Snape didn't murder the Potters, LV did (was What would Snape have to do....)

[delwynmarch]

No: HPFGUIDX 138579

doddiemoemoe wrote:
"(Snape)'s responsible for the deaths of Lilly and James Potter.

He's even responsible for Harry being the chosen one.

(snip)

He's responsible for the fate of Neville's parents."

Del replies:
I completely disagree on all those points. This is the debate of
intelligence vs policy: who is responsible, the one who provides the
intelligence, or the one who uses it? In my eyes, it's very clearly
the one who uses it.

Snape can clearly be accused of complicity in the Potters' murders,
but he is not responsible for them. He brought information to LV, but
he is not the one who decided how to act on that information. 

RL examples:

* The person who leaves the door open so that a murderer can get in a
place is not a murderer.

* The person who buys a gun is not responsible for the way their
spouse might use it.

* The spy who informs the enemy army is not responsible for the
decision the enemy general will make.

All those people are accomplices to some degree or another, and all of
them will most probably be tried and punished, either for aiding to
commit a crime or for being irresponsible, or something like that. But
*none* of them will be condemned for what someone else did with their
information. They will be condemned for providing the information,
which is a totally different thing.

So yes Snape was an accomplice in the murder of the Potters, but he is
not responsible for them. LV is.

By the way, Snape is not the only accomplice in the Potters' murder.
Without Peter, for example, LV would never have found them. And
without Sirius, the Potters would most probably never have chosen
Peter as their SK in the first place. Even DD could probably be
dragged in this mess, as the Head of the Order of the Phoenix (one
could wonder how Peter managed to hide his treason from one of the two
greatest Legilimenses in the world for so long). And of course, let's
not forget Trelawney: if she hadn't made that Prophecy, there would be
no Boy Who Lived.

As for the Longbottoms' murders, I fail to see how Snape is connected
to them.

doddiemoemoe wrote:
"He joined the DE's of his own accord, he didn't back out right away
either(he "left" for completely different reasons than Regulus Black
for example)."

Del replies:
I'm a bit surprised at this one, because I find Snape's reason for
leaving the DEs more "noble" than Regulus's. Regulus apparently backed
out because he got scared, because he didn't have the stomach of
walking on the path he had chosen. Snape, OTOH, apparently left it
when the path took a turn he morally disagreed with.

There's also the matter that Regulus apparently only tried to save his
own hide, while Snape went to the enemy and tried to save an innocent.

Of course, this is all based on what we know for now, and I believe
that Book 7 will change A LOT of what we know :-)

doddiemoemoe wrote: 
"With this much blood, heartache and sorrow....how can he possibly
redeem himself?!?!?"

Del replies:
That's an illogical question ;-) If Snape did not have so much blood
on his hands, he would not need to be redeemed.

doddiemoemoe wrote:
"Realization of one's mistake doesn't mean redemption...attempting to
right a wrong may lead to redemption...but in my opinion Snape simply
has too many wrongs to right in one book."

Del replies:
That's because you think that Snape hasn't started redeeming himself
yet. But DD seems to imply that he has, when he states in GoF
(paraphrase) that Snape turned against LV at great risk for himself.
If Snape *truly* risked his own life to right the wrong he had done,
then that should count *a lot* in estimating his degree of redemption,
IMO.

doddiemoemoe wrote:
"and who really doesn't understand why so many loathe PP but not
Snape?!?!)"

Del replies:
For one simple reason: Peter *betrayed* his friends, simply because he
was scared for his own skin. James and Lily entrusted him with their
lives and the life of their baby, and yet he chose to betray them,
something that he only could do, simply in order to save his own life.
That's utterly despicable IMO.

Snape, OTOH, was simply an enemy soldier. I don't admire his choosing
what he must have known was the morally wrong camp, I don't approve of
it at all. But his choosing the wrong camp isn't anywhere as
despicable in my eyes as what Peter did.

Del