10 reasons why Snape is not evil......

[Goddlefrood]

No: HPFGUIDX 144809

> Sandy wrote ten reasons why Snape is not evil, I will snip the 
reasons as they are contained in her post. These are merely my 
comments on all of them.


10. The matter of Snape bullying Harry because of his hatred for 
James does not really decisively point to Snape's loyalty. Even 
though Snape was almost certainly being economical with the truth in 
his exposition in Spinner's End he does state that he thought Harry 
may have been someone around whom the remaining Voldemort followers 
could rally as a new and powerful Dark Lord. Snape's dislike of 
James and consequent non-killing of Harry or whatever would not make 
Snape good.

9. Quirrell was, quite simply, the only person available for the 
task and easily controllable by LV in his vaporous state. It 
certainly would have been easy to use Snape if you accept two 
things. Firstly that Snape was willing to help and secondly that LV 
would be able to control Snape. IMO Snape is a far more powerful 
wizard than Quirrell was and again in Spinner's End Snape says that 
he was unaware that it was LV who was trying to access the 
Philosopher's Stone. This explanation by Snape himself stands up to 
scrutiny, even if only on a very basic level.

Again it does not prove that Snape is good.

8. The objection to this point is similar to the above in that at 
the point when the events of CoS were underway LV had not contacted 
Snape and was unsure of his allegiance, believing as he did at that 
point that Snape was by then Dumbledore's man. Additionally there is 
no indication that Snape is a Parselmouth and therefore how would he 
be able to control the basilisk?

7. During the broom hexing incident Snape was unaware that LV was on 
the scene, or so we believe. Why would he not save Harry, especially 
as it would further ingratiate him to Dumbledore, whose favour he 
was, after all, still surrying at that point (during PS).

6. Snape brewing the Wolfsbane potion wrongly would have immediately 
blown his cover, if indeed he was undercover at that point (in PoA). 
Snape's grudge is shown to be against James and Sirius and is not 
explicitly stated to be against Lupin. Snape appears to hold no real 
grudge against Lupin and as an expert in the Dark Arts and probably 
in werewolves would know that Lupin would have little or no control 
over his condition. Againg at that point Snape had no reason to help 
LV, believing, as he did, that LV had lost his power.

The curious point in PoA is that Snape had not seemingly figured out 
that Scabbers was Wormtail and that may bear further examination.

5. In the Shrieking Shack Snape arrives under the Invisibility Cloak 
and is subsequently knocked out. What opportunity did he then have 
to retrieve it? The answer is none because Harry pocketed it. The 
Marauder's Map was only with Snape for a brief time before it was 
handed over to Lupin so that point is really a non-starter.

Also Snape is completely blinded by his hatred for Sirius and that 
mechanic is in play at the climax of PoA far more than any loyalty 
on Snape;s part to either Dumbledore or LV.

4. Snape explains his absence from the graveyard in Spinner's End 
and tells us he returned two hours later. Snape is never indicated 
as being aware of the whole Triwizard Tournament / Portkey plot so 
why would he know where Harry had gone. He may have deduced this, 
but he could not have been certain. This is really a no-brainer as 
Snape did return to LV and with the additional benefit of doing so 
on Dumbledore's orders. His loyalty cannot be deduced from this 
issue.

3. Barty Jnr. was kissed by a Dementor, not sent to Azkaban (perhaps 
the movie is confusing you). Without going too far into it though 
the Veritaserum may have been fake, as theorised here and by Red Hen 
on her site. It is also quite likely that the Dementor's kiss was 
administered with some prompting by Snape to cover his loyalty as 
also theorised on here and elsewhere.

2. The point of the Unbreakable Vow was that Snape was kind of 
forced into it (but he had no hesitation in taking it even if his 
hand did shake during the third tranche). This does not establish 
one way or the other Snape's true loyalty and despite what he says I 
for one do not believe that Snape knew Draco's task, even if he 
claims he did. LV seems not to completely trust Snape at this point 
either due to Wormtail's presence, but again we cannot with any 
certainty say whose side Snape is on based on Bellatrix's response 
to him and his taking the Vow.

1. As to Occlumency, basically Snape did not teach Harry anything 
and why remove the memories at all if it was not because of his not 
wanting LV to perform Legilimency on him through Harry. Oh, and 
despite Snapoe's taunt towards the end of HBP, I am of the view that 
Harry will not take the advice regarding closing his mind too 
seriously, although he will almost certainly have to learn non-
verbal spells rather more thoroughly than he does now.

I hope that Snape will turn out to be good because he has had a 
rough life from what we have been shown, but I do not think any of 
the matters put forward in Sally's post are persuasive of his being 
good.

One thing that was interesting was that Snape never appears to have 
disclosed that Lupin was spying on the werewolves.

Goddlefrood