Is Snape good or evil?

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 149013

Pippin:

> Harry, in siccing  the ministry on his hated but 
> innocent enemy, repeats the error Snape made when he 
> carried the prophecy to Voldemort, which is in turn 
> an echo of Snape being sent to the werewolf. I'm not 
> a Christian or a scholar of Christianity, but isn't it 
> a rather prominent message that forgiveness should be 
> granted to others because we need it ourselves?
 
houyhnhnm:

In OotP, Harry's draught of peace failed to turn out properly in 
potions class because he left out the hellebore.

After the discussion of asphodel and wormwood, I began looking at the 
symbolic meanings of other RL herbs mentioned in HP to see if 
anything interesting turned up.  In the language of flowers, 
hellebore stands for slander/calumny.  It didn't make much sense to 
me that a successful draught of peace would require the addition of 
slander or calumny.

However, I also discovered that an old name for hellebore is Christ 
herbe (because it blooms at Christmas).  Harry's failing to brew a 
successful draught of peace because he left out the *Christ* herb 
makes a lot of sense to me.

I am not a Christian either, that is I do not profess the dogma of 
Christianity, but I do accept the metaphorical truth of its message, 
as I see it.  If "Christ" is interpreted as the transcendent spirit 
of love and forgiveness, then Harry does indeed leave out the Christ 
herb in his relationship to Snape.  I believe the plot in book 7 will 
turn on this changing, perhaps suddenly and dramatically.