Harry IS Snape

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 141356

 
<snip much of Kathryn's insightful post>

This is, perhaps, the reason that JKR wrote Snape as she did. I  
can think of no other character in the books who would be capable of  
making this kind of moral decision. The enormous contrast between Snape  
and Harry is Harry's inability to sacrifice anyone for the good of the  
cause. Harry already refused to allow the death of Peter Pettigrew, who  
became the one responsible for the return of Voldemort. This might make  
Harry "good" and a hero in the eyes of many, but his decision was  
obviously the wrong one in lives cost as a  result.
KJ





Julie:
Great post, though I do have a disagreement with what you write  above.
I don't think Harry's choice and Snape's choice in the two scenes are
comparable. Killing Pettigrew, as things stand at *that* moment,  accomplishes
nothing good. It is simply killing for vengeance. The alternative is to  take
Pettigrew to the authorities to be tried and punished for his crimes.  That
he escaped because of Lupin's transformation and the ensuing turmoil
could not be foreseen by Harry. 
 
OTOH, Snape's choice did have immediate consequences, and none
of them benign. If he didn't choose to kill Dumbledore, then he is  dead,
and probably Harry and Draco, and Dumbledore also dies anyway. 
 
If Dumbledore was going to die anyway, then Snape's choice was the
hard but right choice, the choice that saved the lives that could still be 
saved. But Harry's choice at the time was *also* the right one, even if 
more lives were lost in the future because of it. 
 
No one can predict the future (well, except Trelawny, maybe), so  one
can only make the best choice available at any given moment. Harry
made the best choice he could, and I think time will prove that Snape  also
made the best choice he could. 
 
Julie 
 


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]