Snape as having been loved.

[lealess]

No: HPFGUIDX 136423

I find the whole "loved therefore more culpable/should have known 
better" argument fairly specious.  Didn't Bellatrix Black's parents 
love their children, or the Malfoys, Crouch?  It may not have been 
selfless, no-strings-attached love, but it was love none-the-same.  
Don't the Weasleys love Percy?  Do you think Narcissa and Bellatrix 
might love their husbands?  Narcissa loves her son, and he loves her, 
enough to try to save her life from Voldemort's revenge.  So
 how 
does love play into Draco's decision not to kill Dumbledore?  It may 
have been the reason he started the whole scheme in the first place.

Another example: suppose Snape's grandparents Prince and Snape loved 
their children.  Then his mother married a husband who loved her, but 
turned out to be abusive, let's say, he had power issues with a witch 
wife.  Should Tobias Snape's parents' love have prevented him from 
being abusive?  Should Eileen Prince's parent's love have prevented 
her from making a terrible choice in her husband, a choice that would 
probably affect the future attitudes of her child?  Would it prevent 
her from continuing to believe she loved an abusive husband?

If Lily loved Snape, as a friend or even more, was it selfless, no-
strings-attached love?  Obviously not, if she turned her back on him 
later.  If Dumbledore loved Snape, in a selfless way (with strings 
attached -- being a spy), should that love on its own be enough for 
Snape to make decisions about his life, the kinds of decisions 
Dumbledore himself might have had to make at one time, even with love?

Honestly, what does love have to do with it?  People make mistakes, 
whether or not they are loved, for complex reasons, or just by 
accident.  It is teaching morality, backed by love, that (hopefully) 
prevents these kinds of mistakes, not love on its own.

It goes back to an earlier post I made that got dropped in a black 
hole: what is this love we are talking about?

lealess