosen One. By all means, it’s ok to interpret Snape as very dark, because after all, his Redemption Arc has to come from somewhere. Maybe he truly wouldn’t have cared even if he had always known a baby’s life was on the line. Just remember that as far as we know, this is only up to interpretation.

McGuffin Prophecy

But then comes another problem. Whether Snape expected a baby to be targeted or not, he could at least have known that Voldemort would set out to kill the people he saw as potential Chosen Ones. 

Thing is… Could Snape have really expected the Dark Lord to leap into action the moment he heard the Prophecy? I don’t think so, and here’s why.

In the world of HP, predictions are not reliable

As Dumbledore says:

“Do you think every prophecy in the Hall of Prophecy has been fulfilled?” 

So not only was the Prophecy extremely vague, but it could have not become true at all. The only reason it kind of became reality is because Voldemort chose to act upon it.

“But Harry, never forget that what the prophecy says is only significant because Voldemort made it so.”

Tom Riddle Jr could have totally decided to discard the Prophecy and carry on with his tasks. In fact, it’s not just that Voldemort could have done so, it’s that we could expect him to discard something as useless and unreliable as a “prophecy”. 

What would McGonagall think of Divination again?

“Divination is one of the most imprecise branches of magic. I shall not conceal from you that I have very little patience with it. True Seers are very rare, and Professor Trelawney…”

…is a fake Seer in her eyes. What about Hermione?

“I think Divination seems very woolly,” she said, searching for her page. “A lot of guesswork, if you ask me.” 

Umbridge – someone Voldemort would love as an ally – doesn’t take Divination seriously:

Professor Trelawney pointed a shaking finger at Professor Umbridge who continued to smile blandly at her, eyebrows raised. “I am afraid… I am afraid that you are in grave danger!” Professor Trelawney finished dramatically. 

There was a pause. Professor Umbridge’s eyebrows were still raised. “Right,” she said softly, scribbling on her clipboard once more. “Well, if that’s really the best you can do…”

The Ministry considers Divination useless as well:

“You c-can’t!” howled Professor Trelawney, tears streaming down her face from behind her enormous lenses, “you c-can’t sack me! I’ve b-been here sixteen years! H-Hogwarts is m-my h-home!” 

“It was your home,” said Professor Umbridge, and Harry was revolted to see the enjoyment stretching her toadlike face as she watched Professor Trelawney sink, sobbing uncontrollably, onto one of her trunks, “until an hour ago, when the Minister of Magic countersigned the order for your dismissal. Now kindly remove yourself from this hall. You are embarrassing us.” [oof]

Dumbledore is of the same opinion, or at least, he was until Trelawney made an actual prophecy…

“[…] it was against my inclination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all.”

Firenze explains that many mistakes are made in this branch of magic, even by Centaurs, famous for their Divination skills:

“We watch the skies for the great tides of evil or change that are sometimes marked there. It may take ten years to be sure of what we are seeing.” 

[…] Firenze told them to look for certain shapes and symbols in the pungent fumes, but he seemed perfectly unconcerned that not one of them could see any of the signs he described, telling them that humans were hardly ever good at this, that it took centaurs years and years to become competent, and finished by telling them that it was foolish to put too much faith in such things anyway, because even centaurs sometimes read them wrongly. […] His priority did not seem to be to teach them what he knew, but rather to impress upon them that nothing, not even centaurs’ knowledge, was foolproof.

The Seer who made the Prophecy is far from reliable herself

Did I tell you how much worse it becomes when you realize that the Seer who made the Prophecy that Snape heard is Sybill Trelawney? What do people think of her? Mmh, let’s see. McGonagall:

“There is no need to say any more, Miss Granger. Tell me, which of you will be dying this year?” […] “Then you should know, Potter, that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet. Seeing death omens is her favorite way of greeting a new class. […]”

Hermione:

“I just think she’s an absolutely appalling teacher and a real old fraud…”

Ron, who at first believed Trelawney, starts to consider her a fake Seer too:

“You know, I’m starting to think Hermione was right about her” — he jabbed his thumb toward the trapdoor overhead — “she’s a right old fraud.” 

Harry “knows” that Trelawney is spouting bullshit:

Harry caught Ron’s eye and knew that Ron was thinking exactly the same as he was: They both knew that Professor Trelawney was an old fraud […]. 

Or as Harry remarks about Hermione and Umbridge:

“You and Umbridge have got something in common,” Harry told Hermione quietly when they met again in Defense Against the Dark Arts. “She obviously reckons Trelawney’s an old fraud too… Looks like she’s put her on probation.” 

As for Dumbledore:

“Of course, I had not dreamed, when I set out to meet Sibyll Trelawney, that I would hear anything worth overhearing.” […] “The applicant, however, was the great-great-granddaughter of a very famous, very gifted Seer, and I thought it common politeness to meet her. I was disappointed. It seemed to me that she had not a trace of the gift herself. I told her, courteously I hope, that I did not think she would be suitable for the post. I turned to leave.”

Trelawney explains that when Snape was caught overhearing the prophecy, he was thrown out of the Hog’s Head… without so much as an Obliviate to ensure that whatever Snape heard would not reach Voldemort’s delicate ears. Weird right? And we know that Dumbledore was aware Snape had been listening. Snape hadn’t been kicked out of the Hog’s Head until well after Trelawney had regained consciousness :

Dumbledore did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room at the inn. He questioned me… I must confess that, at first, I thought he seemed ill-disposed towards Divination… and I remember I was starting to feel a little odd, I had not eaten much that day… but then… […] there was a commotion outside the door and it flew open, and there was that rather uncouth barman standing with Snape, who was waffling about having come the wrong way up the stairs, although I’m afraid that I myself rather thought he had been apprehended eavesdropping on my interview with Dumbledore — you see, he himself was seeking a job at the time, and no doubt hoped to pick up tips! Well, after that, you know, Dumbledore seemed much more disposed to give me a job, and I could not help thinking, Harry, that it was because he appreciated the stark contrast between my own unassuming manners and quiet talent, compared to the pushing, thrusting young man who was prepared to listen at keyholes — Harry, dear?”

Dumbledore’s blatant negligence might indicate that either he intended Snape to pass on the Prophecy, or that he considered that the information Snape got had no value and so it was safe to let him go. 

Hagrid proves that Trelawney perpetuates harmful superstitions, for instance against Thestrals:

“Thestrals,” said Hagrid proudly and Hermione gave a soft “oh!” of comprehension at Harry’s shoulder. “Hogwarts has got a whole herd of ’em in here. Now, who knows — ?” 

“But they’re really, really unlucky!” interrupted Parvati, looking alarmed. “They’re supposed to bring all sorts of horrible misfortune on people who see them. Professor Trelawney told me once —” 

“No, no, no,” said Hagrid, chuckling, “tha’s jus’ superstition, that is, they aren’ unlucky, they’re dead clever an’ useful!”

Firenze considers her a total clown:

“I am afraid,” she went on, “that the nag — I’m sorry, the centaur — knows nothing of cartomancy. I asked him — one Seer to another — had he not, too, sensed the distant vibrations of coming catastrophe? But he seemed to find me almost comical. Yes, comical!” 

Sybill admits that many people put her skills in question for years. Beware for the following quote because she’s also a bitter, jealous centaur-phobic bigot:

“Perhaps the horse has heard people say that I have not inherited my great-great-grandmother’s gift. Those rumors have been bandied about by the jealous for years.” [sure, “the jealous”]

Many of her predictions are wrong. Or they’re cheap. I mean, I too can rightfully predict that 100% of us will die! Since we all are mortals… Woo..!

“Then you should know, Potter, that Sybill Trelawney has predicted the death of one student a year since she arrived at this school. None of them has died yet.”

“Who’d have thought it? That brings her total of real predictions up to two. I should offer her a pay raise…” 

She also contradicts herself. She kept telling Harry that he was going to die horribly, and one day:

[…] Professor Trelawney broke into hysterical sobs during Divination and announced to the startled class, and a very disapproving Umbridge, that Harry was not going to suffer an early death after all, but would live to a ripe old age, become Minister of Magic, and have twelve children. 

Trelawney looks weird, even ridiculous:

Professor Trelawney moved into the firelight, and they saw that she was very thin; her large glasses magnified her eyes to several times their natural size, and she was draped in a gauzy spangled shawl. Innumerable chains and beads hung around her spindly neck, and her arms and hands were encrusted with bangles and rings. 

She purposefully uses dramatics to make herself look important, which just reinforces the image she’s a clown:

“Welcome,” it said. “How nice to see you in the physical world at last.” […] “I find that descending too often into the hustle and bustle of the main school clouds my Inner Eye.”

Patricia from Split had more credibility than her. [“I found that Asian people’s music aids digestion :) ”]

She’s a conceited liar:

“Well, after that, you know, Dumbledore seemed much more disposed to give me a job, and I could not help thinking, Harry, that it was because he appreciated the stark contrast between my own unassuming manners and quiet talent, compared to the pushing, thrusting young man who was prepared to listen at keyholes — Harry, dear?” [Risitas laugh]

And the cherry to top it all… she’s an alcoholic:

[…] several times he passed her in the corridors (in itself a very unusual occurrence as she generally remained in her tower room), muttering wildly to herself, wringing her hands, and shooting terrified glances over her shoulder, all the time giving off a powerful smell of cooking sherry. 

Trelawney was often seen in a state of inebriety near the students, something that would get her fired in any other school:

• Professor Trelawney seemed too tipsy to have recognized Harry. 
• Her voice rose rather hysterically, and Harry caught a powerful whiff of sherry even though the bottles had been left behind. 

She knows she’s at fault, but she won’t stop. Instead, she decides to use one of the school’s rooms – the Room of Requirement to be precise – so she can hide her bottles of sherry:

• “I wished to — ah — deposit certain — um — personal items in the room…” And she muttered something about “nasty accusations.” 

“Right,” said Harry, glancing down at the sherry bottles.

• “Professor Trelawney was just in the Room of Requirement, trying to hide her sherry bottles […].”

Then she leaves the sherry bottles in the open where any student could find them:

She bent down, scooped up her sherry bottles, and dumped them unceremoniously in a large blue-and-white vase standing in a nearby niche.

And I’m pretty sure that the fumes she used were there not just to perfume the class. 

Now, if a drunkard widely known to be a fraud started to rant about a prophecy while you know she’s just trying to impress Dumbledore to be hired at Hogwarts and that prophecies are inaccurate 99% of the time, would you believe her? [snort] No; I would have my doubts too. Especially when we read how the interview was going that night:

“Dumbledore did me the courtesy of calling upon me in my room. He questioned me… I must confess that, at first, I thought he seemed ill-disposed toward Divination… and I remember I was starting to feel a little odd, I had not eaten much that day…”

Or perhaps you were a bit too drunk. When you know even the Seer feels odd, you can guess how credible it sounds… not at all. Who knew someone as cunning as the Dark Lord would ever put the tiniest bit of faith into what a Dumbledore-loving old fraud spouted off?

You got the gist of it: the information that Snape collected was mostly useless. 

Here during the First War you have Rookwood passing information from the Ministry itself, Pettigrew passing information on the Order and the Potters, while Snape… gets thrown out of the Hog’s Head Inn only to bring half of a fit of fortune-telling histrionics from a laughable source about something that might not ever happen! Wow, great spying work! 

And that’s when I wonder if Voldemort choosing to target Lily Evans’s son was not, as Dumbledore assumes, the consequence of Voldemort fearing a half-blood because he sees himself in him:

“He chose, not the pureblood (which, according to his creed, is the only kind of wizard worth being or knowing), but the half-blood, like himself. He saw himself in you before he had ever seen you […].”

Perhaps Voldemort didn’t Choose baby Harry only to discourage the Order. It’s possible he Chose him also because, by basically announcing he would kill the person Severus cares for the most, he was punishing him for such bad services. We know Voldemort is capable of that kind of sadism. For instance, he ordered Draco to kill Dumbledore, and yet:

“The Dark Lord does not expect Draco to succeed. This is merely punishment for Lucius’s recent failures. Slow torture for Draco’s parents, while they watch him fail and pay the price.”

Similarly, Voldemort could have delighted in punishing Severus with such “slow torture”, as he watches his dearest pay the price of his incompetence. It could be the occasion to test Severus’ loyalty to the Dark Lord in the cruelest way, as well as to check if Snape agrees with pureblood supremacy. Imagine then the insane danger it represented for Snape to beg the Dark Lord to spare Lily. All the while, he had to pretend that he just desired her, that he could always marry another woman “of purer blood, worthier of him »… just because Voldemort wanted to see if Snape would crack and reveal his true colors. (Well, we know he did.)

But wait, Voldemort asked Lily to step aside on that fateful night, so could it mean he always planned to respect his promise to Snape after all? Not necessarily. Remember he elected to spare Lily after Severus had been playing double agent with Dumbledore for a year, which represents excellent spying services this time. Only then could Voldemort have thought that instead of punishing Severus by killing Lily Evans, he would rather spare her to congratulate him.

However, you could argue that Snape could have known that Trelawney’s Prophecy was the real deal since her behavior when making an actual prophecy is vastly different from when she makes little assumptions:

“IT WILL HAPPEN TONIGHT.”
Harry wheeled around. Professor Trelawney had gone rigid in her armchair; her eyes were unfocused and her mouth sagging. […] Her eyes started to roll. Harry stood there in a panic. She looked as though she was about to have some sort of seizure. […] then Professor Trelawney spoke again, in the same harsh voice, quite unlike her own:
“THE DARK LORD LIES ALONE AND FRIENDLESS, ABANDONED BY HIS FOLLOWERS. HIS SERVANT HAS BEEN CHAINED THESE TWELVE YEARS. TONIGHT, BEFORE MIDNIGHT . . . THE SERVANT WILL BREAK FREE AND SET OUT TO REJOIN HIS MASTER. THE DARK LORD WILL RISE AGAIN WITH HIS SERVANT’S AID, GREATER AND MORE TERRIBLE THAN EVER BEFORE. TONIGHT . . . BEFORE MIDNIGHT . . . THE SERVANT . . . WILL SET OUT . . . TO REJOIN . . . HIS MASTER. . . .”

Which is fair: that would explain why he went to his master urgently for “a matter of most importance” – warning him that someone was coming with the ability to shoot him down. You could also say that Voldemort would know if Snape was being genuine and if the Prophecy he talked about was serious because he constantly uses Legilimens, even on his trusted spies:

“Saturday . . . at nightfall,” repeated Voldemort. His red eyes fastened upon Snape’s black ones with such intensity that some of the watchers looked away, apparently fearful that they themselves would be scorched by the ferocity of the gaze. Snape, however, looked calmly back into Voldemort’s face and, after a moment or two, Voldemort’s lipless mouth curved into something like a smile.
“Good. Very good. And this information comes —”
“— from the source we discussed,” said Snape.

But while Snape is guilty of trying to help Voldemort, it doesn’t change what we said earlier. It doesn’t change that Snape is just basically telling Voldemort to beware of a potential upcoming danger. It doesn’t change the fact that…

Snape couldn’t have expected his master to interpret the Prophecy in the way he eventually did.

Remember: just as how most prophecies work in books of children’s fantasy, Trelawney’s prediction “became true” only because Voldemort chose to make it true. It was a self-fulfilling prophecy more than anything.

“But,” said Harry, bewildered, “but last year, you said one of us would have to kill the other —” “Harry, Harry, only because Voldemort made a grave error, and acted on Professor Trelawney’s words!”

Only he decided what it meant. 

“You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything! […] In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy! […]” 

Meaning that Snape couldn’t ever know for sure what Voldemort would do upon hearing the first half of the Prophecy; he could have expected him to just discard it and carry on. Dumbledore confirms it:

“But he did not know — he had no possible way of knowing — which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onward, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father —”

Beware of Dumbledore’s bias here: it’s not that Snape couldn’t know “which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onward”, it’s that there was no reason to expect Voldemort to choose a baby boy at all.

Speaking of our dear Headmaster and his biases… I’d like to deal with a final problem once and for all. *

The Prophecy’s point is moot

Would it have truly made a difference if Snape hadn’t given Voldemort the Prophecy? Probably, but not in the way you might expect. In HBP, Dumbledore tells Harry:

“Imagine, please, just for a moment, that you had never heard that prophecy! How would you feel about Voldemort now? Think!” 

Would Voldemort have suddenly stopped killing everyone who stood in his way? No he wouldn’t have. The Potters were already on a death list, especially as they were known for having defied Voldemort thrice. They were already meant to be killed, they just became a priority because Voldemort decided to follow a stupid prophecy. 

In fact, not only the Potters could have been murdered anyway, but it’s likely that if Snape hadn’t told Voldemort the Prophecy, then Harry might not have survived as well, and Voldemort would have won the war. Why is that? The only reason Harry survived is because Lily casted sacrificial protection on him when Voldemort murdered her. Beware: this has to be a sacrifice. James’ death didn’t cast sacrificial protection unto Lily or Harry because, in magical terms, he did not sacrifice himself; he was just collateral damage, an inconvenience, a useless death. Lily, on the other hand, had the chance to choose whether she wanted to live or to sacrifice herself for Harry, because Voldemort initially spared her. And why did Voldemort give her such a choice? Because Snape begged Voldemort to spare Lily when he learned that he would murder the Potters, probably using the fact he deserved an indulgence after his act of great service to his master. I think that’s why Dumbledore seems glad that things turned out this way:

“My — our — one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building.”

So why would Snape expect that Voldemort acts any differently, that something changes in the course of this war, upon giving the first half of a stupid Prophecy? Did he truly give the Prophecy because he wanted to help his master, or just because it was an easy way to remain in his good favours, seemingly without direct consequences such as determining that more innocents get murdered?

(But that’s a discussion for another day…)

Dumbledore Projecting

The Snape-slander regarding the Prophecy comes down to what Dumbledore said about him. It won’t be too much of a surprise to know that he is a true manipulator. Snape wasn’t spared from his cruelty. 

First, his recounts of the events are biased, intentionally or not, just as we saw earlier:

But he did not know — he had no possible way of knowing — which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onward, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, that they were your mother and father —

This is a recurring bias, by the way, which we can spot as early as in OotP:

“He heard only the first part, the part foretelling the birth of a boy in July to parents who had thrice defied Voldemort.”

As we saw in the beginning of this video, the first part of the Prophecy never foretells that a boy would have the power to defeat the Dark Lord, let alone that he was yet to be born. However, you could give Dumbledore the benefit of the doubt and reckon that he somehow missed out on the fact that the first part didn’t specify a baby boy, and as such, that Snape couldn’t know it concerned one. But this is the cute part of Dumbledore’s biases against Snape. Now, let’s deal with the real dirty stuff.

During what I call the Hilltop scene, Snape warns Dumbledore that Lily and her family are going to be wiped out soon if Dumbledore doesn’t do something, because Voldemort interpreted the first half of the prophecy in such a way he chose Harry Potter as his next murder victim. And then comes the passage I’ve come to hate:

“If she means so much to you,” said Dumbledore, “surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?”

…WHAT?

How could Snape ask “for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son”… when the son was doomed anyway? Harry was the Chosen One. There isn’t a single scenario where asking Voldemort not to kill the baby he Chose would not result in instant murder. When he wants to kill someone, you cannot convince him otherwise. 

“If you are imagining I can persuade the Dark Lord to change his mind, I am afraid there is no hope, none at all.” […] “The Dark Lord will not be persuaded, and I am not stupid enough to attempt it,” said Snape flatly. [Snape to Narcissa about saving Draco]

This isn’t a scenario where Lily was targeted and Snape managed to “redirect” Voldemort’s murderous intentions on her baby instead. And on the other hand, this isn’t a scenario where Snape can ask him to spare the baby and rather kill the mother. All he could do was manage to have at least one innocent survive. By the time he learned Voldemort targeted baby Harry, it was too late, he couldn’t ask the Dark Lord to spare him. The only thing he could try was to protect Lily, later extending all of his services to Dumbledore (which he did). And Dumbledore knows this.

This is when you have to realize that Dumbledore is an unreliable narrator. He is at the time, the general of the losing side of the war. Voldemort’s power is spreading everywhere; the Order is facing the Death Eaters in a 20-to-1 scenario and they are all desperate. Suddenly, a Death Eater comes with a request: he delivers information on the attack that is planned to befall on a family belonging to the Order. He is visibly mad with worry, and Dumbledore, as a headmaster, knows about his past friendship with the woman who’s on a hitlist. He sees in the Death Eater an opportunity he simply cannot allow to pass: gaining a double-agent working for the Order, with the conviction he will stay loyal to the woman’s cause – Dumbledore’s side. This is not for nothing that years later, he will say:

“I am fortunate, extremely fortunate, that I have you, Severus.”

If he wants to win the war, he will have to get Severus Snape serving him. And so he strikes. He suggests the idea of begging for Lily’s life in exchange for her son’s, as if it was a solution that Dumbledore himself would approve of. And the moment Snape tries to explain, before he can even complete his sentence:

“I have – I have asked him –”

“You disgust me,” said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little. “You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?”

[angry Yoshi noises] But this is funny. Dumbledore is far from being so bashing when Draco is involved:

“I got the idea of poisoning the mead from the Mudblood Granger as well, I heard her talking in the library about Filch not recognizing potions.” 

“Please do not use that offensive word in front of me,” said Dumbledore. […] My dear boy, let us have no more pretense about that. […] No harm has been done, you have hurt nobody, though you are very lucky that your unintentional victims survived… I can help you, Draco. […] Come over to the right side, Draco… you are not a killer…” 

Draco, who Imperiused Rosmerta for a year, repeatedly tried to kill Dumbledore, almost killed Ron, almost killed Katie Bell, attempted to Crucio Harry, keeps calling Hermione a Mudblood even right in front of the Headmaster, allowed the Death Eaters to infiltrate Hogwarts to destroy the Light Side’s best defender, used to worship Voldemort and his plans to “purify” the wizarding race until his own ass was in danger, and who never truly fought for the Light Side, even after Harry put his own life in danger to save him in the Fiendfire’d Room of Requirement! Dumbledore is lying through his teeth: Draco did hurt people, and he is a killer… at least, when it comes down to saving his own skin and asserting his own privilege over endangered communities.

Dumbledore isn’t as slandering when Greyback is involved, for that matter:

Greyback grinned, showing pointed teeth. Blood trickled down his chin and he licked his lips slowly, obscenely. 

“But you know how much I like kids, Dumbledore.” 

“Am I to take it that you are attacking even without the full moon now? This is most unusual… You have developed a taste for human flesh that cannot be satisfied once a month?” 

“That’s right,” said Fenrir Greyback. “Shocks you that, does it, Dumbledore? Frightens you?” 

“Well, I cannot pretend it does not disgust me a little,” said Dumbledore.

He says it disgusts him “a little” as if they were having tea on a happy Sunday morning. I guess Dumbledore knows there’s no point in trying to shame someone for being evil when they like it. His tone changes when it comes to Snape, because he knows he’s far from being irredeemably evil. But I digress.

So, Dumbledore cuts Snape off, and puts words in his mouth. Nevermind that just before, Snape was clearly upset that Voldemort was going to « kill them ALL« ! That’s all there is to it. Dumbledore is using guilt-trip based on shaming Snape over an impossible task to force him into submission. To force him into protecting not just Lily anymore, but those she cares for, starting with her husband and son. Severus, trembling, scared to death and stammering, doesn’t dare explain exactly what he asked – or what he could not ask. It is a recurring theme of his character, especially in the Prince’s Tale, that he is bad at defending himself, that people shut him up before he can attempt to explain himself, and that later on he often takes the abuse without bothering to argue. He lets himself be accused of the worst and accepts to play the devil regardless it’s unfair. 

“Hide them all, then! Keep her–them–safe. Please!”

He doesn’t dare contradict Dumbledore because Lily’s life is in danger and there’s no time to lose. 

There was never any question of « exchanging”. Snape asked Voldemort to spare Lily, preventing collateral damage — which was already extremely risky and brave, because Snape was still asking him to spare:

• a Muggle-born
• member of the Order, 
• mother of the Chosen One, 
• having challenged Voldemort three times. 

Snape asked him to spare an enemy, which could have cast doubt on his loyalty and convinced Voldemort to torture and kill him on the spot for betrayal. It relies on a miracle that he was successful at making such demand and leaving unscathed. Unless Snape pretended that he only wanted Lily alive for his own pleasures, implying he said one of the most disgusting things he could just so he could save his old best friend. As for James and Harry, would you find it realistic that Snape asks that they be spared? James is:

• the person who bullied Snape during his entire education with his friends and who in Snape’s perspective seems to have tried to kill him with his gang; 
• besides being a known member of the Order protected (and cherished) by Dumbledore, 
• despising of Slytherins, 
• and the father of the Chosen One.

Snape had no valid reason to ask for James’ life to be spared, especially along with Lily’s. Voldemort would have understood that Snape doesn’t just “desire” Lily (by wanting to kill the husband) but actually loves her enough to try and save her whole family. Yet love, unlike mere desire, is a threat to Voldemort, and it could cause Severus to betray him; first trying to protect Lily, then trying to protect her husband and son, and at the end, fighting for all those she cares for. And that’s exactly what happens.

Of course, needless to say that asking Voldemort to spare the Chosen One would be worthy of a clown. [Imagine Severus Snape saying: “My Lord, that child may be the one who’s prophesied to kill you and end your reign – please don’t kill him.” He’d be dead the next second…] 

Plus Voldemort was unstoppable, the boy’s fate seemed to be sealed already, so why even bother? It looked naive to even hope the infant had a chance to survive. There’s a reason Harry became a myth in the Wizarding World – he was a living miracle, The Boy Who Lived, the only one who’s known to have survived the Avada, the Killing Curse that’s impossible to counter, and from Lord Voldemort himself! So why would Severus get in his head beforehand the idea that it could be conceivable to save the whole Potter family? You cannot blame him for not having asked for James and Harry’s lives to be spared. He just wanted Lily to have a chance to live.

Furthermore, here’s part of the dialogue between Quirrell and Harry:

« But Snape always seemed to hate me so much! »

« Oh, he does, » said Quirrell casually, « heavens yes! He was at Hogwarts with your father, didn’t you know? They loathed each other. But he never wanted you dead. »

This sparks the question: who is talking here? Quirrell… or Voldemort? Or both?

It’s possible that Quirrell used a bit of a hyperbole to talk about Snape never wanting Harry dead to mean that he never wanted him dead in the current year. But frankly, given that there’s Voldemort on the back of his head who could inform him on the true nature of his spy, it’s likely that Quirrell spoke of Snape in general; that he said something that Voldemort agreed upon, or even told him directly; in other words, that Voldemort was speaking here. 

As a reminder, by that time, Voldemort thought Snape had betrayed him – not betrayed him as in, worked for Dumbledore all along, but had changed sides after the Dark Lord fell. He would thus believe that before that, Snape was genuinely a DE, so whatever behavior Snape displayed, including before his actual defection, must have been indicative enough that he never wanted Harry dead. 

And as for Quirrell, for someone who knew Snape loathed Harry’s father to the point he loathed Harry himself, that’s a lot of confidence in the statement that he never wanted the boy dead. It would cost nothing to remark: « Snape loathed your father so much that he once tried to get both of you killed » or « he wouldn’t have minded it if the Dark Lord had off-ed you the first time », or even « he was once elated/indifferent when he learned that you’d soon kick off, but then he became Dumbledore’s puppy ». 

From a Doylian perspective, the Death Eaters and Snape’s role as a spy seem not to have been fleshed off completely yet in PS, and Harry’s first year hadn’t even started that in the background Snape was already set on protecting him in Lily’s honor, so it would be evidently illogical to pretend in the first HP book that he once wanted the protagonist dead. However, Snape’s arc in that book looks like a simplified, more concise version of his entire character arc throughout all the books – stressing on the theme that he is mistaken for a villain but has always worked on Harry’s side. So the quote « He never wanted you dead » was a raw explanation of who Snape was in essentials, a foreshadowing of what kind of fictional character he would be for the rest of the saga.  

But let’s say Quirrell’s quote is too ambiguous to be entirely trusted. Don’t you find it weird that Voldemort never tells Harry that he’s a fool for believing Snape was his ally since he wanted him dead in the first place? This could have been a shocking reveal in DH, particularly during Harry and Voldemort’s last confrontation. Voldemort isn’t shy to tell Harry that Snape merely desired his mom and didn’t mind much when she died. Wouldn’t it be far more poignant to add, if that was true, that Snape initially wanted to get rid of him? 

But he doesn’t, and we’re left with an explicit message from Quirrelmort that « Snape never wanted Harry dead », directly countering the accusation that he traded Harry’s life for Lily’s, or that he didn’t mind that Lily would lose her son.

Now, that Dumbledore accuses Snape of being a Death Eater and serving Voldemort? Fair enough. And that he resorts to using manipulation to force Snape into his service because he’s got the Wizard and Muggle Worlds to save from Voldemort? Totally understandable. 

But for the fans to accuse Snape of only caring for the only person who gave him the tiniest crumbs of affection he got in his miserable life… that’s not fair. That’s just a fucking dirty low-blow.

Imagine blaming Severus for not caring if the person who made his life a living hell for his own sick pleasure dies by Voldemort’s hand. Loving someone does not automatically mean you have to love those they like. James certainly demonstrated that when he tortured Lily’s best friend for years for the simple fact that he existed (as well as “an old prejudice” and per Rowling’s word, out of sexual jealousy) and simply got away with it. Apparently, only Snape will be accused of seemingly not caring about the life of his enemy, but never the other around! And yet, last time I saw, it’s Sirius Black who set a werewolf on Snape and James who said:

“What’s he done to you?” 

“Well,” said James, appearing to deliberate the point, “it’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…” 

Many of the surrounding watchers laughed, Sirius and Wormtail included […].

For this, James will only be accused of being “an arrogant, bullying toerag”. How cute! Sirius and Wormtail, who also laughed at the suggestion that the only way Snape can escape James’ relentless bullying is to kill himself: “Little arrogant berks”. As for the Werewolf Incident, Dumbledore – yes, the same Dumbledore who accuses Snape for not caring if James dies – forces Snape into silence and gives Sirius a slap on the wrist for intentionally trying to murder his classmate in a brutal manner that would also have ruined Lupin’s life. Because guess what? Dumbledore is a fucking hypocrite.

No wait, even better: Dumbledore is projecting. Who was okay to let Muggles die as long as he could enforce Wizard supremacy “fOr tHe gReAtEr gOoD”? To let his sick, disabled sister Ariana alone and in pain as long as he had Grindelwald? To raise baby Harry so he could die at the proper moment?

But very well, seeing as haters love expanding on Dumbledore’s obviously biased and vicious accusations, we too can play that game. 

« Keep her — them — safe. Please! » 

« And what will you give me in return, Severus? » 

In return. Dumbledore requires services from Severus so then he will deign keeping Lily and her family safe. In other words, if he doesn’t get Severus spying for his side of the war, Lily and her family can very well go get f*cked. 

Seriously, that’s exactly the kind of thing that Voldemort would have said: « If you serve me well, Severus, then I might ensure that Lily Evans lives. » 

And you know, that point is not something you just throw under the rug. Why did Dumbledore tell the Potters to go hiding only when Severus begged him, if he already knew by that time that the Chosen One could be either Neville or Harry?

[“The prophecy did not refer to a woman,’ said Dumbledore. ‘It spoke of a boy born at the end of July –” [DH 2 movie]]

Notice how Dumbledore expected Snape to tell his master about the prophecy

“The – the prophecy… the prediction… Trelawney…”

“Ah, yes,’ said Dumbledore. “How much did you relay to Lord Voldemort?”

and yet he did nothing before Snape came. You could hypothesize that Dumbledore might have hidden the Potters before Snape came, meaning that Snape’s demand was useless, while the Headmaster pretended the Potters weren’t hidden yet for the sole purpose of forcing a Death Eater to become his spy through psychological pressure and manipulation… but Fudge confirms that Dumbledore hid the Potters only when a spy (Snape) tipped him off. Not before.

“Dumbledore, who was of course working tirelessly against You-Know-Who, had a number of useful spies. One of them tipped him off, and he alerted James and Lily at once. He advised them to go into hiding.”

If Dumbledore had hidden the potential Chosen Ones and their families as soon as he learned the full contents of the prophecy, then we could expect him to have asked the Longbottoms to go into hiding… but that didn’t happen, did it? Not a single mention that Dumbledore tried to protect them. And he didn’t even correct his mistake later. Just because Voldemort set out to kill Harry first, doesn’t mean Neville and his family were in no danger whatsoever, or that Voldemort forgot about them. Despite this, he never hid the Longbottoms, which, as you know, resulted in Frank and Alice’s lifelong incapacitation and Neville essentially becoming an orphan. 

So not only does it suggest that Snape cared more about Lily’s life than Dumbledore cared about the whole Potter family’s survival – very ironic since Dumbledore wants to play the moral high ground here – but it also proves that he was gambling the lives of the two families in a very dumb way. It seems that the only reason Dumbledore hid the Potters is because they served as some kind of bargaining chip to keep his new spy working for him, ever since Snape begged him on his knees to protect them – which he shouldn’t have to by the way. But now, imagine that Snape had never come to ask Dumbledore? Would Dumbledore have hidden the Potters at all? Or imagine Voldemort had set out to kill the Potters immediately, without giving time for Severus to warn the Order or their leader? The Potters, not yet hidden, could have been killed early on, even though Albus knew they were in (potential) mortal danger. What was he waiting for? Did he truly give no shit about the Potters unless it could be used to bribe Severus Snape into his ranks? 

Well damn. Seems like Dumbledore doesn’t care about the death of the Potters (and the Longbottoms) as long as he gets what he wants [Severus]. 🖕🖕

Now that might be a bit of a plothole, but that doesn’t change the textual results: Dumbledore will exploit Snape’s love for Lily for his own means, and it starts with using her and her family’s lives to coerce a man to do his binding, implying that if Severus doesn’t work with him, Dumbledore will let the Potters die. Projecting yet again his own immorality unto Snape. 

If Dumbledore’s disgust at Snape was genuine (and not just conjured up to make him submit), then he really should look in the mirror. At least your spy had the decency to love a relatively decent woman, not a Beta Voldemort! At least, a Voldemort-serving Snape cared more about Lily than a Grindelwald-following Dumbledore ever cared about Ariana!

And forgive me for how insanely salty this makes me, but it’s such a fucking irony that Snape is the only one who gets blamed for “only caring whether his loved one lives or not” and, as we can summarize, “not caring for those who tortured him for fun and wanted him dead”; that, during the darkest moment of his life. But uh, you want a list of other “purer” characters who do the same?

• The only reason Harry “spares” Pettigrew from immediate murder is because he doesn’t want Sirius and Lupin to become killers, instead he proposes to give him to the Dementors, a fate worse than death: 

“I know,” Harry panted. “We’ll take him up to the castle. We’ll hand him over to the dementors… He can go to Azkaban… but don’t kill him.” […] “Get off me,” Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew’s hands off him in disgust. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because I don’t reckon my dad would’ve wanted his best friends to become killers — just for you.”

• Fred and George preferred their father over the “dumb Order”:

“We don’t care about the dumb Order!” shouted Fred. 

“It’s our dad dying we’re talking about!” yelled George.

• Harry would rather give the Prophecy to the Death Eaters – and potentially ensure Voldemort’s victory over the whole world – just so he can save his friends in the short term:

“Let — let the others go, and I’ll give it to you!” said Harry desperately.

She turned and gazed up at Harry. “Now, Potter, either give us the prophecy, or watch your little friend die the hard way!”

Harry did not have to think; there was no choice. The prophecy was hot with the heat from his clutching hand as he held it out. 

• Marietta seems to have sold out Dumbledore’s Army because she wanted to protect her mother (which she is narratively punished for because it affected saint Potter):

“You know, her mum works for the Ministry, it’s really difficult for her —”

• Harry, Ron, Fred and George found it funny that Montague could have been killed when the twins shoved him in the broken Vanishing Cabinet. When he reappeared from limbo weeks later, severely injured and confused, they didn’t bother helping Pomfrey heal him. Your father and his friends would be proud of you, Harry.

“He never managed to get all the words out,” said Fred, “due to the fact that we forced him headfirst into that Vanishing Cabinet on the first floor.” 

Hermione looked very shocked. “But you’ll get into terrible trouble!” 

“Not until Montague reappears, and that could take weeks, I dunno where we sent him,” said Fred coolly. “Anyway… […]” 

[…] To cap matters, Montague had still not recovered from his sojourn in the toilet. He remained confused and disorientated and his parents were to be observed one Tuesday morning striding up the front drive, looking extremely angry. 

“Should we say something?” said Hermione in a worried voice, pressing her cheek against the Charms window so that she could see Mr. and Mrs. Montague marching inside. “About what happened to him? In case it helps Madam Pomfrey cure him?” 

“’Course not, he’ll recover,” said Ron indifferently.

“Anyway, more trouble for Umbridge, isn’t it?” said Harry in a satisfied voice.

That wouldn’t have been so enraging if Dumbledore hadn’t insisted that somehow Harry’s heart remained “pure”:

In spite of all the temptation you have endured, all the suffering, you remain pure of heart, just as pure as you were at the age of eleven […]. [lmao]

• Sirius didn’t give a shit about Lupin’s life as a werewolf who’d have committed manslaughter as long as he could get what he wanted, that is, Snape savagely devoured alive:

“[…] Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me —” 

Black made a derisive noise. “It served him right,” he sneered.

• Porker basically said that he wanted Snape dead, knowing that Snape had almost been killed by his own friends a short time ago, and all the jolly crowd laughed in agreement:

“Well,” said James, appearing to deliberate the point, “it’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…” 

• Xenophilius Lovegood would sell out his daughter’s friends to save her from the Death Eaters:

“They took my Luna,” he whispered. “Because of what I’ve been writing. They took my Luna and I don’t know where she is, what they’ve done to her. But they might give her back to me if I — if I —” 

“Hand over Harry?” Hermione finished for him. 

“No deal,” said Ron flatly. “Get out of the way, we’re leaving.” 

Xenophilius looked ghastly, a century old, his lips drawn back into a dreadful leer. 

“They will be here at any moment. I must save Luna. I cannot lose Luna. You must not leave.” 

He spread his arms in front of the staircase, and Harry had a sudden vision of his mother doing the same thing in front of his crib.

• Lily would do anything for Voldemort – including serving him as a DE – just so she can save Harry:

“[…] Please… have mercy… have mercy… Not Harry! Not Harry! Please – I’ll do anything –”

Snape is not different. He accepts Dumbledore’s unfair shaming and dubious offer so he can save Lily: 

“And what will you give me in return, Severus?”

“In – in return?” Snape gaped at Dumbledore, and Harry expected him to protest, but after a long moment he said, “Anything.”

He can become a scapegoat, he can die as long as she survives:  

« I wish… I wish I were dead. » 

Notice the emphasis on « I ». It’s not just « I wish I were dead », it’s also « I wish I were dead in her stead« .

And then, he agrees on protecting Harry with his life, just because that’s what Lily would have wanted. 

So if there’s one thing you must remember next time this quote crosses your dash:

“You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?”

[biTcH LeT hiM sPEaK¿!?]

it’s not that Snape was being a heartless dick, it’s that Dumbledore was being a filthy, manipulative, hypocritical bastard. And a general of war, I guess.

Conclusion

This Prophecy is a mess, and Severus has the most rotten luck of the HP universe.

Is Snape in the wrong for being a Death Eater? Obviously. Assuming that he delivered the Prophecy on his own will, was he in the wrong for trying to serve the Dark Lord? Of course. But imagine the odds that Harry Potter became the Chosen One when we know that:

• The first half of the Prophecy never referred to a magical baby boy
• Voldemort could ignore the Prophecy because most of them don’t come true
• That all of them are subject to many vague interpretations
• That the Seer who made it is a comical old fraud, which strongly reduces its credibility
• That the Prophecy itself contains an error, proving it’s yet another wrong prophecy.

Snape probably knew all of this, conscious that the intel he gave seemed to be useless. So evil!

As I said earlier, it’s okay to interpret Snape as dark; I like it, as a matter of fact.

[Dumbledore: You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?

Snape: Yes.

Dumbledore: How dare you?!

Snape: She can always abort and try again!]

But yeah, we honestly have no clue about what was happening in his naughty head. Dumbledore trapped him in an impossible position, and while it might be understandable due to his role in a war he was losing, it also proves that whatever accusation he forced upon Snape is to be taken with a huge grain of salt. And from what we learned, we can indeed conclude that this accusation is unproven, hardly relevant and too subject to interpretations for a serious study of Severus Snape. 

Plot-wise, it is fortunate that he somehow got Voldemort focused on killing Harry. Because if Voldemort had decided to discard the Prophecy, then he wouldn’t have been blasted away for the following decade, Harry wouldn’t have grown to defeat Voldemort, and the world would be living under his tyranny. By delivering half of the Prophecy, Snape has unintentionally led James and Lily to be murdered – or, well, murdered sooner than expected – but he also gave the Light Side a chance. If not for him, Dumbledore would already have lost the war. If not for Severus, Lily wouldn’t ever have been able to cast sacrificial protection onto her son. And this is how the highest crime Severus Snape has done as a Death Eater turned out to be the Wizarding World’s boon.