"revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face"

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 135438

zgirnius:
The difficulty with this discussion is that we do not know the
motivations for *any* of Snape's actions. And how we would construe
any one of them clearly rests to some extent on how we had construed
the others. And what, generally, we expect of him.

For example, if you're mostly convinced Snape is a Death Eater,
Chapter 2 can read like a confirmation of this opinion. If you think
he's spying for the Order, you may see things differently. I've
personally been doubtful Snape is a loyal DE. (I tend to believe that
he is a morally flawed character who has some personal reasons for
siding with the Order). So I assumed that in that chapter we finally
saw him engaged in spying for the Order, as GoF suggests he does. (At
least, it suggests DD *believes* he does...)

It seemed obvious to me that he did not know the task, but deduced
from the remarks made that it was a big deal of the sort it would be
worthwhile to sniff out. It also seemed to me that he was oddly
affected by Cissy's emotional outbursts. (Oddly because it did not
seem to fit my earlier conceptions of the guy...) In the conversation
directly preceeding the first mention of a UV, Cissy asks that Snape
do two things-to watch over Draco and protect him from harm while
Draco carries on the asssignment. When Snape agreed to the UV, I took
this to me an indication that he expected to confirm he would do
those two things. (His motives would include some intention to help
Cissy, and the hope of using the added trust to worm out the details
of the task, in exchange for protecting Dracfo, which he could do. He
could even expect DD to help with *that*.) And he did, but then Cissy
continued (and Snape was obviously surprised/nervous, as his hand
twitched.) Was he stupid not to back out at that point? I can't
decide how suspicious it would look to agree to the first 2 clauses
and not the third, from LV's point of view if this conversation got
back to him (via Bella, most likely). But then Snape would have had
to decide this in a split second, so I could see him making either
decision, and could see either decision at this point being a mistake.

Why am I dwelling so long on this unrelated scene when you asked
about the tower? Well, in my reading, again, Snape works out what the
task is at some point, and then is faced with a decision. He doesn't
want to kill DD, (he does not want to help LV, also, working with DD
and having his trust for all these years may have some meaning to
him) but does not see a way out of it for himself. So to me that hate
and revulsion was obviously self-directed. When the choice is forced
upon him at the end of the book he chooses to kill DD and save
himself. This is a guy who appears to be hung up on courage (note his
comments in other books to Sirius, and his contempt for Pettigrew...)
I found this view to be confirmed soon after in his extreme reaction
to being called a coward by Harry.

vmonte responds:
Nice post, Zigirnius. I think you're right. I also believe that Snape 
felt that he had no choice but to kill Dumbledore. (I do not believe 
that Dumbledore asked to die-JMO.) 
I also agree with you that Snape has big issues with courage. There 
must be a reason why James and gang called him Snivellus. (And who 
knows what his home life was like. Did someone call him a coward at 
home?) I'm reminded of Sirius's comment to Wormtail in PoA (I'm not 
sure whether this is movie contamination) that if he was in his shoes 
he would have died for James. Wormtail instead chose to save his own 
skin. I think that Snape did too. 

If Snape is not ESE, then he will rationalize his actions. 
"Dumbledore was going to die anyway...I can help more outside of 
Hogwarts..."
Unfortunately, I'm having trouble believing this theory. I also think 
that Snape has known about the horcruxes since Godric's Hollow (or at 
least since Regulus's death).

Vivian