Evil Snape? I think not.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 134042

HogwartsMom wrote:
<snip> 
> I was just DEVASTATED when Snape killed DD since I've believed he
was not a bad guy since book 1.  If (2) is the case, he is some kind
of really brave hero.  It all comes down to whether one has faith in
DD's judgement or not, doesn't it?


Carol responds:
Or "devastated, mortified, and hollow," as Valky so beautifully
expresses it. I came here expecting the Snapehaters to be gloating and
the "Snape apologists" to have given up in despair. I was as dazed as
Harry, only my devastation was for Snape, whom I, too, have believed
from Book 1 to be on the side of good. Has all the evidence we've been
given of his courage and his loyalty to Dumbledore despite his
background and inclinations all for nothing? It was JKR, not Snape,
that I was angry with--to create a mysterious and seemingly complex
character who turns out to be nothing but a Death Eater? Harry and Ron
right all along, and Dumbledore and Hermione wrong? No redemption, no
moral conflict in a seemingly "grey" character, nothing but a plot
device to kill Dumbledore? A "gift of a character" and she's thrown
him away?

Well, I'm not going to spin any elaborate theories about his
redemption, high as my hopes were that he would somehow escape from
that d****d Unbreakable Vow, that it would be Draco who did the evil
deed without Snape's help. At least JKR has said in an interview that
Snape isn't a vampire, and at least she showed clearly through his
potions notes and his invented spells that he's extremely clever, if
not a genius--but then, so was Tom Riddle. And if Snape really is a
villain as HBP seems to indicate, at least he has a lot more spine,
intelligence, and determination than any of other the Death Eaters.
Maybe his real purpose (as a literary creation) is to give Harry an
enemy worth fighting, one who can teach him, through the experience of
fighting him, what he'll need to know in order to fight Voldemort.

But Snape is right that Harry should not use Unforgiveable Curses.
They are altogether evil, the weapons of the Dark side. Neither should
Snape, and now that he's used one (he may have used others, but that's
speculation; this one is beyond a doubt), I see no hope for him, no
future except inescapable moral corruption and a painful, humiliating
death. In fact, given his treatment of Wormtail, this is what I
foresee: Wormtail gets revenge on Snape and fulfills his life debt by
saving Harry from Snape, killing him not with an avada kedavra but
with his own spell, Sectum Sempra. If it must be done, nmch better
that Wormtail do it than Harry.

It's not what I want but it's what I foresee for the dark young man
who didn't like his questioner.

Carol, still "devastated, mortified, and hollow" but determined to
read Book 7 in hopes that JKR's view of Snape isn't quite as
simplistic and unimaginative as it appears from HBP