[ Editorials ]

The Malfoy Connection

In the last editorial I discussed Severus' experiences in Slytherin House. Being a half-blood Slytherin isn't all that bad but he is by no means the crème-de-le-crème of Slytherin society. That honour is reserved for the aristocracy.

The Malfoy's are the first pureblood activists we meet in canon. From the very beginning Draco Malfoy is portrayed as a thoroughly nasty person. It is also interesting to see how his stereotyping as a Slytherin as led to the development, in the mind of the reader, of the relationship between Lucius Malfoy and Severus Snape, helped along the way by subtle hints courtesy of the author.

However this relationship seems highly unlikely and we are never given the exact nature of the relationship between Snape and Malfoy. The only glimpse we have into the complicated character of this connection without the obstruction is at Spinner's End. Nevertheless even this scene is not reminiscent of the way things were before Lucius's arrest.

What we see from the episode at Spinner's End is the shift of power. Narcissa has come to beg Severus for help. He has been elevated to the Dark Lord's "most trusted" according to Narcissa, a statement that even Bellatrix does not contend with. His status and power only came with the renewal of the Dark Lord, which did not happen until the end of GoF, so to which side did the balance of power lie beforehand?

The most popular view in fandom is that there was a close relationship between Snape and Malfoy in their school days. This, however, is highly unlikely. Lucius is five to six years older than Severus, so he would have been at least five years ahead of Severus academically. From canon we can see that the interaction between pupils of different years is usually none existent, in Gryffindor anyway. Harry does not even know most of the people in the year above him. Still, I must concede that Slytherin society is much more interactive politically, but even a man of insight and vision is unable to forge such a strong bond that would last for over five years without fading.

Even if Lucius Malfoy did have much foresight and spotted Severus' considerable talent, he would have been only a passing memory in Snape's mind after his departure. Their acquaintance (if it existed) at school would have lasted a maximum of two years, perhaps less, considering Malfoy was the not the only person keen to recruit Severus.

As I have analysed in "In the Snake Pit". Slytherin House is divided into many factions each with its own web of connections and relations between members. The fact that Lucius Malfoy is never mentioned by Sirius as being one of Snape's friends is probably because he wasn't. Snape obviously ended up with a different group of people, at first. This group comprised of all the people Sirius listed in GoF.

"'Rosier and Wilkes - they were both killed by Aurors the year before Lord Voldemort fell. The Lestranges - they're a married couple - they're in Azbakan. Avery - from what I've heard he wormed his way out of trouble by saying he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse - he's still at large'".

Who ever was the leader at the point in time when Severus entered Slytherin (let's say Bellatrix) must have managed to recruit him into their faction. Whether Lucius Malfoy expressed an interest in young Severus is unknown. Although Lucius has many faults, he does not lack foresight. It would not have been hard to see the potential usefulness of Severus the child prodigy. Bellatrix (it is easy to imagine her as the leader of the gang; she certainly as the domineering personality for it) left before Severus, and in the last editorial I concluded that he would have been friendless after the disintegration of the group. Whether or not Bellatrix left before Lucius is inconsequential, as Lucius only had two years to get to know Severus, anyway.

Therefore we can see that Severus' friendship with Lucius Malfoy could not have fully developed during their school days. However Lucius Malfoy, being the cunning man that he is, would not have let such a good opportunity pass him. It is possible that during his courtship of Narcissa Black, who is younger, he managed to retain contact with some of his old school friends including Severus Snape. Narcissa would have been able to pass messages between Lucius and Severus if she was still at school at the time. This would have allowed a certain degree of friendship to remain between the two.

Considering Severus' ambitious nature we can assume that he also made an effort to say on Lucius' radar. Although he may not be a particularly social person, Severus is certainly clever enough to know that Lucius Malfoy would become very useful in his later life.

However well they managed to remain in contact, I do not think it would have been at all possible for Lucius to persuade Severus to join the Death Eaters. Their alliance would have been deep enough for that kind of trust to flourish, no matter how rhetorical Lucius is. Therefore, we must assume that Severus either came to that decision by himself or he had a source of peer pressure from within the school.

We do not know how popular Voldemort's faction was with the Slytherins but from Sirius's information we can gather that many of the top notch Slytherins were quite keen to join.

"…my parents through he [Regulus] was a right little hero for joining up…" - OotP

Most pureblood children seem to have been pressurised by their families to join and in turn peer pressure on the non-pureblood children also occurred. Severus was eager to prove himself a proper Slytherin and therefore pressure from the pureblood peers would have been very effective against him. He could well have decided to become a Death Eater very early on because of his eagerness to please Bellatrix's gang.

There were many reasons why Severus chose to join the Death Eaters but the pressure of Lucius Malfoy was not one of them. This article is here to discuss the relationship between Severus and Lucius, so I shall not deviate.

When he did graduate from Hogwarts, Severus had already made up his mind about his future. He could not have joined the Death Eater any sooner because Voldemort is definitely not stupid enough to initiate someone still under the watchful eye of Albus Dumbledore. Anyhow, Severus decided to joint he Death Eaters and this is where Lucius comes in.

Whether Lucius tried to talk Severus into joining the Death Eater is inconsequential as a cause for Severus' decision, but by doing so Lucius would have provide Severus with a means to contact the Dark Lord. Lucius, if he approached Snape regarding this issue at all, would most likely have done so to ensure that he became Severus' sponsor in the Death Eaters.

Anyway, it is plausible that Lucius Malfoy did act as a median between Severus and the Dark Lord until he was ready to meet Voldemort in person. Lucius had a lot to gain from introducing Severus Snape. Severus was a good potions brewer from what we can gather from Slughorn,

"…why not even you Severus…" HBP. Slughorn was comparing Harry's potion's talent to Snape's. From the Half-Blood Prince's book we can see that Severus' potions talent was truly exceptional.

Therefore Snape would have been a good inductee on the basis of his potions brewing alone. Potions prodigies are thin on the ground and having on in the ranks is a great advantage. However it turns out that Severus' role in the Death Eaters has nothing to do with potions at all. In fact Voldemort used him for intelligence and espionage. I believe this is the basis on which Dumbledore employs Severus as a spy as well. Snape is clearly also every talented at spying.

Hence, Snape would have been in the favour of the Dark Lord and Lucius would have shared in the rewards as Severus' benefactor. Lucius has the upper hand in their relationship at this point.

Now that Severus is out of school is able to associate with anyone he likes and it seems that it is at this time that Lucius reeled him in, literally. With his induction into the Death Eaters, Severus would have been able to enter a new social circle comprised of people much older than himself, for I believe that it is mostly due to Lucius' backing that Severus was accepted at such a young age. Therefore Lucius would have been able to easily control and exploit the lone and friendless Severus.

It is quite clear that Snape depended on Lucius' to forge connections of his own, in the Death Eater social circle. Although, he was acquainted with several of them at school, the Death Eaters at that time will have comprised more of people who didn't know him. Considering Severus was never particularly popular in Slytherin anyway, he would not have the necessary connections to thrive on his own.

Hence, Lucius was very important to Severus at this point in his life. Lucius would have been a valued member of Voldemort's faction at the time and continued to be until the end of OotP. In the graveyard scene we can see that Voldemort respects Lucius,

"Lucius, my slippery friend…" - GoF.

Note that Voldemort tortures a lot of people but not Lucius Malfoy. Lucius is perhaps at the height of his influence during OotP because he is so well connected in the currently ministry, just what Voldemort needed.

Going back to the years before 1981, we can see that Lucius Malfoy cultivated his friendship with Severus through the inducting him into the Death Eaters. Then he managed to keep Severus well under his thumb.

By 1979 Severus had managed to move up in the ranks to the point of being a trusted member of the Voldemort's inner circle.

The fact that Voldemort has an inner circle shows that he also has shallower followers, which he employs to do menial tasks. These people would not have been Death Eaters. The Dark Lord does not dish out the Dark Mark, but that is for another editorial. By the by, Severus has managed to worm his way to a position of great importance.

Severus was entrusted by the Dark Lord to apply for the position of Defence against the Dark Arts. If the plan paid off, Voldemort would have been able to implant a spy at Hogwarts. The staff are not renown for their aptitude at keeping secrets, so there is still a valuable source of information to tap into with or without the trust of Dumbledore.

According to Trelawny Snape was eavesdropping on her conversation with Dumbledore because he was also seeking a job

"…he was also seeking a job at the time, you see…"

This shows that Snape was indeed sent to the Inn for the purpose of a job interview, the fact that he stumbled onto something much bigger is just sheer luck.

However it transpires that Severus was in so much of a hurry to leave, he didn't even stay for his interview and thereby forfeited the job. Not that the Dark Lord was bothered about that anyway, he had bigger fish to fry.

It is important to remember that Snape only started teaching at Hogwarts after the war ended as he tells Umbridge that he has been teaching at Hogwarts for

"…fourteen years,' said Snape" - OotP

He also reapplied for the Defence against the Dark Arts job after Voldemort fall.

"You applied for the Defence against the Dark Arts position first, I believe" - OotP

It seems that even after Voldemort's downfall Snape continued to abide by his orders, which is strange considering that most of the wizardring world thought Voldemort to be dead. Therefore, either Snape knows more about Voldemort's quest for immortality than we gave him credit for, or his position may be of benefit to some other than the Dark Lord.

If we take the latter theory to be true, we can immediately see that Snape's appointment is of benefit to both himself and Lucius Malfoy. Snape is a Death Eater and the whole Wizengamot knows this. What better way to calm the anxious minds of the ministry than working right under the nose of Voldemort's biggest opponent? Plus Hogwarts is Dumbledore's turf and the Ministry will definitely think twice about harassing Snape while he's physically close to Dumbledore. After all Snape must have made plenty of powerful enemies as a Death Eater.

However Snape's appointment also benefited Lucius Malfoy. In the days following Voldemort's fall Dumbledore was re-instated as the most powerful wizard alive without any exceptions. Obviously it would have been prudent for Lucius Malfoy to keep an eye on him. Lucius is after all, a political animal who wants to forge as many connections as possible. From canon we can see that he has been able to buy his way right to the top of the Ministry, but unfortunately Malfoy lack one vital thread in his web, Dumbledore. Albus did not take bribes and neither was he too keen on co-operating with Malfoy.

If you can't buy him, you can at least keep an eye on him, which is why Snape became important to Lucius Malfoy's personal strategy. Using his ministry contacts he was able to achieve a good level of control over wizardring Britain but Dumbledore had the power to out manoeuvre Malfoy by a mile. Therefore Malfoy had to keep Dumbledore under surveillance to make sure he made his move at the opportune moment.

Snape is a human being, capable of feelings and I believe at some point during those years before Harry Potter turned up Snape loved Dumbledore (not romantically of course), but that is for another editorial. Snape's closeness to Dumbledore allowed him to be informed of the man's views, plans and ambitions. Lucius Malfoy was not asking Snape to spy on Dumbledore; he simply wanted to find out about his political manoeuvres.

I believe that Severus did not feel that he was betraying Dumbledore by informing Malfoy. Lucius would have made sure that Severus did not feel that way. Severus would have simply seen this act as doing a favour for an old friend, after all Lucius Malfoy wasn't going to destroy Dumbledore with the information. Perhaps Severus was in the dilemma of trying to keep two best friends.

It would be ill advised to believe that the Severus Pipeline did not flow both ways. While he was informing Lucius Malfoy, he would have been gather material to report back to Dumbledore, which allowed him to morally justify his actions. It is likely that Dumbledore encouraged Severus to inform on Lucius Malfoy, after all Severus was very much under Dumbledore's thumb at that point.

However neither party was stupid enough to believe that Severus was solely on their side. He simply supplied both sides with enough information to fuel the fire but not much more. This allowed him to remain in dispensable to both men.

At this point in time their relationship would have even out a bit more, as Severus no longer needed Lucius' patronage. However the friendship has been able to flourish for enough time to allow a certain degree of emotional connection. Lucius and Severus are not cold-blooded, ruthless, killing machines. They also fall pray to human emotions.

I believe that Lucius' instatement onto the School Board came just before1992. We do not see Draco Malfoy boasting about his father being a School Governor in PS.

However his instatement was partially due to Severus as well. The teachers and the Headmaster must be able to choose who sits on the School Board and Severus' influence will have been able to quail Dumbledore's objection. The rest was all in the gold.

Why Lucius felt the need to become School Govern is unknown, perhaps he had been entertaining the idea for some time and was using Severus to lay the foundations. Perhaps he felt he needed to have some hand in his son's education. There is a variety of explanations available.

Being a School Govern allowed him to expand his political sphere of influence…right into Dumbledore's own back yard. However Severus was still highly useful as there were plenty of things he had access to such as Dumbledore's opinions. With this information Malfoy would have been able to predict Dumbledore's next move with amazing accuracy.

Snape's information is rather like what Dumbledore showed Harry through the pensive. The only way to successfully defeat your opponent is to know them inside out.

Of course Severus is not stupid, he knew very well that Lucius Malfoy's main aim was to finally over throw Dumbledore. However he has managed to pass enough ammunition over to Dumbledore to counteract the effect, or so he thought. However Harry Potter arrive in the autumn of 1991 and suddenly Snape stopped functioning properly.

Snape is intensely jealous of Harry Potter. His determination to down play Harry in front of everyone he meets shows this all too clearly.

"…he has shown himself to be mediocre to the last degree…" - HBP

Not only is he jealous because Harry turned out to be as talented as James but also because Dumbledore love him. Snape could not bear to think that Dumbledore loved a meagre eleven-year-old boy more than him.

We can see during the course of canon that Snape became more and more disillusioned with Dumbledore. In PS Dumbledore threw away Slytherins' victory just to make Harry smile. In PoA Dumbledore assisted Harry in freeing Sirius Black and devoided Severus of his well-deserved Order of Merlin. In GoF Harry Potter bought back the Dark Lord, which was bad news for everybody. In OotP Snape had to risk his neck to spy for Dumbledore, but who got all the credit? Harry Potter. In HBP who did Dumbledore entrust his secret knowledge to? Harry Potter.

Bit by bit Harry managed to supplant Severus and this is enough to make anyone delusional. Perhaps' Dumbledore's murder was an accumulation of jealously and anger.

Severus, during OotP and HBP veered steadily towards Voldemort. If he couldn't impress Dumbledore with his goodness, he may as well impress Voldemort with his badness. Snape wanted to be the object of attention, admiration and affection. He identified Dumbledore as the source and Dumbledore willingly gave him this until Harry Potter arrived.

Now the Potter brat had managed to steal away his source of comfort, Snape decided to try his luck with Voldemort. During OotP it is obvious that Lucius Malfoy was the most important person in Voldemort's ranks and Severus managed a good share of the favour as well, being Malfoy's close associate.

However by the end of OotP Malfoy had not only managed to get himself caught by the Ministry, but also exposed Lord Voldemort. Who better to replace him than Severus Snape, the best positioned of all his Death Eater. So in HBP we see Severus gain the upper hand in his relationship with the Malfoys. He is now the one in control. This is not to say that Severus would abuse his position, his emotional attachment to the Malfoys may have served as one of the deciding factors in making the Unbreakable Vow. Unfortunately for him, Narcissa demanded more than he could chew. The return of the Dark Lord has allowed Snape to temporarily gain status within the ranks, but this will not last forever.

I do not believe that Severus would be in the Dark Lord's favour for long after Dumbledore's assassination. The Dark Lord would no doubt feel threatened on by Snape who has achieved something he could never do himself. Snape was also the person who informed him about the prophecy, the prophecy that led to his downfall and recent exposure. Being Voldemort, he would find a scapegoat for all his misfortunes and Snape is perfectly positioned to act as one.

So this brings us to the conclusion of Snape's involvement with the Malfoys. Their relationship is one of patron and client, but even Slytherins are human and somewhere along the line, real compassion developed. Perhaps later on we will see more of the duo together, but for now we can only speculate about the minor details.

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