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I have this post on Sirius and Regulus and East of Eden I keep thinking about putting up. I think the trouble with it is that I can't stop babbling in it, just wandering off and wondering how things could be, given that we have zero to no canon about them.
Today, though, I was thinking about
In an interview about Six Feet Under Alan Ball, rather wonderfully, referred to the character of Rico Diaz as the tragically underappreciated adopted son or something to that affect. I loved that because I thought that was absolutely true--Rico was brought into the business by Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. He was the most interested in Fisher & Sons, the business, and he was the most talented (he was an artist at reconstruction). Yet he could never quite be part of the family, and so part of the business. In a very real way he was one of the the "Sons" of Fisher & Sons, but was never really seen that way. Mostly the way he was treated as a son, imo, was to be resented by the real sons when they felt inadequate.
That made me think about how I always felt Krycek was a lot like that in The X-files. Mulder and Spender were both the legitimate sons of Bill Mulder and CSM (or both of CSM, damn you, Chris Carter), and Krycek was the outsider fighting his way into the Conspiracy. Although Krycek was more determined and willing, it was Mulder and Spender who were the desirable ones because they were blood.
So what does that have to do with Snape? Well, nothing. Or not much, exactly. It's just that I was thinking about Snape and Sirius. The two characters have a pretty intense relationship in canon. We are first told by DD in PS/SS that Snape hates Harry because he and Harry's father hated each other. Certainly Snape hates Harry because he reminds him of James, and both Sirius and Snape are accused of mistaking Harry for his father. So while James and Sirius were best friends, and Snape and James hated each other, James also provides a sort of focal point around which Sirius and Snape hate each other.
However, since I'm somebody who really likes family sagas, and in HP I think all the family sagas are the tragedies on the Dark Side of the book (the Weasleys have their drama and their dysfunction, but it's mostly rooted in the present...it's just not the operatic drama of the Blacks), I can't help but think about Snape as a Black. Sirius leaves his family and is blasted off the family tree. He goes to a family on the "good" side, the Potters, and they become his family. In the present time Sirius is considered a member of that family, I would say.
But what about Snape? The post-HBP interest in Regulus begs the question of what, if any, relationship Snape and Regulus had. Regulus was the son who stayed on the family tree. Even after rejecting the DEs, he was still a loyal Black as far as we know. They were both DEs together. HBP makes a point of bringing Regulus into the fold, even if you don't think he is R.A.B. (which I think he is). Slughorn first brings him up as a Slytherin, "I got [Sirius'] brother Regulus when he came along." (He sees the Black boys as "a matched set.") I can't find the other quote, but I know there's somewhere where someone says that Regulus only lived a few days after leaving the DEs. Iow, although we never heard of the lad before OotP, everyone is on a first name basis with him. Well, that's part of the fun of a coming-of-age mystery. All the adults know more than you do, because they were all alive then. How was Harry to know he should worry about Regulus when he didn't know he existed, and then when he did know Sirius acted like he wasn't important?
It becomes very tempting to imagine Snape, who is the same age as Sirius, replacing him in a way in the family's eyes. We have no evidence that Regulus looked at Snape the way he had at Sirius, but there's just something interesting about Snape being at Grimmauld Place given that he was (or is) more in line with what the house represents. (It adds some nice possibilities for the fact he won't stay for dinner.)
The main reason for thinking of it is that in HBP Snape *is* there helping the Blacks. Narcissa (Black) Malfoy comes to him for help protecting her son (also a Black). Snape and Bellatrix (Black) LeStrange seem to know each other very well. Narcissa references Snape's friendship with Lucius (Sirius had earlier called Snape Lucius' lapdog), but while we know he and Lucius have a relationship it's the Blacks with whom Snape seems the most bound up: Draco, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Sirius. Snape may not be "family" in their Pureblood eyes, but their ties seem almost as close. Had Sirius not been a "blood traitor" he might have been the one his cousin, Narcissa, went to for protection for her son as head of the family. He might have been the one sniping with Bellatrix. (I can see him making a UV as well, if not necessarily this one.) Harry tells us Snape seems to like Draco the very first day of class. Has he met him before? Is it just that Draco was Lucius' son, or is Snape close with Draco's family? And by Draco's family, I mostly mean the Blacks, since those are the relatives we usually see in canon? This storyline is a family drama, with Voldemort being simply the outside influence. In fact, Voldemort seems to spend the whole year picking on Draco.
It makes me wonder, thinking back on OotP, if Snape ever spent time in the house at Grimmauld Place the way Sirius stayed with the Potters. He wasn't best buddies with Regulus as far as we know, but he may have gotten involved with the whole family during Voldemort's first rise. Fanon has often named Snape Draco's godfather and while this might not be literally true he is rather acting as one in HBP.
Maybe the other reason I wonder about this comes down to house elves. Besides being hilarious when he waxed rhapsodic over Draco's bone structure in HBP, Kreacher was also very serious in considering him a Black. Dobby betrayed the Malfoys to serve Harry Potter; Kreacher betrayed Sirius and would love to serve the last of the Blacks. I think maybe it's the fact that I think of Kreacher as part of the Black family that made me start thinking about Snape this way.
Snape may be a Prince, but he's a half-blood. He's not married--Pureblood ideology makes it impossible for him to marry himself into the kind of family he supported as a DE. But that doesn't mean he didn't fashion himself some place in that family. It's interesting for me to think that that might drive some of his confrontations with Sirius as well. Sirius may have left his family behind and said good riddance, but would he really like the idea of Snape getting a spot in it? I don't think it's too wild an idea to think that Snape would have coveted a spot in that family. He was a DE, he supported the ideology (I don't think you can surgically remove Pureblood Mania from the DE ideology so that Snape's not a bigot), he used Mudblood as an insult at least once. Sirius compares him to a Pureblood's lapdog. The name Half-blood Prince could mean he's a Prince among half-bloods, or it can also be Snape claiming a place for himself in the wizarding side of his family. He's a half-blood, but he's still a Prince. He did perhaps want a wizard family. (Can't blame the man there--look at Harry and Hermione!)
I have no idea what really went on. It just seems like there's some good potential for something in the fact that Snape plays such a huge part in the Black family drama of HBP, taking over as the patriarch in some ways, when Sirius was so defined by being an Outsider. Not that Snape's role goes completely smoothly. Bellatrix is obviously suspicious of him, but more on Voldemort's behalf. Draco is potentially even more interesting on that score, since just as Snape steps into a father's role Draco becomes rebellious and suspicious. One wonders if there's a "you're not my father!" lurking there somewhere, with Draco projecting some of his anger about his father onto Snape. I've always liked the fact that when Snape and Draco argue the thing that makes Draco lose it and stomp off in a huff is when Snape responds to his claim that Snape is trying to steal his glory by saying he knows Draco is upset about his father. Seems like Snape doesn't buy that glory stuff either.
Anyway, I guess I haven't actually said anything. It's just an interesting aspect to Snape and Sirius' relationship. In the fight between the two in OotP, Sirius, in one of his Black-est (and Draco-ish) moments, leans back in his chair lazily and, speaking to the ceiling, says, "You know, I think I'd prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house, you see." This creates an "ugly flush" in Snape's pallid face. He then becomes quietly waspish, and hits Sirius with the charge of being useless. Harry later remembers this and claims Snape goaded Sirius into leaving the house, implying he was a coward. It's certainly true that this is Sirius' sore spot. Could Snape have pulled it out because Sirius had hit his own sore spot by claiming the Black House as his own and speaking to Snape like an unworthy guest in it? Not even a poor relation? That ugly flush seems a bit much for the remark Sirius made otherwise, at least to me. Perhaps Sirius was really was pulling out the Pureblood Black card, without Harry realizing it. If Snape longed to be a real Black, I could certainly see Sirius mocking him about it.
Today, though, I was thinking about
In an interview about Six Feet Under Alan Ball, rather wonderfully, referred to the character of Rico Diaz as the tragically underappreciated adopted son or something to that affect. I loved that because I thought that was absolutely true--Rico was brought into the business by Nathaniel Fisher, Sr. He was the most interested in Fisher & Sons, the business, and he was the most talented (he was an artist at reconstruction). Yet he could never quite be part of the family, and so part of the business. In a very real way he was one of the the "Sons" of Fisher & Sons, but was never really seen that way. Mostly the way he was treated as a son, imo, was to be resented by the real sons when they felt inadequate.
That made me think about how I always felt Krycek was a lot like that in The X-files. Mulder and Spender were both the legitimate sons of Bill Mulder and CSM (or both of CSM, damn you, Chris Carter), and Krycek was the outsider fighting his way into the Conspiracy. Although Krycek was more determined and willing, it was Mulder and Spender who were the desirable ones because they were blood.
So what does that have to do with Snape? Well, nothing. Or not much, exactly. It's just that I was thinking about Snape and Sirius. The two characters have a pretty intense relationship in canon. We are first told by DD in PS/SS that Snape hates Harry because he and Harry's father hated each other. Certainly Snape hates Harry because he reminds him of James, and both Sirius and Snape are accused of mistaking Harry for his father. So while James and Sirius were best friends, and Snape and James hated each other, James also provides a sort of focal point around which Sirius and Snape hate each other.
However, since I'm somebody who really likes family sagas, and in HP I think all the family sagas are the tragedies on the Dark Side of the book (the Weasleys have their drama and their dysfunction, but it's mostly rooted in the present...it's just not the operatic drama of the Blacks), I can't help but think about Snape as a Black. Sirius leaves his family and is blasted off the family tree. He goes to a family on the "good" side, the Potters, and they become his family. In the present time Sirius is considered a member of that family, I would say.
But what about Snape? The post-HBP interest in Regulus begs the question of what, if any, relationship Snape and Regulus had. Regulus was the son who stayed on the family tree. Even after rejecting the DEs, he was still a loyal Black as far as we know. They were both DEs together. HBP makes a point of bringing Regulus into the fold, even if you don't think he is R.A.B. (which I think he is). Slughorn first brings him up as a Slytherin, "I got [Sirius'] brother Regulus when he came along." (He sees the Black boys as "a matched set.") I can't find the other quote, but I know there's somewhere where someone says that Regulus only lived a few days after leaving the DEs. Iow, although we never heard of the lad before OotP, everyone is on a first name basis with him. Well, that's part of the fun of a coming-of-age mystery. All the adults know more than you do, because they were all alive then. How was Harry to know he should worry about Regulus when he didn't know he existed, and then when he did know Sirius acted like he wasn't important?
It becomes very tempting to imagine Snape, who is the same age as Sirius, replacing him in a way in the family's eyes. We have no evidence that Regulus looked at Snape the way he had at Sirius, but there's just something interesting about Snape being at Grimmauld Place given that he was (or is) more in line with what the house represents. (It adds some nice possibilities for the fact he won't stay for dinner.)
The main reason for thinking of it is that in HBP Snape *is* there helping the Blacks. Narcissa (Black) Malfoy comes to him for help protecting her son (also a Black). Snape and Bellatrix (Black) LeStrange seem to know each other very well. Narcissa references Snape's friendship with Lucius (Sirius had earlier called Snape Lucius' lapdog), but while we know he and Lucius have a relationship it's the Blacks with whom Snape seems the most bound up: Draco, Narcissa, Bellatrix and Sirius. Snape may not be "family" in their Pureblood eyes, but their ties seem almost as close. Had Sirius not been a "blood traitor" he might have been the one his cousin, Narcissa, went to for protection for her son as head of the family. He might have been the one sniping with Bellatrix. (I can see him making a UV as well, if not necessarily this one.) Harry tells us Snape seems to like Draco the very first day of class. Has he met him before? Is it just that Draco was Lucius' son, or is Snape close with Draco's family? And by Draco's family, I mostly mean the Blacks, since those are the relatives we usually see in canon? This storyline is a family drama, with Voldemort being simply the outside influence. In fact, Voldemort seems to spend the whole year picking on Draco.
It makes me wonder, thinking back on OotP, if Snape ever spent time in the house at Grimmauld Place the way Sirius stayed with the Potters. He wasn't best buddies with Regulus as far as we know, but he may have gotten involved with the whole family during Voldemort's first rise. Fanon has often named Snape Draco's godfather and while this might not be literally true he is rather acting as one in HBP.
Maybe the other reason I wonder about this comes down to house elves. Besides being hilarious when he waxed rhapsodic over Draco's bone structure in HBP, Kreacher was also very serious in considering him a Black. Dobby betrayed the Malfoys to serve Harry Potter; Kreacher betrayed Sirius and would love to serve the last of the Blacks. I think maybe it's the fact that I think of Kreacher as part of the Black family that made me start thinking about Snape this way.
Snape may be a Prince, but he's a half-blood. He's not married--Pureblood ideology makes it impossible for him to marry himself into the kind of family he supported as a DE. But that doesn't mean he didn't fashion himself some place in that family. It's interesting for me to think that that might drive some of his confrontations with Sirius as well. Sirius may have left his family behind and said good riddance, but would he really like the idea of Snape getting a spot in it? I don't think it's too wild an idea to think that Snape would have coveted a spot in that family. He was a DE, he supported the ideology (I don't think you can surgically remove Pureblood Mania from the DE ideology so that Snape's not a bigot), he used Mudblood as an insult at least once. Sirius compares him to a Pureblood's lapdog. The name Half-blood Prince could mean he's a Prince among half-bloods, or it can also be Snape claiming a place for himself in the wizarding side of his family. He's a half-blood, but he's still a Prince. He did perhaps want a wizard family. (Can't blame the man there--look at Harry and Hermione!)
I have no idea what really went on. It just seems like there's some good potential for something in the fact that Snape plays such a huge part in the Black family drama of HBP, taking over as the patriarch in some ways, when Sirius was so defined by being an Outsider. Not that Snape's role goes completely smoothly. Bellatrix is obviously suspicious of him, but more on Voldemort's behalf. Draco is potentially even more interesting on that score, since just as Snape steps into a father's role Draco becomes rebellious and suspicious. One wonders if there's a "you're not my father!" lurking there somewhere, with Draco projecting some of his anger about his father onto Snape. I've always liked the fact that when Snape and Draco argue the thing that makes Draco lose it and stomp off in a huff is when Snape responds to his claim that Snape is trying to steal his glory by saying he knows Draco is upset about his father. Seems like Snape doesn't buy that glory stuff either.
Anyway, I guess I haven't actually said anything. It's just an interesting aspect to Snape and Sirius' relationship. In the fight between the two in OotP, Sirius, in one of his Black-est (and Draco-ish) moments, leans back in his chair lazily and, speaking to the ceiling, says, "You know, I think I'd prefer it if you didn't give orders here, Snape. It's my house, you see." This creates an "ugly flush" in Snape's pallid face. He then becomes quietly waspish, and hits Sirius with the charge of being useless. Harry later remembers this and claims Snape goaded Sirius into leaving the house, implying he was a coward. It's certainly true that this is Sirius' sore spot. Could Snape have pulled it out because Sirius had hit his own sore spot by claiming the Black House as his own and speaking to Snape like an unworthy guest in it? Not even a poor relation? That ugly flush seems a bit much for the remark Sirius made otherwise, at least to me. Perhaps Sirius was really was pulling out the Pureblood Black card, without Harry realizing it. If Snape longed to be a real Black, I could certainly see Sirius mocking him about it.
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My take on it was that Bellatrix and her yearmates were *exactly* the 7th years that Snape showed up at Hogwarts knowing more hexes than that Sirius was refering to when he gave us that info in GoF. He was sorted into their House and was probably as naive as the next 11-year-old. They buttered him up, picked his brains, and dumped him by the time the year was over. He has neither forgotten nor forgiven them for it either. Their association was also what got him targeted by the Marauders. After all, anyone who cousin Bella takes up with *has* to be a bad egg.
Lucius Malfoy, a 6th year, was in with that circle, and indeed may have been their connection to the DEs, since Sirius states with considerable conviction thaqt his own parents were not DEs (too old to have been at school with Riddle) and we haven't heard anything about his aunt and uncle being DEs either. But the proto-DEs at Hogwarts in the day may well have been scattered all through the whole 7 years, and there may have been others in 7th year. (It looks very much like the first DE in the family could well have been Bellatrix herself - and dragged her sister and younger cousin in with her.) Malfoy, who has a bit better sense than Bellatrix, didn't just use Snape and drop him. He saw him as a potentially valuable resource, and cultivated the association through patronage through Snape's 2nd year.
Ergo; Snape's long association with the Malfoys, and the rather nasty vibe of resentment/gloating between him and Bellatrix. It's all too easy to read in a subtext of the tables having turned between them. I'm not convinced that it's all illusory.
As to Regulus; we've really no solid data to base anything on. He couldn't have been more than 2 years younger than Sirius in order to have become a DE and died by some (as yet unspecified) date in 1980, and he certainly *knew* Snape. And given that the younger of the two cousins married Lucius Malfoy, he probably ended up associating with Snape to some degree. But having been taken advantage of by Bellatrix in his 1st year, I wouldn't assume that Snape had a lot of time for Regulus back at Hogwarts.
Another factor we don't have a handle on is how much younger Narcissia is than her sisters. Andromeda has to have been Lucius's age and year in order to have a 22-year-old daughter by the opening or OotP. But Narcissia could be any age from 4 years older than Snape to 2 years younger. If Lucius and Narcissia are close in age, then Lucius would probably have convinced her that Snape was worth keeping an eye on, and keeping him on your string. If she was a good deal younger than the two older sisters, Lucius may have had less influence on her treatment of Snape.
Of course he could have just had a crush on her, and if she was already associated with Lucius, never acted on it.
But if we can assume (provisionally) that Regulus made it out of the sea cave alive, he would have almost certainly summoned Kreachur to help him get to the best potions expert he knew.
Snape may be involved in the business of the false Horcrux, but I don't think he managed to get much usable information out of Regulus before the kid fled.
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This caught my eye: I'm not entirely sure how reliable and accurate the HP Lexicon is seen by fandom, but said Lexicon places Regulus's defection from the Death Eaters and Trelawney's interview with Dumbledore (which Snape overheard and later went on to tell Voldemort) in the same year, making it very hard to believe that the two were working together on escaping the Death Eaters.
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From the wording of the Trelawney Prophecy (i.e., it was given *before* the birth of the child it refers to) and Regulus Black's supposed death ("15 years earlier" from the vantage point of August 1995) yes, the two almost certainly did take place the same year.
However, as my latest revision to The Child Foretold essay takes note of; from Snape's actions it is clear that he was working on Dumbledore's behalf when he only told Voldemort the first half of the Prophecy. Ergo: it is a viable supposition that he was already Dumbledore's man by the time it was given.
If this is the case; then Regulus's adventure in the sea cave almost *certainly* took place later in the year. and if he went to Snape for help - which is also a viable supposition, civen that he knows he's been poisoned - then Snape, who was already a double agent, may have helped him fake his death, taking credit among the DEs for having killed him.
In which case; Dumbledore already *knew* that the Horcrux in the cave was a fake, and was setting the scene for faking his *own* death. Freeing himself to work behind the scenes to round up the *real* Horcruxes.
That wasn't the "entertaining" theory, however. For that one we would need to have a talk with that dippy witch who was so convinced that her boyfriend, Stubby Boardman, was *Sirius* Black. Boardman, as we know, having "retired" from the public arena some *15 years earlier*...
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I wonder if there's anything to learn about Lucius' relationship with him, specifically. Sirius does say something about that relationship, and Umbridge mentions Lucius is still praising Snape. Narcissa appeals to Lucius' friendship and Draco's admiration in trying to get him to help her.