HBP: Why I am 98.6% certain that...

[Jospehine]

No: HPFGUIDX 132967

Well. I join all of you who are absolutely gobsmacked about the whole 
Snape betrayal. While I am desperate to believe that all juli17 has 
written means that our Severus Snape is still in Dumbledore's 
service... I must play devils advocate simply to satisfy my own 
theories.

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, juli17 at a... wrote:
Is Snape really 
> evil, and has he for the past 18 years completely fooled the 
greatest wizard of 
> his age, Albus Dumbledore?

jozoed:
Well, why not? There have been blatant and steadfast reasons for us 
all to suspect Snape of evil doings. We simply ignored them because 
we couldn't possibly believe that Dumbledore was wrong. HOWEVER- at 
the end of OoTP Dumbledore began to show a side of humanity that we 
hadn't seen before. He was weaker and less 'godlike' than in any 
previous books. 

JKR has slowly been killing off any possible support that Harry would 
have had in the adult world. She is making it obvious that Harry will 
have to face the final 'confrontation' alone and off his own back. 
Each death has been a lesson- Siruis's death showed him, among other 
things, that you can't count on anything in life to be certain or 
constant. At the end of HBP it seemed that Harry had gained something 
from DD's departure aswell. His resolve and new maturity. Not to 
mention showing Harry that the person he most respected and admired, 
was in fact weak and 'human', just like the rest of us.

In regards to Snape- could it not simply be that Dumbledore WAS wrong 
about him. That this is another lesson for Harry that even adults can 
be wrong. That no matter how much we look up to authority we can only 
truly believe in our own gut instinct. After all- it is to be Harry 
Potter who does (or does not) defeat Voldemort, not Dumbledore. Who's 
feelings for Snape should we have trusted all this time if not 'the 
chosen one'? 

JKR has told us before that she doesn't 'trick' her readers. The 
clues are there and it is up to us to find them. Well- (here comes an 
Americanism that this Brit usually hates to use)- duh! Snape = evil. 
You can hardly argue that he's a sweetheart deep down- can you? (It 
is in our actions that determines etc...)

Hey ho. I'll change my mind by tomorrow!

Jozoed
x

PS: has there been any previous mention about JKR's profound use of 
names ending in 'us'? Albus, Severus, Rubeus, Remus, Rufus, 
Cornelius, Percivus... it could go on for pages :)