Forced to be good? was: Re: How will Snape come back?

[jhenderson9]

No: HPFGUIDX 162905

"chrusotoxos" wrote:

> I'm not suggesting an UV, but rather a life's debt. James saved his
life, so maybe Snape is
> physically uable to kill Harry, or to stand aside while someone is
hurting him. Look at PS,
> for exemple: it wouldn't have been so difficult to slow down Harry's
fall, as DD does in
> PoA, but Snape - who at this point of the story, as he admits in
HBP, even thinks that Harry
> may be a new LV - feels compelled to stop him from falling. He
doesn't oppose Quirrell,
> though, even if, as they were sitting close, he must have known what
he was doing. Maybe
> he secretly approves what he's doing - only in relation to Harry,
mind, not in the whole PS
> business - but he *cannot* see Harry hurt.

The surprise of PS/SS is that Snape is not the evil character Harry
thought him to be. He does oppose the Quirrell and becomes the saver
of Harry's life -- even if there is no hint I can find that Harry is
committed to Snape as we are told Pettigrew will be committed to Harry
at a crucial time.

In each remaining book, it is reenforced in some way that Snape,
however despicable, mean-spirited, and hateful, is none-the-less on
the side of good. The clues and foreshadowing of HBP are intentionally
obtuse and mysterious, but there is nothing in HBP that cannot fit in
with the character of Snape that we learned from Book One. What HBP
does set up is for Snape to continue to be misunderstood, untrusted,
hated, and isolated from the Order, so that he can reemerge in Book
Seven by the side of LV in a crucial scene toward the end to help
Harry in his quest, perhaps needing to die for Harry (and the rest of
us) to understand who he was. In only the most circumstantial way
would this resemble Boromir's sacrifice.

jhenderson9