vorona_394

Okay, this is something I just don't get. I was reading a story the other day, and it's an excellent story, so I'm going to leave the title out: I'd hate to be giving bad press to a generally good story.

The problem was the end, and I've seen this particular end on many, many Hermione/Snape stories, so, again, the particular story that made me write this is unimportant.

Snape asks Hermione to marry him, they get married, and have a child (or two, or three), and suddenly, he turns into goo-goo ga-ga dad.

I don't get it. If you like warm, fuzzy types, why are you writing about Snape? If you like Snape, why are you turning him into a goo-goo ga-ga dad? Why?

Snape is dark. He's sarcastic. He refuses to let go of past grudges even worse than Harry does. He hates clumsiness. He hates messes and mistakes. He hates being made fun of and has little sense of humor when it comes to that sort of thing (think Lupin and the vulture-grandmother-Snape or the insults on the Marauder's map).

Now, I'm not saying that if Snape ever had a kid, that he wouldn't love the child or be a good parent... but I don't think he'd turn into goo-goo ga-ga dad either. I think he'd be proud of the child's achievements, but also have impossibly high standards. He'd be frequently frustrated and snap at the child, too. He'd probably be somewhat distant, unsure exactly how to act, but sure not how to act... Given the wrong circumstances, he could be a horrible and abusive father. Given the right ones...

Well, yes, I can see him changing and eventually becoming a very loving father. But you have to show this! You can't just go from dark!Snape to lovingfather!Snape! You can't be telling a wonderfully intense, difficult, and amazingly good story about the Snape I know and then stick on this quick ending where he turns into Fluff-Dad.

The "good father" story would have to begin WITH THE BIRTH OF THE CHILD, to give the story ample time to really show the changes taking place.

But no, no... We have to make sure to give Snape and Hermione the exact happy ending that we want to have in our own lives, marriage and children included. Never mind that Snape is not particularly well-suited to having children.

At least that's my take on why. And it's not a good reason. If Mary Sues (i.e. wish fulfillment characters) are wrong, well, then surely wish fulfillment endings involving Fluffy Snape are equally wrong.

Okay, okay. I'm going to preface this by saying that I know that Hermione is NOT going to end up with Snape in any of the Harry Potter books. Nor is it ever going to be "revealed" that they've secretly liked each other but would never admit it. Or that either of them has secretly liked the other without the other responding. I know this. That said, there are bits of Hermione/Snape subtext within the books and movies. Movies are not canon, but since I'm not talking strict canon at this point, I feel fine in including them.

1. Krum. He's described as being sallow-skinned, with a large beak-shaped nose, and he goes around scowling a lot. There's also lots of rumors about Durmstrang being full of Dark Arts -- the same sort of thing that seems to follow Snape around.

Krum is, admittedly, the strongest part of the subtext.

2. Crookshanks. Her choice of pet is a monster whose first actions we see are of attacking and being very agressive... and yet, he is extremely intelligent.

However, it shows us that what she chooses for herself is not a sweet, gentle, caring animal.

3. Her own ability at subterfuge. People often downplay this, seeing her as a quintessential Gryffindor. However, I recently realized how many things Hermione has done or come up with that rely on deception:

1. Burning Snape's robes
2. Stealing Potions supplies
3. Finding a location for brewing Polyjuice Potion
4. Taking Crabbe and Goyle out of the picture so they can't show up and ruin things
5. Using the Time-Turner without anyone knowing about it.
6. Knowing that Remus Lupin was a werewolf without anyone else knowing about it.
7. Agreeing to date Krum without anyone knowing who her date was.
8. Bottling Rita Skeeter.
9. Enchanting the D. A. list to reveal anyone who leeked the secret.
10. The lovely bit of lying that lured Umbridge out into the Forbidden Forest
11. The Confundus Charm on McLaggen, so that Ron would be Keeper

I can't remember any others in Book 6.

4. Ambition. If it wasn't for her sense of right and wrong (as opposed to obligation/debt, etc.), I think she could easily be a Slytherin (I plan to put up a post about the Houses as well). She is, I think, the single most ambitious character in the books, in the truest sense of the word. She is driven to succeed at everything, and the more challenges she has, the better. Her hand raising in Book 1 in Snape's class show how much she relishes the challenge he presents.

5. The movie reference: Hermione tells Ron she's going with someone else, and directly goes to Snape to hand him her paper, and walks out again. Snape's smirk after that seems rather -satisfied-. Again, the fact that the person she's talking about is someone who's features that are described as being prominent are the same as Snape's (aside from Krum's duck-walk) enhance this.

Again, though, this is all subtext and doesn't mean anything other than being something interesting to speculate about. I am under no delusions about anything. In fact, I think many of them were subconscious. Which to me, makes them more powerful, if less valid.