What turned Snape (Was: JKR site update SPOILERS)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 159056

> > Carol:
> > But Dumbledore values choice and IMO he would not trust Snape because
> > Snape was under some compulsion.
> 
> Neri:
> Hmm. I think you have to listen more carefully to what Dumbledore has
> to say about choices. It's quite an interesting coincidence that Harry
> asks him this very question in the most thematic part of HBP: 
> 
> *******************************************************
> HBP, Ch. 23, p.511:
> "But, sir," said Harry, making valiant efforts not to sound
> argumentative, "it all comes to the same thing, doesn't it? I've got
> to try and kill him, or —"
> 
> "Got to?" said Dumbledore. "Of course you've got to! But not because
> of the prophecy! Because you, yourself, will never rest until you've
> tried!
> 
> Ibid, p. 512:
> But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him.
> It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the
> arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with
> your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was
> little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do
> I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents —
> that there was all the difference in the world.
> *******************************************************
> 
> Dumbledore knows that Harry "got to" try and defeat Voldemort. Harry
> is *compelled* to fight Voldemort, in the sense that Voldemort is
> forcing him to do it or die. But still, Dumbledore wants Harry to
> choose to fight Voldemort from his own free will.

Pippin:
Dumbledore warned Sirius that Kreacher was dangerous, even
though Kreacher was bound to serve his master and Sirius had
put all sorts of compulsions on him. I don't think he would be
saying he trusted Snape if he thought Snape was only serving
him because of a compulsion. He would expect someone
as clever as Snape to find a way out, no matter how mighty
the magic that bound him.

 Nor do I think that Dumbledore would say that Harry had no 
idea of Snape's remorse and that he believed it was the greatest 
regret of Snape's life and the reason he returned, if  Dumbledore  
didn't think it was genuine. 

I understand the reluctance to believe that Snape could be
on Dumbledore's side when he treats Harry so poorly. But this
is the cruel fallacy Snape himself demonstrated  when he said,
"I see no difference." 

Pippin