The Fundamental Message of the HP books?

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 175758

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lealess" <lealess at ...> wrote:
> Dumbledore tells the returning Death Eater Snape that, "You disgust
> me," "You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and
> child?  They can die, as long as you have what you want?"  At the end
> of his life, though, he does the same thing to Snape.  Snape can go to
> hell, for all Dumbledore cares, as long as he agrees to follow the
> plan.  So I wonder, was asking this of Snape right, or easy?

va32h;

I don't know about right vs. easy, but my understanding of that passage 
was that both Dumbledore and Snape understood that if Snape killed him 
out of mercy, not hatred, Snape would *not* go to hell. 
Paraphrasing "only you know whether helping an old man will damage your 
soul," or something like that. 

I really don't understand this idea that Dumbledore wanted Snape to go 
to hell (or wanted him killed, btw - Dumbledore did not know, at the 
time of his death, that Voldemort sought the Elder Wand. Voldemort 
didn't go looking for the wand for months after DD's death. Dumbledore 
wanted to break the power of the wand, and for all we know Snape was 
supposed to bury it in Hagrid's garden or throw it in the Black Lake or 
set it on fire afterwards.

But I digress.

And I can't see what's so wrong about Dumbledore being disgusted that 
21 year old Snape is telling him that three people, one of them a 
helpless infant, are about to die horriby. But he only cares about one 
of them, so please make an effort to save her, and leave the other two. 
That *is* disgusting. What should Dumbledore have said? "Gosh Severus, 
that doesn't seem very nice. Don't you want to help James and little 
Harry too?"

Sometimes harsh words are needed to get through to a person who has 
gone too far.  Trying to get someone to save the object of your 
affections while condemning her spouse and child to certain death falls 
under my definition of "too far." 

This is an intervention of sorts for Snape. You don't politely ask an 
alcoholic to please think about maybe going into rehab, if he fees like 
it. You tell him that his drinking is ruining everyone's life and if he 
doesn't get help, the family will just have to cut ties and let him 
drink himself to death. And you might just tell him "You disgust me," 
which would very likely be true, based on my experience with alcholics. 

I believe that Snape was redeemed in the end, but I also believe that 
one of the reasons he *needed* redemption was because there was a time 
in his life when he was perfectly willing to let a baby Harry die (and 
would not have cared at all if the entire Longbottom family died). 

va32h