OFH, Life-debt and Snape/Lily-no-way

[Scarah]

No: HPFGUIDX 162337

Sarah:

I know these aren't strictly new ideas, but I thought I would give old
OFH a little airplay since he's been so upstaged lately by his two
more popular counterparts.  :)  Also, I'm not sure anyone has pointed
out how these three ideas work together (sorry if they have).

I think that in the end, Snape will be more helpful to the whitehats
than the blackhats.  I think he will have his own reasons for doing
so.  I think that Dumbledore is taking a little license when he says
he trusts Snape, and he really means that he knows Snape's true
motivations and therefore can predict and "trust" that Snape's
behavior will ultimately be more helpful to the good guys.

(Just to get this out of the way, I totally think Dumbledore was
planning to die before HBP even began.  Snape acted the way Dumbledore
"trusted" that he would, because Snape had to for his own reasons,
which existed long before the UV.  I think that Snape used a
combination of Legilimency and/or good old fashioned BS on the Black
sisters, and then had no problem making the UV since he knew it was
nothing he didn't already have to do anyway, for strategic advancement
of the Order.)

Dumbledore says that Snape owed James a debt ever since the prank.  A
lot of people latch on to the fact that he never calls it a "Life Debt
[tm]," but he calls it a debt which is good enough for me.  What
happens if a wizard owes another wizard a life debt, and takes action
(like passing on the prophecy) that leads to their death?  We don't
know, but since the introduction of the UV and its consequences, I'm
willing to believe it is something bad.

'You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realised
how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy, Harry. I believe it
to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned
-'  -Dumbledore, HBP

I'll bet it was.  I submit that it was the impending consequences of
the life debt that sent him back to Dumbledore.  Voldemort would be no
help, as the life debt magic would be concerned with concepts like
honor and reciprocation, which Voldemort doesn't understand.  Snape
went back to the only wizard he thought might be able to somehow
subvert his contract.  This was successful, but of course Dumbledore
couldn't dissipate the life debt completely, he either stalled the
consequences or more likely somehow transferred the debt to Harry's
account, rather than James.  Since Dumbledore knows that a) Harry is
the anti-Voldemort device and b) Snape can't let anything happen to
Harry or face dire consequences, Dumbledore can trust what Snape will
do.

This completely negates any need for Snape/Lily, which I've never
understood anyway for several reasons.  The main support for it seems
to be that Snape and Lily both did well in Potions class.  By that
standard, Draco and Hermione should be getting engaged any day now.
The second most common support is that it is Snape's "Worst" memory
because he was mean to Lily, which seems to me a pretty big leap of
faith.  A lot of bad things happened to Snape in that scene, and we
didn't even get to watch the whole thing.  It seemed like it was only
about to get worse at the end there.

The only question left is why tell Lily to stand aside?  Killing her
may have risked screwing up Voldemort's Horcrux plans, but that's
immaterial since if that were the case he would have already
pre-planned sparing Lily.  If a Death Eater indeed attempted to
bargain for Lily, Peter has got my vote.  He appears to have been even
more obsessed with James than Snape was, why not want to carry off his
wife as a spoil of war?  Also, I've only seen one Death Eater finish a
job for Voldemort and actually manage to receive a reward as promised,
and that was Peter with his silver hand.

(Sure I'm probably on my own here, but maybe there'll be a very small
role call :) )
Sarah