hobgoblinn (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hobgoblinn) wrote2008-06-07 10:45 pm
hobgoblinn) wrote2008-06-07 10:45 pm
On Dark Magic in "In Loco Parentis"
My Snape essay got kinda taken over by this one. Thanks to the denizens of the Yahoo Group loose_canon for the recent discussions that led me to realize I need to get these issues straight before I can do much more with the story. They led me to pose the question there, in what sense is Dark Magic Evil? (Dark chocolate isn't, after all.) And here's what I've come to, for the purposes of my AU.
Dark Magic is unadulterated Evil, and it is somewhat sentient, fed and fueled by the elemental spirits of this world. It Wants to be used, because each time it is used, the collective Darkness is fed by the life force or magic of living beings. And it wants to corrupt the user to make him tap into and steal others’ energy, to actively participate in evil against others, because by doing so, it ensures its continued survival and growth. Most Dark Arts practitioners eventually die and become subsumed by Darkness, unless they turn away from it and redeem themselves prior to their death. Thus there is evil, the small petty crimes a man may do, and there is Evil, a cosmic force bent on seducing the living and slowly crushing out of its victims all sparks of kindness, compassion, love, and humanity.
Seduction is the key— whether there is a personal Devil or not, something offers a wizard something he wants, and lies to him about the price he will pay for it, and what he’s actually getting. Young Severus Snape wanted knowledge and to undo the victimization he’d suffered in childhood and at school. He would be more powerful than those who sought to hurt him, and he would achieve the recognition and acclaim he’d been denied. The Darkness used Tom Riddle, and his and Snape’s hatred of their Muggle fathers to sell a Wizards-only racial agenda, but the racial agenda was not the chief draw for either or them. It just happened to be in the air— the previous Dark Lord had used it to manipulate bitter angry bigots a generation back, and Tom found it molded his organization well. As![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
swythyv says, this is a very old war.
I posit this because Tom is, at best, evil with the small “e” if all he’s got is bigotry and the desire to live forever. Even as a man who kills and tortures others, he’s hardly a threat to the World Itself. He’s more Faustus than Antichrist. And in my story, he needs to be Evil. And Snape needs to have rejected him, then have spent the next nearly 2 decades treading the dangerous and draining line between Light and Darkness so well that the Darkness never suspected his true loyalties. Lucky for him, the Darkness is not able to read the heart, only to suck its pain and energy to sustain itself. And Tom was not able to read Snape’s true loyalties, either. So there has to be a force behind Tom that seduced them both, and Tom is still there fighting the Evil fight, while Snape has broken off, in part because he could not let go of his childhood love, but also in part because the Evil sickened him, and he saw through the empty promises and was at heart a good and honorable man. The one thing Snape might have traded all for was his integrity, and it’s the one thing the Darkness could not offer him.
But it’s important to note that my Snape *was* a Death Eater— he was wholeheartedly following the Darkness when he joined Voldemort, and when he was developing and studying the age regression curse for his Master, and when he was taking the half heard and understood prophecy back. Realizing Voldemort intended to kill Lily was the catalyst for his change of heart, but he could not have gone on to live the kind of life he did if there hadn’t been more to it. And it certainly explains how he could be so verbally and emotionally nasty to those around him— between stress and the need to keep everyone at arm’s length to maintain his cover as a spy it’s a wonder he wasn’t much, much worse. Also, to keep up appearances, he has been feeding the Darkness just enough to cover his true intentions. The fact that he’s managed to hold on to as much of his integrity as he has is even more remarkable.
Now, he has to study the Dark Arts again to figure out what Dumbledore wanted him to know— not study Defense books and teach it, but the actual, unadulterated Real Thing. And he has to let Hermione be exposed to it, at least a little, and he has to worry that the same things that drew him might entice her, as well. She has some character flaws that would make her ripe for seduction by the Darkness— her domineering and controlling nature, her belief that she truly knows better than everyone around her what should be done, and more recently, a trauma that leaves her very motivated to never be that powerless again. And Good Intentions should not be discounted— she really wants to protect Harry and Snape. Getting her on the slope will not be nearly as hard as getting her off it.
In some ways, seeing the world like this solves some Dumbledore sized problems— D serves the light, but he is hardly its embodiment. Like an impious priest, the man’s faults or lack of faith do not affect the reality his ceremonial actions represent. In other ways, it's even more of a problem-- how does Dumbledore with the same character flaws not get seduced by the darkness himself? Or does he and then pull back for much the same reasons Snape does? Possibly some of the backstory of the Prince's Tale will have to be jettisoned-- particularly the version of Snape's meeting with Dumbledore on the hilltop. At any rate, this Dumbledore is enough aware of the stakes to believe, rightly or wrongly, that every opportunity must be taken to ensure the prophecy comes true.
Because the Prophecy—that only Harry can be the one to cause Voldemort’s end— is another of the Elemental Truths of this story’s universe. It has and creates a Reality of its own. Dumbledore has tried to set up and manipulate a situation where Harry will do the right thing at the right moment. But I think in this version we’re going to see that it’s love— first from his mother before he was old enough to remember it, and later from Hermione and Snape— that cause him to rise above the same kinds of experiences that turned Tom into an evil man, and later, a vessel for Evil itself.
I honestly think this is the kind of story JKR wanted to be and thought she was telling, and it’s why so many times she just asserts things and moves on, never really showing them to be true or not, and sometimes tripping over her assertions later. We’ll see whether or not I can avoid the same, which given I’m only showing a few weeks of this AU, I should be able to pull off. There's something to be said for limits, after all.
Thoughts? Comments?
Dark Magic is unadulterated Evil, and it is somewhat sentient, fed and fueled by the elemental spirits of this world. It Wants to be used, because each time it is used, the collective Darkness is fed by the life force or magic of living beings. And it wants to corrupt the user to make him tap into and steal others’ energy, to actively participate in evil against others, because by doing so, it ensures its continued survival and growth. Most Dark Arts practitioners eventually die and become subsumed by Darkness, unless they turn away from it and redeem themselves prior to their death. Thus there is evil, the small petty crimes a man may do, and there is Evil, a cosmic force bent on seducing the living and slowly crushing out of its victims all sparks of kindness, compassion, love, and humanity.
Seduction is the key— whether there is a personal Devil or not, something offers a wizard something he wants, and lies to him about the price he will pay for it, and what he’s actually getting. Young Severus Snape wanted knowledge and to undo the victimization he’d suffered in childhood and at school. He would be more powerful than those who sought to hurt him, and he would achieve the recognition and acclaim he’d been denied. The Darkness used Tom Riddle, and his and Snape’s hatred of their Muggle fathers to sell a Wizards-only racial agenda, but the racial agenda was not the chief draw for either or them. It just happened to be in the air— the previous Dark Lord had used it to manipulate bitter angry bigots a generation back, and Tom found it molded his organization well. As
swythyv says, this is a very old war. I posit this because Tom is, at best, evil with the small “e” if all he’s got is bigotry and the desire to live forever. Even as a man who kills and tortures others, he’s hardly a threat to the World Itself. He’s more Faustus than Antichrist. And in my story, he needs to be Evil. And Snape needs to have rejected him, then have spent the next nearly 2 decades treading the dangerous and draining line between Light and Darkness so well that the Darkness never suspected his true loyalties. Lucky for him, the Darkness is not able to read the heart, only to suck its pain and energy to sustain itself. And Tom was not able to read Snape’s true loyalties, either. So there has to be a force behind Tom that seduced them both, and Tom is still there fighting the Evil fight, while Snape has broken off, in part because he could not let go of his childhood love, but also in part because the Evil sickened him, and he saw through the empty promises and was at heart a good and honorable man. The one thing Snape might have traded all for was his integrity, and it’s the one thing the Darkness could not offer him.
But it’s important to note that my Snape *was* a Death Eater— he was wholeheartedly following the Darkness when he joined Voldemort, and when he was developing and studying the age regression curse for his Master, and when he was taking the half heard and understood prophecy back. Realizing Voldemort intended to kill Lily was the catalyst for his change of heart, but he could not have gone on to live the kind of life he did if there hadn’t been more to it. And it certainly explains how he could be so verbally and emotionally nasty to those around him— between stress and the need to keep everyone at arm’s length to maintain his cover as a spy it’s a wonder he wasn’t much, much worse. Also, to keep up appearances, he has been feeding the Darkness just enough to cover his true intentions. The fact that he’s managed to hold on to as much of his integrity as he has is even more remarkable.
Now, he has to study the Dark Arts again to figure out what Dumbledore wanted him to know— not study Defense books and teach it, but the actual, unadulterated Real Thing. And he has to let Hermione be exposed to it, at least a little, and he has to worry that the same things that drew him might entice her, as well. She has some character flaws that would make her ripe for seduction by the Darkness— her domineering and controlling nature, her belief that she truly knows better than everyone around her what should be done, and more recently, a trauma that leaves her very motivated to never be that powerless again. And Good Intentions should not be discounted— she really wants to protect Harry and Snape. Getting her on the slope will not be nearly as hard as getting her off it.
In some ways, seeing the world like this solves some Dumbledore sized problems— D serves the light, but he is hardly its embodiment. Like an impious priest, the man’s faults or lack of faith do not affect the reality his ceremonial actions represent. In other ways, it's even more of a problem-- how does Dumbledore with the same character flaws not get seduced by the darkness himself? Or does he and then pull back for much the same reasons Snape does? Possibly some of the backstory of the Prince's Tale will have to be jettisoned-- particularly the version of Snape's meeting with Dumbledore on the hilltop. At any rate, this Dumbledore is enough aware of the stakes to believe, rightly or wrongly, that every opportunity must be taken to ensure the prophecy comes true.
Because the Prophecy—that only Harry can be the one to cause Voldemort’s end— is another of the Elemental Truths of this story’s universe. It has and creates a Reality of its own. Dumbledore has tried to set up and manipulate a situation where Harry will do the right thing at the right moment. But I think in this version we’re going to see that it’s love— first from his mother before he was old enough to remember it, and later from Hermione and Snape— that cause him to rise above the same kinds of experiences that turned Tom into an evil man, and later, a vessel for Evil itself.
I honestly think this is the kind of story JKR wanted to be and thought she was telling, and it’s why so many times she just asserts things and moves on, never really showing them to be true or not, and sometimes tripping over her assertions later. We’ll see whether or not I can avoid the same, which given I’m only showing a few weeks of this AU, I should be able to pull off. There's something to be said for limits, after all.
Thoughts? Comments?
no subject
Thanks.
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