Cultural standards for Snape abusiveness/Karma again/Mcgonagall and Neville

[ornadv]

No: HPFGUIDX 144427

>Pippin:
>I guess I am not clear what Snape is supposed to be punished for,
>DDM!Snape, I mean. If it is for serving Voldemort, then I think he 
>is supposed to have paid for his crimes by changing sides and saving
>Harry.

>Alla:
> So, if you are saying that Harry wil forgive Snape for himself
> without ever saying it to Snape face - ABSOLUTELY, it is a good
>thing to do,IMO.

>Ceridwen:
>If Snape dies in book 7, that may be the only thing Harry can do. I
>tend toward Harry having to dump all of his hate and anger in order
>to realize the 'love power' Dumbledore kept reassuring him, and us,
>is necessary for the defeat of Voldemort.

Orna:
I think it is quite clear what Snape is supposed to be punished for –
 he is after all a very nasty person , so much that quite a few 
people out here consider him a child-abuser, and the other also 
don't seem to fancy him as a close friend. 
The problem with him is that he might be (and IMHO most probably is) 
a person very much instrumental for helping Harry conquer Voldemort, 
and if it is like this – how can one relate to a person like this. 
It gives him IMO a tragic perspective: he is on a very lonely tragic 
path, endangering himself in the extreme, and being on the whole 
misunderstood, unacknowledged and even hated. As it is he has more 
saves on Harry's life than McGonagall, and in some twisted fashion 
(the HBP-potion-book, the Gillyweed, the DE curse in HBP helped him. 
Even Neville has been helped by Snape, when he told Grabbe to stop 
strangling him (because of the paper-work, OK, but the fact remains).
It is very difficult to form some coherent feelings towards a person 
containing such extreme characteristics and arousing such polarized 
feelings. I find it literally difficult to remember vividly his 
saving Harry, or even healing song on Draco, while I am attuned to 
his killing DD, rejoicing in Sirius' possible Dementor-kiss, or even 
just some of his more "sensitive" remarks. And OTOH I find it 
difficult to remember the more sadistic remarks, or deeds, while I 
am attuned to his efficient and helping interventions, even if they 
are accompanied by some sneering remark. Perhaps that's what changed 
with DD's death - besides underlining the question of on whose side 
Snape is- it seems impossible to forget or minimize what he has 
done. As if his AKing DD, puts in the foreground all the other 
characteristics, which until now were kept underground, so to speak, 
also because of the magic phrase – "I completely trust Severus 
Snape". 
But I think that's what JKR forces us to meet, a person with near 
abusive qualities, and certainly one who hurts continuously persons 
on their most vulnerable spots which might act heroically in the 
good side. I don't see him change his personal characteristics, or 
even apologize for anything of his way of being and I feel that's 
part of the point – not that he shouldn't be different, or recognize 
how much he purposely hurt his students and fellow wizards. Of 
course he should apologize, reform etc. But he won't do it IMO, and 
still he might help Harry and the order in a crucial way, and we 
will have to see how to manage our feelings towards this complex 
situation; or in Lupin's language – the world isn't divided between 
bad DE's and good persons.
Actually – just like Lupin has his "furry problem" – which after all 
makes potentially dangerous once a month, Snape has some good and 
possibly heroic deeds to himself, which makes him?  A "negative 
werewolf"?

Perhaps, because he is such a polarized person - "we" kill him off. 
Just allowing him to be revealed as a DDM!Snape, and taking part in 
the celebrations after Voldemort's death, doesn't feel possible, 
mainly because his (in)human characteristics. I suggest that that's 
the reason why IMO many DDM!Snape-fans think he won't survive book 
7. Since it doesn't feel in his character to change that far,  and 
since morally it's difficult to have him there without some true 
form of reconciliation – he will die, and thereby enablimg 
compassion and forgiveness towards him. 

All this, of course, if he doesn't turn out to be ESE!Snape, in 
which case the WW will be definitely a lot simpler
or not.

Orna