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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 162448

> Sherry now:
> 
> You are not alone in feeling the way you do.  I'd say the majority of people
> who post regularly on the list believe in Snape's devotion to Dumbledore.
> I, however, do not.  I will answer your question the best way I can.
> 
> Yes, Dumbledore is a great and wise wizard, but he is also human.  Humans
> make mistakes in trust and love, and in my opinion, Dumbledore made his
> greatest mistake of that kind in trusting Snape.  Dumbledore, himself, says
> that his mistakes are greater than anyone else's precisely because of his
> great age and wisdom.  If not his mistake in trusting Snape, what mistake is
> it? 

Pippin:
How about trusting someone that Harry trusts too? Someone who always gets
the benefit of the doubt because a betrayal would be so painful that the 
good characters, not to mention the readers, don't want to think about it?

Even Dumbledore doesn't have any problem getting his head around the
idea that "Severus Snape was indeed a Death Eater." He's sure of Snape's
faith for some reason, but we can't say he doesn't recognize what Snape
is capable of. But nobody wants to think poor, ickle Remus is a baddie,
oh no, because what would that say about werewolves? Only that even
if they've got a Hogwarts education and the friendship of Albus
Dumbledore, they still have just as much right to make bad choices 
as Snape does. Otherwise, equality for werewolves is equality at a 
discount -- the only way they can be recognized as being just as 
good as anyone else is if they are better. 

Sherrie:
 It seemed at the end of HBP, that people were
> shocked by Snape's murder of Dumbledore and that they had trusted Snape,
> solely on Dumbledore's word.

Pippin:
They trusted Dumbledore's word that he had sufficient reason to think
Snape was no longer a Death Eater, after Snape admitted that he'd been
one in a vain attempt to convince Fudge that Harry was telling the truth. 
That is, they took Dumbledore's word about something they couldn't
possibly have judged for themselves without a trip through Dumbledore's
pensieve, because they didn't experience it.

But no one seems to have suspected Snape of being a Death Eater on 
account of anything he'd done to them. The worst that
the staff seems to have suspected him of was trying to make sure 
that Harry's team lost at Quidditch and hating Harry Potter on
account of his father was such a jerk. That's a shame, but it's not 
Death Eating. We never hear a word against him from anyone but
Sirius, and much as I love him, his judgement of others is not
first rate. He's the one who picked Pettigrew for a Secret Keeper.

Sherrie:
  I cannot speak for the author, but what it
> tells me personally is that no matter how good, noble and wise a beloved
> leader might be, it is foolish to take their word for any other person.
> Harry potter is the hero, and I think the torch must pass, and Harry's
> judgment must be the correct one in the end.  It is the twist. 

Pippin:
But we're not at the end yet. We're in the middle of the end, and if 
Harry is right about Snape then all that's in front of us is  a 
video game  without the graphics  "Collect all horcruxes, kill
the bad guy, then kill the bad guys some more."  All through 
HPB, we're told how easy it is to finger the wrong person for
a murder, we're reminded that  even Dumbledore was capable
of such an error, and you think Harry is exempt? Part of accepting
the torch is realizing that you, the torch bearer, can still be wrong.

If it's foolish to take the word of another person on whether someone
can be trusted, then civilization as we know it collapses. My life 
depends daily on thousands of people whom I don't know personally, 
from the farmers growing my food to the policeman on the corner.
Unless you're living in a self-sufficient compound somewhere,
you're doing the same.

Pippin