Snape saves Harry (or does he?)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154903

Peggy Richter wrote:
>
> While there have been several references to Snape saving Harry, I am
not sure that he actually does. Take the broom incident of SS/PS for
example: Snape gives the "counter-curse" to Quirrell's broom hex.
Quirrell is indeed trying to kill Harry by getting the broom to "buck"
> him off. But would a fall off a broom actually have KILLED Harry?
> <snip>

Carol responds:
Since Quirrell himself says that he was trying to kill Harry and Snape
performed the countercurse that saved Harry from a bad fall intended
to cause his death, surely it's intent that matters here? For the
purposes of SS/PS, Snape is, as Dumbledore says, trying all year long
to save Harry's life--and not only because of the life debt to James
but for reasons that Dumbledore is not yet ready to mention, including
a certain Prophecy.

Peggy:
> In POA, Snape "may" believe he is rescuing Harry from Lupin and
Sirius but he certainly didn't go to the Whomping Willow to do so.
Snape only discovers Harry is inside the tunnel or the shack by
finding the invisibility cloak outside the willow.

Carol responds:
I agree. He went to the Shrieking Shack intending to capture a
werewolf that he knew was about to transform and the escaped prisoner
he believed that the werewolf was helping to get into the castle. But
finding the Invisibility Cloak meant that Harry was there, too. At
that point, the intention changed to saving Harry's life (and those of
any friends who were there), as well as capturing the werewolf and the
murderer.

Peggy:
<snip> Regarding the danger of Lupin, it is SIRIUS who intervenes to
save HHR, not Snape. Snape only recovers after it is too late.

Carol:
It's only necessary for Black to transform to fight off the werewolf
because Lupin ran off without the potion that Snape brought and Black
untied the ropes that Snape cast around Lupin (PoA Am. ed. 361-62)
after HRH knocked Snape out.

Peggy:
Nor does Snape save Harry from the dementors when they
> attack Harry and Sirius in POA -- it is Harry himself who does that.
<snip>

Carol:
To my knowledge, no one has ever credited Snape with that feat.
However, Snape does conjure stretchers for four unconscious people
(Black and HRH), two of them injured. Had he left them on the grounds,
either the Dementors or the werewolf might have returned, and they'd
have had to drag themselves to the hospital wing in any case. Not
saving their lives, precisely, but certainly performing a deed that
would have been labeled "humanitarian" if anyone else had performed
it. But since it's Snape, the deed is either ignored or its motive is
questioned.

Carol, wondering what would have happened to HRH if Snape hadn't been
there to conjure the stretchers for the very kids who had just knocked
him out