VA/H=Mx13+RP? Snape's Culpability?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 147278

Alla wrote:
><snip>

> > On that I disagree completely. I did say yesterday that sure Peter
is  much guiltier in Potters deaths if Snape tried to do the right 
thing, but without Snape's doing his deed, Peter may not have NEEDED
to do that choice, ever, so in my book it can NEVER be evaluated
completely separate from what Snape did. IMO they tied together and it
just cannot be undone.

Carol responds:
By your logic, Snape is guilty of almost everything that happens in
the book. If he hadn't revealed the Prophecy to Voldemort, PP wouldn't
have betrayed the Potters, true. But he (Pettigrew) also would not
have killed the Twelve Muggles, framed Sirius Black, gone into hiding,
escaped and returned to Voldemort (who wouldn't have been vaporized if
he hadn't acted on the Prophecy), helped kidnap Harry, murdered
Cedric, and resurrected Voldemort.

It's quite true that those things would not have happened if Snape
hadn't revealed the Prophecy to Voldemort and *Voldemort* hadn't
chosen to act on it and got himself vaporized at Godric's Hollow, but
surely Voldemort and Pettigrew are responsible for their own choices
and actions just as Snape was responsible for his? Surely we can't say
that Snape is indirectly responsible for Cedric's murder, for example,
because everything goes back to his one mistake in revealing the
Prophecy. Surely Wormtail's decision to betray the Potters is as much
his own decision as his choice to resurrect Voldemort, and he,
Wormtail, is solely responsible for those choices.

Harry blames himself for Wormtail's escape and Dumbledore tells us
that actions have unforeseeable consequences for which the doer of the
action (in Harry's case, saving Wormtail's life) is not responsible.

If we look at the consequences of Snape's revelation of the Prophecy,
we also see the vaporization of Voldemort and eleven years (or more)
of peace in the WW because Voldie has been vaporized. Shall we give
Snape credit for that, and for making possible the existence of the
Prophecy Boy whom Voldemort has marked as his equal and who is the
WW's only hope to defeat the Dark Lord? If it hadn't been for Snape,
there would be no Chosen One.

Or, on a simpler level, if it hadn't been for Snape's lesson on
bezoars and/or his notes in his Potions book, Harry would not have
known about bezoars and Ron would have died. So Snape is responsible
for saving Ron's life.

Actions have consequences, most of them unforeseen, in RL and in the
Potterverse. If it hadn't been for Snape's (or someone's) revelation
of the Prophecy to Voldemort, there would be no Godric's Hollow, no
Chosen One, no story. But surely a person can't be held to account for
the actions of others even if those actions made his own actions
possible. Are the Marauders responsible for the murder of Barty Crouch
Sr. because they made the map that Barty Jr. used to commit that
murder? Are the Weasley Twins partly responsible for the death of
Dumbledore because Draco used Peruvian Darkness powder from their shop
to let the DEs into the school?

Snape has his own sins and errors to account for, beginning with
joining the Death Eaters in the first place. To hold him accountable
for Peter's sins and errors as well is surely unfair and unrealistic.
"It is our choices that reveal who we truly are" is one thing. "It is
the choices we make because other people made those choices possible
that reveal who *they* truly are" is quite another.

Regardless of whether Snape's remorse is genuine, and we all know that
you don't believe it is, the choices that *Pettigrew* made are
Pettigrew's choices, whether or not Snape's revelation of the Prophecy
made them possible, and Pettigrew alone is responsible for them.
Pettigrew *knew* that he was betraying his friends to their deaths. He
could have stopped the chain of events that began with the revelation
of the Prophecy by keeping the Potters' secret as he had been
entrusted to do. That he failed to do so, that he chose his own life
over theirs, is in no way attributable to Snape. You might as well
blame Sirius Black since without his idea of changing Secret Keepers,
Pettigrew's betrayal would not have been possible. But neither Snape
nor Black betrayed the Potters. It was Pettigrew's doing, and his alone.

Carol, thinking that this fourth post must be Alla's fault since I
would NEVER have NEEDED to do it if she hadn't blamed Snape for
Peter's choices <eg>

P.S. No Howlers, please! I didn't post at all yesterday, and it's
almost tomorrow.