Heroes and Not - What should Snape Have Done?.

[h2so3f]

No: HPFGUIDX 145251

eggplant wrote: <snip>
"if Snape is really a good guy what is the absolutely positively 
worst thing he could possibly do that dreadful night in the 
Astronomy Tower? I would say it's murdering the strongest and 
kindest wizard on the good guy team. Conclusion: Snape is not on the 
good guy's team.
  I believe in the "Snape is evil and out for himself" theory 
because it satisfactorily explains all his actions, even saving 
Harry's life in book 1." 


CH3ed:
I have to say I agree with Steve. The end does justify the mean in 
this case even if we assume DDM!Snape. Or even if it is ESS!Snape, 
what happened on the tower was the best of a rotten thru-and-thru 
situation. The action doesn't end with Snape killing DD or Snape 
turning his wand on the DEs. If the UV kicks in the moment Snape 
turns his wand on the DEs to refuse to complete the UV (complete 
Draco's mission) it is very possible Snape'd just drop dead then and 
there. DD dies anyway, and Harry is released from the bind and jumps 
at the DEs the prolonged presence of the DEs in the school and the 
wearing off of the felix felicis would probably mean the DEs' curses 
would start hitting Ron, Hermione and Ginny instead of just missing 
them. 
 
I'd say the worse thing Snape could have done is to not only kill 
DD, but also doing in Harry as well. Or if he dies defending DD (who 
then dies anyway, having no wand and no cure for the cave potion), 
Harry is released from the bind, lunges at the DEs and get killed in 
the process. Game over. LV wins. And even if Snape survives the 
whole thing he'd no longer be any use as a spy on LV and whether he 
could have saved DD from the cave potion again is not a given 
either. DD was in a bad way. 

It is easy to romanticize a dashing heroic act like Snape dropping 
dead from the UV or get himself killed without being of help to 
Harry and Draco in refusing to harm DD. War veterans will tell you 
that heroic acts like that is the surest way of getting yourself 
(and your soldier mates) killed without getting the job done.