HP and the Half Blood Git

[vituperative404]

No: HPFGUIDX 105568


"K":
> There's no canon proof yet that Snape every stood by and watched 
> while his pals tortured and murdered. Why oh why would Dumbledore 
> ever hire someone to teach if they had done those things? Just to 
> keep a closer watch over them? That's taking an awful big risk. 
> 
> I'm not saying there's no possible way Snape was never that evil. 
> I'm just saying we don't know that yet and until then I'm not 
> putting him in that camp. One can still hope he never did those 
> things. I don't like *evil* people either.  :-)

Melanie:
You're right- there's no canon for Snape throwing Unforgivable 
curses at innocents. Yet. But I think the fact that Snape was a DE 
means we have to make deductions based on what we know the other DEs 
did, however distasteful that may be. After all, the DEs were the 
elite, Voldemort's right hand men-- becoming a DE meant they had to 
volunteer, have the "approval" of Voldemort himself, get a permanent 
tattoo, and run around in funny robes. It also meant torturing and 
murdering Order of the Phoenix members and Muggles, and somehow 
feeling that this was Time Well Spent. Even if Snape just made 
Veritaserum and poisons for the Cause, he's still morally culpable 
for supporting, you know, torture and murder. 

We can't have it both ways-- Snape either really *was* a DE in the 
full sense of the term and is trying to be redeemed, or he somehow 
managed to be the Diet Coke of DE evil and therefore has nothing to 
apologize for. As much as it pains me, we can't have Snape be 
innocent of the crimes of his peers *and* be heroically redeemed. 

As to why Dumbledore hired him, I think it's because Dumbledore 
believes in redemption. Snape turned his back on his dark past (at 
least, so we think) and turned spy "at great personal risk" at the 
end of the first war against Voldemort. And now he's risking his 
life to help the Order. This certainly goes some way towards 
justifying Dumbledore's "Severus Snape is now no more of a Death 
Eater than I am" remark in the pensieve scene of GoF. Of course, the 
exact whys and wherefores are a mystery.

-Melanie, who really likes Snape, at least as a character, and will 
probably get a bit sniffly when he kicks the bucket in Book 7.