General comments and Snape

[pastafor5]

No: HPFGUIDX 133018

 
<karenabarker at y...> wrote:
  Then the treachery of 
> Snape in chapter 2, I sat there thinking "I can't believe this is 
> being revealed in the 2nd chapter!  From that moment on I changed 
>my opinion.  I had always believed him to be on the side of 
>Dumbledore, but I read this whole book believing him to be ESE.  By 
>the end where he killed him I was sobbing and ended the book 
>absolutely hating him.
> 
> After I'd calmed down a bit though I wondered.  Does this really 
> prove that he's ESE?  We saw DD insist that Harry carry out DD's 
> orders no matter what.  (see 1)  When DD said "S
>everus
please
" I took this to be pleading for his life, but
was he 
>in fact pleading with him to kill him so as to not blow his cover?  
>Was the argument Hagrid overheard between them, Snape wanting out 
>of posing as a DE and begging DD to release him from that task, but 
>DD refusing?  Was Snape's outburst <snip> an indication of the 
>agony Snape was having to go through because he'd had to kill his 
>friend and master, and to hide amongst and to behave as those he 
>despises then to have his bravery at doing all this seen as 
>cowardice?  Did Snape save Harry or just obey Voldemort? <snip>
 

Pastafor5:

I've been going throught the same arguments in my head since 
finishing the book.  Was Dumbledore begging Snape not to do it, not 
to commit murder, or was he pushing Snape to follow some previous 
order?

The one key moment that makes me think (sadly) that Snape did this 
out of loyalty to Voldemort rather than Dumbledore is when Draco 
tells Dumbledore that Snape made the Unbreakable Vow to his mother.  
Dumbledore says it isn't true and that Snape just made that up to 
get information from him.  But we know that it was actually true.  
If Dumbledore didn't know that, then it appears Snape must have been 
loyal to Voldemort instead.

Anyone see any loopholes?  I hope so - it breaks my heart to think 
that Snape could do that to Dumbledore.  But then again, JK doesn't 
hold back on showing that there are true evils in the world.