Could Snape ever be a hero?

[Deb]

No: HPFGUIDX 135645

David wrote:
As he fled the grounds of Hogwarts after killing DD, he gave Harry one last piece of advice - an odd thing for a true villain to do:

"Blocked again, and again, and again until you learnto keep your 
mouth  shut and your mind closed, Potter!" sneered Snape... (page 
562, UK  edition).  If Snape is truly evil, why would he feed 
Harry advice about how to defeat him or defeat He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named?

Now Janeway:
I find it interesting that so many people see this scene as Snape 
giving Harry advice. <snip> Sounds like once again Snape just doesn't "get" Harry. To me his insistence that Harry play by LV's rules (mouth shut, mind closed) doesn't sound like especially valuable advice.


Deb writes:
I disagree, Janeway. I think Snape here is still trying to teach 
Harry how to protect himself from Voldemort and how to possible 
vanquish him ... not play by V's rules. LV is such a powerful 
Legilimens he can "read" Harry's intentions by reading his emotions. 
When they come face to face again - if Harry has not mastered 
nonverbal magic and has not learned how to shield his thoughts and 
emotions - LV will be able to tell which spell, curse, hex, jinx, 
Harry is going to throw next - and defend against it -- just like 
Snape did -- almost faster than Harry can yell out the word(s). See 
when one is intensely focused on a difficult task and trying to 
remember what to do next, one accesses the memory of what to do or 
runs through the options that one knows before deciding what to do 
and V can interpret memories as well as emotions. While Harry is 
already a very good wizard he is not yet experienced enough or 
practiced enough for the right action to come automatically. In 
intense situations one also tends to subvocalize before speaking out 
loud. Also it takes longer to yell out a spell than it takes to do 
it nonverbally (granted we're talking milleseconds here but in a 
fierce battle such at that one would be, every millesecond counts).  
I think Snape here was again trying desperately to show Harry what 
he needs to do to over come LV.   I would imagine that if one were 
to watch a duel between to master wizards it would be quite silent 
as they blast each other with nonverbal spells. All you might 
observe would be the sparks and flares eminating from their wands 
and what ever impact the spell has on the opponent. 

 Deb