Snape, Weasley and Dumbledore – The True Villains

After listening to Deathly Hallows, I have come to the conclusion that the world of Harry Potter (as portrayed in the seven books) is actually a pretty dark place, and not entirely suitable as a place to set stories for children.

Not because it is scary. Voldemort, the Death Eaters and The Dementors are only the outward signs of the darkness.

There is another (far more insidious) side to the stories. One that makes heroes out of people who are – if you examine their actions – pretty reprehensible – and makes good guys out of people who really are appalling.

There are a number of examples of this, all the way through the books, but the ones that stick in my mind are Severus Snape, Albus Dumbledore and Ronald Weasley.

But before I start, there is something I have to point out.
THIS ENTRY CONTAINS A LOT OF SPOILERS

If you continue reading, you will learn most of what happens in all seven books, if not all. And I am not going to stick them under a cover, because it is just far too annoying.

So – deal with it.

Severus Snape

Harry describes Severus Snape as “probably one of the bravest men he ever knew”. The implication being that Severus Snape was one of the good guys. Which, from a certain point of view, is possible. After all – he fought against Voldemort for sixteen years at great personal risk – a fight which (in the end) cost him his life.

But he wasn’t fighting Voldemort because he thought Voldemort was wrong. He didn’t suddenly have a change of heart that made him realize The Dark Lord was a bad guy.

No – he changed his mind because he was obsessed with the girl he had been stalking since he was a child.

He started spying on Lily when he was a boy, paying attention to her because she was a witch while ignoring Petunia because she wasn’t. He even tried to encourage Lily to distance herself from Petunia, because he didn’t think Petunia was worth knowing.

After they got to Hogwarts, Lily went out of her way to be nice to him and he did nothing but drive her away because he wanted something better. When she criticized his friends (Avery and Mulciber), he did not try to defend them. Instead he attacked other students – Gryffindors (specifically James and Sirius). Then – when she tried to help him after being bullied by James and Sirius – he called her a mudblood – driving her away once and for all.

Even then – after she had turned her back on him and married James – he still obsessed over her. After he learned that she and her family might be killed, he went to Dumbledore to try to save her. Not Harry or James, just her. He only relented after Dumbledore bullied him in to it. His change of heart wasn’t motivated by a desire to do good, or even a desire to redeem himself. It was just done because he wanted her to be alive, so that he could have another shot at her.

But she and James died, leaving only Harry. Snape promised to protect the child, but only if Harry wasn’t told. He promised to do it not because he liked Harry, or because he felt it was the right thing to do – no. He did it because he was still in love with Harry’s mother, and this was a way of keeping that love alive.

Not that he did it a very good job of it. He thought Voldemort was dead, and yet behaved like an utter bastard to Harry, and to pretty much everyone else. And why? Because he was sucking up to his Death Eater cronies – his friends.

Fast forward a few years, and he learns that he has to kill Dumbledore. He agrees, even when he learns that Harry – the boy he is supposed to be protecting – has to die. In fact, he barely bats an eyelid when he learns Lily’s son is to be killed.

He kills Dumbledore so that he will be placed in charge of the school – purportedly to be in a position to protect the students – and yet from the stories we hear he doesn’t make even the slightest attempt to do that. Students are tortured, kidnapped, imprisoned – and Snape just sits by and lets it happen. Once again proving he is not willing to stand up for anything, and is just in it to stay alive.

Even at the end he doesn’t face death with any sense of bravery or dignity – instead he repeatedly tries to weasel out of it – trying to flee so he doesn’t have to face the consequences of his actions.

To put this in some context – compare his actions to those of Regulus Black.

They both join the Death Eaters when they leave school – apparently both in love with the cause The Dark Lord leads. Yet they both end up opposing Voldemort.

But while Snape does it because Voldemort kills his wanna-be girlfriend, Regulus does it because he realizes just how evil Voldemort has become.

Regulus puts himself on the line – he goes to the cave KNOWING that he will die. He takes Kreacher with him, but doesn’t order Krecher to die – instead he takes the potion, gives the locket to Kreacher, then lets himself be dragged under the water to die.

Snape, on the other hand, tries to save himself. He is willing to let a child be killed as long as he gets what he wants. He doesn’t care that the children of Hogwarts will suffer, or that Harry will die as long as he, himself, gets what he wants.

Regulus faced his death with bravery and courage, and proved himself to be a true hero.

Snape faced his death by nearly wetting himself, trying to weasel out of it as much as possible, throwing everyone else in his way before he died, and proved himself to be a worthless coward.

And yet somehow it is Snape we are supposed to revere, with almost no mention of Regulus after his story is told.

Not the kind of person I would look up to, and yet he comes out as a hero.

Albus Dumbledore

A number of fanfiction writers have already suggested that Dumbledore’s motives might have been less than pure. After “Order of The Phoenix” was released there was a whole slew of new stories about him being a manipulative bastard who just wanted to use Harry to fulfill his own ends. (I have written a fair number of them myself – they are kind of fun!)

And, as it turns out, they were pretty much right.

Now – even if you set aside the things he did in his early life (his lack of interest in his sister, his friendship with Grindelwald, his plans to take over the known world and enslave all muggles to serve wizards) as childhood lapses, his adult life was filled with example after example of just how evil a man he actually is.

Examples made all the worse by the fact that everything he does it

motivated by “The Greater Good” – a phrase he learned from Grindelwald (the mass-murdering, genocidal maniac).

He sends Harry to the Dursleys knowing what a crappy life he is condemning the child to. He takes this decision himself, because he believes he knows best.

Throughout the years he persistently sacrifices the happiness (and even the lives) of others while rarely putting himself at risk.

He bullies Snape in to turning spy, and then continues to bully him in to doing a number of things, including murder.

We learn about Veritaserum in “Goblet Of Fire”, but Harry never wonders why Sirius wasn’t given it the year before. Why when Dumbledore can act as an advocate for him before The Wizengamot he can’t do anything for Sirius.

Sirius is left stuck in a cave and in Grimmauld Place because Dumbledore thinks it’s necessary – he makes Sirius sacrifice his happiness, his future and eventually his life simply because he thinks it necessary.

He teachers Harry all about Voldemort without telling him what will be necessary to truly defeat him, because he doesn’t trust that Harry will do the right thing if he knows. He doesn’t tell him about The Hallows because he doesn’t trust him. He keeps so much from Harry, drip feeding him bit by bit, to ensure that when Harry finally learns the truth it will be at the point where he will have no choice but to walk to his death.

Dumbledore doesn’t make a single sacrifice in the entire war – he puts everyone else in the line of fire – to be injured and killed – but never gives up anything himself. The only reason he ends up dying is because he is greedy and selfish – he tries to use the resurrection stone to bring back his family, and it ends up cursing him. And why does he want to bring back his family? So he can apologize to them – so he can cleanse himself of the bad he has done by gaining their forgiveness. Another selfish act in a long line of selfish acts.

But he doesn’t stop manipulating people once he is mortally wounded – as mentioned he bullies Snape in to killing him, to prevent Draco from having to do it. He doesn’t actually go so far as to stopping Draco himself, of course. He is willing to potentially sacrifice the life of every student in the school to prevent Draco from being killed – going so far as to dismiss Harry when Harry realizes whats going on.

Remus, Tonks, Colin, Regulus, Sirius – they all gave their lives to oppose what they knew was wrong. Dumbledore doesn’t give his life to stop Voldemort – he gives it to try to make himself feel better about the way he treated his family in the past.

As another example, compare Dumbledore to Harry.

Dumbledore manipulates everyone, risks the lives of everyone else, deliberately sacrificing some of them in order to fulfill his plan.

Harry tries to save everyone. He initially tries to talk Ron and Hermione out of joining him on most of his adventures, and repeatedly tries to talk them out of going on the Horcrux quest.

Dumbledore bullies Snape in to risking his life by turning on Voldemort.

Harry pleads with Ginny, Neville and Luna when they are storming The Ministry – he doesn’t want anyone to go with him because he fears they will be hurt or killed.

Dumbledore uses his reputation to make people think he is infallible, so they will follow his lead and his commands.

Harry objects to his fame, and refuses to use it, even when he knows that people would flock to his banner. When he returns to Hogwarts to find the last Horcrux, his initial gut reaction is to stop people from fighting for him, and only gives in when he is talked round by Ron and Hermione.

Dumbledore shies away from confrontation, from death and from self-sacrifice, his eventual death coming because he made a mistake.

Harry is willing to face death when he needs to. Facing Quirrell, facing the basilisk, fighting Voldemort to take Cedric’s body home, facing Death Eaters at The Ministry to save Sirius, facing Dementors and Death Eaters at The Ministry to save the muggle-born on trial and finally walking to his own death without hesitation because he knows he has to.

By the end of the story, both Harry and Dumbledore are hailed as heroes. And yet when you compare the two, they are nothing alike. Dumbledore is an evil manipulative coward, Harry is a brave self-sacrificing hero.

Much like Snape, Dumbledore is a parody of what a hero should be, and yet he is hailed as one of the greatest mages.

But while Snape and Dumbledore are arguably bad people, and as such pretty poor role models for children to emulate (despite the fact we are supposed to treat them as heroes for their actions), there is an even more dangerous side to the story – one that is quite subtle, and possibly goes unnoticed by most.

And thats the innate racism of most wizards and witches.

Not black and white racism – that is actually (from what you can tell in the books) pretty rare. Kingsley isn’t treated better or worse than anyone else because of the colour of his skin, and neither are the Patil twins. The fact Ron and Harry mistreat Parvati and Padma during the Yule Ball is not because the girls are dark skinned, but because Ron and Harry are teenage boys and both want to be at the dance with someone else.

But the lack of understanding, tolerance and interest shown by most magical people in the muggle world is staggering. Even the name they give it – “muggle” – is pretty insulting.

Before I get to the two culprit, there are a few examples from the world I thought I would mention.

Every Hogwarts letter that is sent out has a line about “replying by owl” to indicate whether you are attending or not. And if the letters are going to children of magical parents – children raised in the magical world – thats all fine and dandy.

But Harry receives a letter and he knows NOTHING about the magical world. Hermione receives the letter, and also knows NOTHING.

How are they supposed to reply by owl, exactly? I think it is safe to assume that postal owls are probably different from normal, non-magical owls, so Harry can’t just walk down to the local pet-shop to pick one up. (Not that he would know they are different of course, because he doesn’t know anything about magic!).

But I doubt this has ever crossed McGonagall’s mind. She is so convinced that anyone who could be part of the magical world would want to be part of it that she assumes they will find a way to reply.

However, once you get past the “how do muggle borns reply” problem, there is the question of the courses at Hogwarts, and their complete lack of relevance to the muggle world.

The kids go to Hogwarts from age 11 to age 18. This is the time that most kids in the muggle world learn the vast majority of what they need to get by. But none of that is taught at Hogwarts, which leads to the inevitable conclusion that most of the muggle born students who enter Hogwarts are not expected to leave the magical world and return to their former lives – they would be totally unprepared and completely unable to do it. Which again suggests that the teachers/etc at Hogwarts can’t contemplate the idea that anyone would want to leave their world, because why would you be a muggle when you can be a mage?

And these are the good guys. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Hagrid – all people you associate with goodness and light.

If it was Lucius, Bella, Voldemort and Draco you would expect this sort of thing. They are supposed to be the bad guys, and the ones who espouse the racist beliefs. The Harry Potter equivalent of The BNP, National Front and Ku Klux Klan combined.

But it’s not – it’s the people that Harry and company look up to that make it very clear they think muggles are beneath them.

There are odd exceptions – Potter Watch for example, makes it very clear that everyone is equal, and that wizard and witches should not stand aside while muggles are tortured and killed. And they point out the VERY important fact that the moment you start treating someone differently because of their race – even if it is only a minor thing – then you are on a very slippery slope.

But on the whole, the vast majority of the magical world appears to think that muggles are inferior – a lesser race that is not worthy of the same treatment and respect as mages.

The most obvious example of this is the person we are supposed to like the most. The one that stands by Harry through thick and thin (more or less) and who fights with him until the end.

RONALD WEASLEY

Ronald Weasley is Harry’s bestest friend. And while they argue, disagree and – at various points – stop speaking altogether – Ron is clearly supposed to be a good guys. A flawed guy, yes, but a good guy.

And the flaws that he has are very specific – he is jealous, insecure and has a very short fuse. He feels he is overshadowed by his older brothers (because he is, at least until the end of the war) and that he is overshadowed by Harry (again, he is) and generally that no one pays him any attention, despite the fact he thinks he deserves it.

The other flaw he has – that he is (relatively speaking) a pretty racist guy – is not highlighted. It’s mentioned, but hardly anyone ever calls him on it.

Maybe because he is not the Draco Malfoy/Lucius Malfoy/Tom Riddle type racist – he doesn’t discriminate against other mages because of their blood lines (although he does take a disliking to Draco because of who his father is, so maybe he does discriminate against certain mages because of their bloodlines….) and he doesn’t discriminate against people because of the colour of their skin. He treats Padma badly at The Yule Ball, but that’s because he is a teenage boy with SEVERE jealousy issues, and not because he thinks she is inferior.

But when it comes to the muggle world, he is mocking, derisive, insulting and incredibly offensive.

A clear example of this is his disbelief that Harry and Hermione couldn’t have heard the story of The Three Brothers and the other “magical bedtime stories”. He doesn’t seem to understand that muggle-born students weren’t raised in the magical world – it just doesn’t occur to him that they might have had a life before they came to Hogwarts.

Another example is “Martin Miggs” – from all appearances, this seems to be a lot like the books from way back when that suggested most foreigners – especially those with different coloured skin – were “backward savages” and “quaint little people”.

Setting aside what it says about the people who publish it, the fact Ron seems to think this is realistic, and a true depiction of muggles and muggle life, suggests that he holds the entire race in contempt – that because they aren’t like him (aren’t magical), they are just backward savages who are there purely for his entertainment.

He feels that people who aren’t a part of his society are backward savages and not really worth bothering with. Which is an attitude fairly prevalent amongst the more right-wing members of society – even in the magical world (Draco thinks muggle borns are inferior and not worth bothering with and for that we are supposed to think he is a bad guy. Ron thinks muggles are inferior and not worth bothering with and for that we are supposed to find him cute and quaint but not evil).