Is Snape good or evil? (longer)

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 148727

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dungrollin" 
<spotthedungbeetle at ...> wrote:

<massive snip>

> Dungrollin:
> :: mind boggles :: You think sticking his fingers in his ears and 
> singing loudly is typically Dumbledorean?! You don't think he would 
> have tried to give Snape a little direction, perhaps some sympathy, 
> somewhere? Are you really telling me that you think once Snape has 
> told DD about clause 3, Dumbledore ignores him, sticks his head in 
> the sand, and *never mentions it again*? 

As much sympathy as he gives Snape at the denoument of PoA?  (Sorry, 
couldn't resist there...)

Well, it's canonical that he's done some form of what one might 
unkindly call denial in the past--unless you want to argue for Super 
Overseer Dumbledore, who keeps a benign watch over everything, always 
ready to intervene for the better.

After all, Dumbledore has let things to get to the point where they 
are in any number of interpersonal relationships in Hogwarts.  He 
leaves Hagrid to stew on his own, he leaves Sirius in the house 
because he thinks it's the best option, he keeps Harry in the dark 
because he's concerned about the poor woobie having to deal with 
knowledge.  I think Dumbledore *does* have a certain faith in letting 
things work themselves out without stirring himself to apply overt 
pressure: after all, he continues to let Draco go free when he could 
have snapped down on him, precisely in the gamble to get the outcome 
that he wants, the confrontation.  (One might include the end of 
PS/SS in here too, letting the kids deal with it on their own.)

We're all playing with so many assumptions here, because your reading 
of Spinner's End is just as vulnerable as Alla's: both of you need 
Snape to be lying and maneuvering at some point or another, right?  
Or else he's got blood on his hands and he's not being good at being 
dodgy.  Once we enter into that realm, there don't seem (to me) to be 
good criteria for saying "He's *obviously* being skeezy here to fool 
Bella, but he's actually not lying here."

Umm, that's a tangent.  But I can see, as it seems some cannot, 
Dumbledore making huge jumps and leaps which other people in the 
series wouldn't make, and which other listies don't think of 
Dumbledore as making.  For instance, I think things are going to tend 
to come down more to this deep sense of trust with him, rather than 
the hard-core solid proof many people think he must have had, of 
Snape's conversion and remorse.  That's a guess, but I don't think it 
can be ruled out at this moment.  It even has some very attractive 
thematic features to it.

-Nora vanishes back into the stacks for a while, not to emerge