JKR's Ambiguities (was Re: ... Contradiction or Clue?)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 139742

Catkind: 
This chapter must have been intended to set up Ambiguous!
Snape if not the full DD'sMan!Snape.  Even apart from the 
impressions I got from the chapter, it would make no sense to me if 
this was supposed to set up Evil!Snape, or there would be no 
surprises left at the end of the book. 
> 
I guess the point I'm trying to make is that if at this point JKR 
was transmitting ambiguous and we received ambiguous, why not assume 
the same at the end?
> 
 What I do doubt is that if JKR is deliberately being ambiguous, we 
 can somehow "figure it out". We don't have the data IMO. 

Pippin:
We can't figure it out about Snape. But we can, for the sake of a
thought experiment, presume that Snape is innocent, and ask 
ourselves if there is a less obviously guilty character 
who might have betrayed the Order. The answer to a riddle is,
after all,  seldom the one that's most obvious. That would make 
the riddle too easy. 

And there are a couple of characters in HBP who are  rather
suspicious. Tonks, for one. But Lupin most of all. He reneged on the
pledge he made to Harry at the end of OOP, one he should have
known he wouldn't be able to keep. His whereabouts on the night
of the graveyard and for the twelve years of Wormtail's captivity
are still unknown. He's admitted to betraying Dumbledore's trust
not once, but twice, meaning he's on his third chance now.  His 
actions on the night of Wormtail's escape remain difficult to 
explain as innocent without resorting to Flints. And even some 
of his diehard fans are starting to feel a little disappointed in
him, or so I gather from their posts.

Some of the loudest critics of Snape on this list have also been loud 
in denouncing the Ministry. But the Ministry thinks Snape is guilty
too. And when have *they* ever been right about anything?

Pippin