[ Editorials ]

Snape and The Dark Arts

Snape is fascinated with the Dark Arts, everyone from Percy to Sirius has told us as much, but how did this obsession come about?

From the previous two editorials I have concluded that Snape lived in muggle society before he came to Hogwarts. Therefore his seduction by the Dark Arts could only have seriously taken place in Hogwarts.

However, Sirius says in GoF:

"Snape knew more curses when he arrive at school than most of the kids in seventh year"

How could a child growing up in a muggle neighbourhood without the background learn so much about the dark arts if his mother (Eileen Snape) did not gravitate towards them? I believe that Snape would have had contact with the wizardring world through his mother, so it would have been possible for him to obtain material that would have aided him in the study of the dark arts. He is a Slytherin after all. To many people the dark arts equates to power. However we are forgetting something, Sirius hated, despised, loathed Snape. It is entirely possible that Sirius is not doing Snape justice. Perhaps Snape knew a few neat curses when he entered Hogwarts that would have to seemed to another first years to have been extensive knowledge of the Dark Arts. These neat curses/jinxes he could have easily learned from his mother.

However (and I'm full of contradictions) Sirius also says,

"Snape has always been fascinated with the dark arts and he was famous for it at school."

It is quite likely that Sirius was not exaggerating Snape's love for the dark arts, as the first Defence lesson Snape taught amounted to an abundant show of his passion. The Dark Arts are probably what motivated him to become a Death Eater in the first place because at Hogwarts Snape would have had very little exposure to any serious Dark Arts. However we have still not fathomed out why Snape liked the Dark Arts in the first place.

Severus Snape has demonstrated over and over again that he is very ambitious and power hungry. He likes to act alone and therefore receive full credit for his actions. The capture of Sirius Black for instance, Snape was clearly certain that Black was in the Shrieking Shack but instead of reporting this he preferred to attempt to capture Black single-handed. The Dark Arts, no matter how morally wrong, are very powerful and their study could easily propel a wizard of Snape's talent to prominence.

He also enjoys have power over others, hence his bullying of school children. Therefore the Dark Arts would have appealed to his character. The Dark Arts would obviously aid him in fulfilling his ambitions and give him unprecedented control over others. However it can also be said that Snape enjoys the sadism of the Dark Arts. He obviously grew up in a very violent atmosphere, which would have fuelled his sadistic traits. It is important to understand that Snape is not a violent person but a sadistic one. Snape is far more refined in his love of making people suffer and he usually employs psychological weapons rather than physical means to achieve pain. His childhood left him with no love for violence. Although it is true that abused children often become violent themselves, Snape has gravitated towards the other end of the spectrum. His hatred of violence is plain in his philosophy; he loathes the uncontrolled nature of violence. Or perhaps he hates the connotation of violence?

Whether or not Snape's father was as bad as he appeared, we can be sure that he did have a violent temper. Perhaps he never harmed his wife or child but he would still have demonstrated violence in other ways. Therefore during Snape's childhood the connotation of violence was the image of his father. When he arrived in Slytherin, perhaps even before then, Snape wanted to distance himself from his father and even prove to himself that he was better than the low life muggle.

With such a domineering father, Snape would have wanted control and power as an instinctive reaction to the suppressive nature of his childhood. In a way his bullying is a kind of revenge, because he is unable to unleash his hatred upon his father.

When Severus Snape eventually entered Hogwarts, he would no doubt have already heard about the Dark Arts from his mother. Whether or not Eileen Snape gravitated towards them is debatable but Severus certainly harboured a liking for them before he entered Hogwarts. We must take into account that at eleven Severus may not have been as cunning or as sadistic as he is now. However his innate sense of ambition would have led him straight into the snake pit without question.

So what happened when Snape eventually arrived in Slytherin? What we have seen throughout the books about Snape's school life has been contradictory. Firstly we find out from Sirius that Snape had friends, well "friends". What sort of "friends" you would expect Snape to make in Slytherin is for the next editorial; right now we can assume that Snape had friends.

His friends, according to Sirius, all became Death Eater, and indeed Snape was no exception. Whether or not peer pressure influenced his decision is relevant to this editorial but considering Snape's parentage, he certainly ended up with friends in high places. The Lestranges, who are a family of influential purebloods of considerable status, are stated to have been his friends. Later on Snape also added Malfoy to his list of rich and pure-blooded contacts. Narcissa says in HBP

"…and you are Lucius' old friend."

Old friend, mind you, not new friend. So it seems very likely that Snape would have managed to gain some degree of respectability amongst his fellow Slytherins.

In the pensieve scene Snape does not appear to be very popular at all. Sirius and James managed to gather quite a large admiring audience before Lily appeared to break up the fun. However Slytherins are not renown for their support of each other. In OotP we see that no one comes to the defence of Draco Malfoy when Harry and George were pummelling him, but you cannot deny that Draco Malfoy does have a certain status within Slytherin House.

Therefore the parallel between Snape and Malfoy is evidence enough to back the suggestion that Snape was indeed respected in Slytherin House, but how does a half-blood bought up in a backward slum gain the respect of powerful and influential people?

The answer, The Dark Arts. Whether Snape actually knew anything more dangerous than the leg-locker curse when he arrived in Slytherin is debatable, but one does not gain the respect of people over night. Snape, as we have all agreed, does not have a particularly attractive character and there is no indication that he ever had a particularly attractive character. He was unpopular enough with the rest of the houses to become a prime target of bullying, so what is there to suggest that he had an easier time of making friends with the Slytherins? However it is true that he did make friends with the Slytherins.

The only way that, Snape, the unattractive, half blood, could have made friends in Slytherin was by using his intellect. Snape has demonstrated throughout the books to have a superior intellect and he knows this very well. In fact he adheres anyone with an inferior intellect. His favourite insults all hinge on his victim being of inferior intelligence.

I will not go as far as to say that all Slytherins are dark wizards, but there is no smoke without fire. Slytherin House must have been dabbling in the Dark Arts for a very long time to gain its reputation, but only dabbling, mind you; very few of them actually end up like Voldemort. With many influential pure blood families being principally Slytherin, we can see that the pack leaders of the snake pit would have at least encountered the Dark Arts at home. No doubt they would also respect and revere the Dark Arts. Like the martial arts, respect for the art is essential in preventing misuse and abuse. Most Slytherins of wizard origin would have understood the dangers of the Dark Arts, which is why the Dark Lord turnout to be a muggle raised, but that is for another editorial.

The Dark Arts are dangerous stuff and therefore any student who could demonstrate a flair for them would at least be respected if not liked. Unlike Gryffindors, Slytherins are not principally attracted to "good people", but "powerful people". What better way to assert your potential for power than to out perform everyone else magically in the Dark Arts, one of the most powerful branches of magic? This is probably just what Snape did. Being the ambitious Slytherin that he is, he would have gone to great lengths to prove his worth in order to up his position in the pecking order.

However on the other side of the equation, the Dark Arts were all that stood between Snape and being trampled on by his own peers. Snakes, in folklore, are not renown for their sense of compassion or sympathy, being cold-blooded creatures. There is no sense of the protecting the weak in the Snake Pit, you either stood up or stood down. Therefore having somehow incurred the wrath of the two most popular boys in the year, Snape could not afford for his popularity in Slytherin to slip any further.

It is possible that in the beginning (and perhaps in the end too) Snape did not care what the other houses thought of him. His main concern was to attract the attention of his own peers.

Therefore throughout Snape's formative years at Hogwarts, he saw the Dark Arts as a path to power and respectability. No wonder he fell in love with them. The Dark Arts are like Midas' Touch of Gold, so good but oh so deadly. However greed is all too common in humans and Snape is certainly not exempt. It is, therefore, fairly obvious why and how Snape eventually ended up joining the Death Eaters.

However it can also be argued that Snape was encouraged to dabble in the Dark Arts. It is quite possible that many Slytherins choose to study the Dark Arts using the Restricted Section of the library or learning off each other. Peer pressure is a powerful thing and can lead many to go against their principals. Even if Snape is, in secret, as righteous as Molly Weasley, it would not prevent him from succumbing to peer pressure at the age of twelve. Afterwards Snape could have acquired a taste for the Dark Arts, such as one acquires a taste for joy riding. All moral restraints are quashed to make way for the new hobby and one eventually gets used to this, which will explain how the Death Eaters use the Unforgivables so easily.

Dark wizards are made not born and Snape's passion for the Dark Arts developed due to his circumstances. Whether this makes him evil or good is entirely up to you to decide.

Next editorial: Snape in Slytherin...how does Snape fare? Slytherin's secrects revealed

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