Evil Snape? I think not.

[Jazmyn Concolor]

No: HPFGUIDX 133051


Is Snape evil? Had he gone over to the dark side forever?  I am not so sure...

This is how I see it.

LV wants Dumbledore dead.  He fears him too much to go do it himself.  He could just ask Snape to do it as proof of his loyalty, but no, that would make him look cowardly.  So, he 'punishes Lucius' by setting a Draco on a suicide mission.

Narcissa's love for her son is well known by LV and he knows she will seek someone to protect her son.  Who is a good family friend of the Malfoys and the closest one to Draco?  Why Severus of course.  He knows Narcissa will do anything to protect her son and would likely have Snape vow to protect him.  LV knows that Draco doesn't have it in him to kill anyone, but Snape has vowed to finish the job if Draco cannot do it.  Snape may not have known for sure what Draco would be asked to do when he took the vow, but had to pretend he did.  One he took the vow, LV had him. 
Too many things don't add up to him going over to the dark side. For 
one, he killed Dumbledore too quickly. No final villain speech, no 
good-byes, no gloating.. Just an AK to the heart and out the door. He worked too hard to keep the other DEs from killing Harry too, when he could have just let one of them kill him and then let LV deal with the person who killed Harry. . He also was still trying to teach Harry to the last.

He also had no choice in killing Dumbledore. If he failed to complete Draco's task, the other DEs would have killed Dumbledore, LV would have killed Draco and the Vow would have killed Snape. The good of the many outweighed the good of the few. DD was pleading with Snape, I believe to carry out a promise to kill him if this situation arose.  Killing Dumbledore gets Snape closer to Voldemort then anyone, where he can distract Voldemort while Harry finds and destroys the parts of LV's soul scattered about.  He might even still be able to somehow pass information to the remnants of the Order, maybe through someone else.  But he at least can be a powerful backup when the items are destroyed and LV is 'mortal' again, when he can strike.   (Yes, its rather Darth Vader-like in a way...but more planned) Dumbledore was trying to get Harry to go get Snape, not because he thought Harry could bring him back to help, but to get Harry out of the way so he would not see Snape kill him.  Harry took too long to leave and Dumbledore froze him to both protect him and keep him from interfering. Being as Dumbledore KNEW that LV had given Draco the task of killing him and knew that Snape took a vow to protect him, he was very likely pleading with Severus to finish him and save Draco and his mother from LV's wrath, plus setting Snape up to be there to kill LV if the horcruxs are all destroyed. .  Severus killing the snake during the dueling club scene may be an omen that Snape will be the one to kill Nagini.

Snape IMO is a solder in a war, asked to do something terrible to 
further the cause.  He followed orders.  He is not good or evil, but 
just doing what he must for the greater good.  I once knew a vet whose orders were to kill all the communications personnel at his post if they were overrun, to prevent information from falling into enemy hands. These were his friends and he would have shot them for the greater good.  Snape was acting on orders to further the cause and to protect Draco.  Dumbledore would have rather died then see Draco become a killer and would also give his life for even the least of his students.

I for one, have not given up on Snape yet and feel that LV will one day regret that he trusted him.


Jazmyn