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141 " We don’t know yet that Lily knew and loved Snape before his eyes turned dark and cold and Occluded. Lily saw his true self; she knew how to read the person who became this inscrutable man. "
― Lorrie Kim , Snape: A Definitive Reading
142 " Snape can Occlude Voldemort as perhaps no other person can. This enables him to spy on Voldemort for the Order. When Voldemort scans Snape’s thoughts, he cannot see that Snape is working against him because Snape is able to defend certain thoughts from Voldemort’s view. But if Voldemort looks at Snape through Harry’s eyes, he will be able to see those things. Snape let Harry see past his defenses. By viewing one of Snape’s off-limits memories, Harry has just endangered them all and exposed Snape to mortal risk. "
143 " The loathing tells us the narrative purpose of Wormtail’s inclusion in this scene. It is a replay of a pivotal moment in Snape’s past, something he must and can change on his second chance. Snape and Wormtail were the two people who betrayed the Potters to Voldemort. Now they are faced with a similar situation. A woman is frantic to protect her son from Voldemort. Her older sister has her own twisted ideas about what should become of this son. Snape can choose to protect the child this time. Wormtail feels no regret and neither wants nor gets a second chance. He is banished from the room. "
144 " No matter what strife there has been between Harry and Snape, they have loved and been loved by the same person. They both contain traces of Lily’s magic. "
145 " Narcissa’s appeals to his bonds of sentiment have struck home. As a teacher and a family friend, he can protect this child. He can do better than he did for Lily Potter’s child. "
146 " Harry knows too much now about how Snape feels, and how ashamed Lupin has felt for being inactive in the face of harm, to ignore the implications of these thoughts. He’s learning that he cannot justify keeping quiet about harm, even when the victims themselves have hurt others. "
147 " Snape must buy time by convincing Narcissa to let him wait before killing Dumbledore for Draco. He must negotiate the most time possible for Dumbledore to stay alive and finish planning while putting Narcissa’s mind at ease and protecting Draco from harm. "
148 " Slithering out of action. Bellatrix has noticed that Snape has never done anything irrevocably evil to demonstrate his commitment to Voldemort’s cause. This hints strongly that Snape has never cast an Unforgivable: an Imperius, a Cruciatus, a Killing Curse. "
149 " Snape, meanwhile, seemed to have decided to act as though Harry were invisible.” (HP/OotP, 660) He avoids eye contact with Harry, in case Voldemort is watching Snape through the scar connection, and behaves spitefully so Voldemort will feel the mutual antipathy between Snape and Harry. This is the easiest thing in the world for Snape to pull off and affords him some nasty enjoyment, but Snape is behaving this way to protect them all. He may enjoy aggravating Harry, but it cannot be argued that these moments of “gloating pleasure” (HP/OotP, 661) interfere with the strategy in any way. "
150 " This is a change from the argument about Occlumency lessons when Sirius refused to believe that Snape had reformed. We don’t know whether Sirius has understood Snape better or whether being a parent figure for Harry has matured his thinking, but we see that Lupin notices the change. "
151 " Snape can look directly into the eyes of an anguished mother and show her his sympathy. He need Occlude nothing. It jeopardizes none of his plans if he adds protection of her near-grown child to the general protectiveness that he already provides to his Slytherin students and even to Potter. He has already dedicated himself to defending them against the Dark Arts. "
152 " Harry gets a painful reminder of his mother’s defense of Snape’s innocence when he witnesses Ministry officials coming stealthily at nighttime, on Umbridge’s order, to remove Hagrid from Hogwarts. Professor McGonagall runs out to intervene, using the same argument and nearly the same words that Lily used. "
153 " He accepts personal responsibility for an endangered young one. That is more than what a teacher would do. This is a vow that will change him. "
154 " the image of the silver doe points us toward a variant of the trope of courtly love. "
155 " He commits to taking action to protect Draco whenever Draco needs it. This will rewire his consciousness so that he is always aware of Draco, always primed to rush to his aid. This means he will never be truly at rest as long as both Draco and Dumbledore are alive. This will change him, day and night. This round-the-clock commitment to action makes him Draco's family. "
156 " Snape’s Patronus shows that he holds in his heart an image of a woman whose friendship and love helped form the best part of his nature. During this year when nobody knows Snape’s true self, Snape cannot depend upon external recognition of his nearly superhuman efforts. He can turn to his memories of Lily’s friendship as a guide: he can atone for his betrayal that resulted in her death by becoming, in the second part of his life, someone who would be able to meet the gaze of a person like Lily without shame. "
157 " Now that it’s an emergency, Snape and Harry snap immediately into Legilimency. They know how to do this. For good measure, Snape protects their communication against detection by either Umbridge or Voldemort by presenting an outward show of dislike for Harry while, incidentally, warning everyone else that Umbridge is capable of poisoning students. "
158 " The twitch of the hand could mean anything. It could mean that Snape doesn't want to kill Dumbledore. That he flinches at the depth of commitment. That the thought of watching Draco attack Dumbledore and stepping in at the precise moment of failure overwhelms him with tension. But he chooses to leave his hand in Narcissa's. He will never again be the uncertain man who flinched under the gaze of Aurors or Death Eaters. He agrees to kill for Draco, or give his life, or take Draco's place, the way Lily did for Harry. "
159 " So that’s what it takes to get Snape on probation. Not bullying Neville, not favoritism, but refusing to fight Harry Potter. Umbridge expected him to comply; unsurprisingly, Lucius Malfoy seems to have been bribing Umbridge, encouraging her to purge Harry’s allies from the staff, expecting fellow Death Eater Snape to cooperate from the inside. "
160 " What Narcissa has done for him with the Unbreakable Vow is beyond measure. Until this vow, Snape has never been the most important person to anyone in his adult life. But now someone's entire happiness depends upon his survival and success. In the moments when his courage fails him at the thought of killing Dumbledore, it will help to remember that he must stay strong for Narcissa. It strengthens him. He is no longer alone. "