Trusting Snape/Life debt again

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 149102

> Neri:
> >I'd say LID!Snape explains all the above with practically no 
reading
> >between the lines. Faith wouldn't have supported it otherwise <g>.
> >http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/145024

PJ wrote: 
> Dumbledore says "Professor Snape could not bear being in your 
father's 
> debt... I do believe he worked so hard to protect you this year 
because *he 
> felt* that would make him and your father even.  Then he could go 
back to 
> hating your father's memory in peace..." (SS pg 300 US - and 
emphasis mine)
> 
> So, as I read this there is really nothing concrete to this debt 
since the 
> man he owed it to is dead. We're told "he FELT" rather than he 
owed... This 
> was one man's decision to rid himself of his Potter curse and not 
a 
> magically enforceable thing at all.   Dumbledore's "I do believe" 
tells us 
> that much since if it were a magical reality he'd have told Harry 
so just as 
> he did with Pettigrew.

Alla:

Oh, PJ I afraid I probably have to disagree with you. I think that 
there is a VERY big reason why we don't know how exactly magical 
Lifedebt works and whether it can be transferred from father to son, 
etc. I think it will play a very significant role at the end. As to 
Dumbledore saying " I believe", well, I will be the first one to say 
that Dumbledore made many mistakes through the books, but those are 
IMO mistakes based on emotions either because DD had no clue how to 
deal with the emotions of others or his own emotions, BUT IMO DD 
pretty much does not make factual mistakes. His "I believe" reminds 
me of "from this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm 
foundation of fact and journeying together through the murky marshes 
of memory into thickets of wildest guesswork. From here on in, 
Harry, I may be as woefully wrong as Humphrey Belcher, who believed 
the time was ripe for cheese cauldron" - HBP, p.,197.

DD thinks he is guessing here, but didn't JKR say that DD guesses 
are never too far of the mark?

I view the quote you brought up in the same light. I think DD is 
correct here, but that is IMO of course.


 
PJ:
> We are told that Snape had a life debt to *James* due to the prank 
but we're 
> also being told that Snape *chose* to unofficially transfer this 
debt from 
> father to son as a matter of honor... of sorts. (yes, I think 
Snape has 
> honor within his own personal moral confines)  So he actually owes 
Harry 
> nothing.

Alla:

But do we KNOW for sure that what Snape did was "unofficial" so to 
speak? Maybe mechanics of the Life debt do require to transfer 
unpaid Life debt to family member otherwise you will die or 
something like that?


PJ: 
>> So far I can't see any canon for a life-indebted Snape (other 
than the 
> UNofficial debt Snape takes  on himself) at all.  What I see is a 
real good, 
> first class explanation of OFH!Snape's motivations.  ;-)

Alla:

But LID!Snape and OFH!Snape can coexist rather peacefully. Right, 
Neri? I was so sure of it, but I don't want to misinterpret you.

JMO,

Alla