Is Snape good or evil?

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 148583

Alla:

> The only way out I see for DD!M(sort of)Snape is for him not to know 
> about the task and then take the UV because of his affection for 
> Draco, DADA curse, etc. THEN Snape in my mind has some road to 
> redemption. That is IMO of course. But Snape knowing that Draco's 
> task is the Headmaster's assasination and agreeing to protect Draco, 
> I can only see him as evil. 

Sydney:  

But surely there's so many other possibilities?  Say,

-- the ring curse which destroyed his hand was slowly killing
Dumbledore, and he decided to make the most of his inevitable death by
increasing Snape's value as a spy.  They had been intending Snape to
take credit for D-dore's death from the start of the year, which is
why he finally appointed Snape to the cursed DADA position.  

or--

-- Snape did not know about the task, and, needing to get as close in
as possible, took a risk on taking the Vow, accepting the possiblity
that he might have to die by breaking it.  Very much like Dumbledore
took a risk in drinking the potion in the cave, accepting the
possibilty that it might kill him, because he couldn't see any other
way to move forward

or--

-- Snape took the Vow intending to break it, because he's suicidal and
it seemed like a poetical way to go


I'm sure there's others.  

-- Sydney, who's pretty evenly divided between the first and the
second, reserving the third for days when she puts on the Nick Cave
and opens a bottle of absinthe.  Which, hey, isn't every day!