The Continuing Tragedy of Severus Snape: Will Snape live or die and why?

[quick_silver71]

No: HPFGUIDX 164618

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Magpie" <belviso at ...> wrote:
<snip>
> Magpie:
> I definitely have started leaning towards some sort of Snape/Lily 
thing 
> since HBP, and recently I was re-reading PS and noticed something. 
> Dumbledore explains the Life Debt by saying that that was the 
reason Snape 
> worked so hard to protect Harry that year--because he thought that 
would pay 
> the Life Debt and they would be even and Snape could go back to 
hating James 
> in peace.
> 
> What struck me is that reading it knowing what I know now it 
suddenly seemed 
> like a separate issue from the Prophecy. Like, that Snape feels a 
specific 
> thing with Harry, whom he hates because of James, that's also 
connected to 
> the Life Debt (which Dumbledore doesn't describe as deep magic, but 
more 
> just the way Snape feels to have had his life saved by a guy he 
hated). But 
> it made me feel even more like his greatest regret was different. 
He was 
> undoing that by trying to bring down Voldemort and be a spy.
> 
> Obviously this doesn't give any evidence for or against whatever 
Snape might 
> or might not have felt about Lily Evans, but it just struck me that 
way 
> reading PS again that suddenly the Life Debt and saving Harry's 
life seemed 
> like a smaller, side issue for Snape besides the greater 
regret/switching 
> sides/spying/bringing down Voldemort.

Quick_Silver:
While I generally lean towards Snape/Lily as an explanation of 
Snape's remorse, etc. I would argue that the life debt is an inherent 
part of Snape's greater regret/switching sides/spying/bringing down 
Voldemort because it reveals his character. To me the fact that Snape 
can acknowledge/understand what he owes James (i.e. the life debt) 
speaks to some sense of underlying morality and concept of 
honor/ethics. This is in contrast to Peter Pettigrew who apparently 
disregards his life debt to Harry and is thus shown as having 
apparently no underlying sense of morality. 

Quick_Silver