The Continuing Tragedy of Severus Snape: Reflections on Books 1-

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164624

Alla wrote:
> 
> Actually, even though I do hope that LL is right in a sense that 
> Snape's character is past oriented, I think that you can be right in 
> a sense that Snape is the character who got the reprieve, because of 
> his popularity with the fans.
> 
> So, hope as I am that Snape is dead or live forever in Azkaban at 
> the end of book 7, I think it is possible that he will survive and 
> do something at the end, if he is DD!M.
> 
> But I am keeping my fingers crossed that JKR will not make him a 
> Headmaster. To subject next generations of Gryffindors to this 
> bastard, sigh, I hope JKR will not do that. Sorry.
> 
> I am hoping that JKR will not go for symbolism of the murderer of 
> the most beloved Headmaster succeeding him. 
> 
> JMO,
> 
> Alla, who will have a box of tissues as well on July 21, but who 
> will consider those tissues too precious to spend one of them on 
> Snape. :)
>
Carol responds:

I agree that Snape is probably the character who received the
reprieve, either that or she never intended for him to die. But if
she's considering the readers' reactions to Snape at all (and not just
planning a dramatic reversal that's been planned all along, which 
believe she's been building up to since she first laid out the plots
of the seven books), she'll realize that many readers hate Snape and
wouldn't want him as headmaster of Hogwarts. Nor, I think, would the
majority of parents in the WW.

Snape, we've discovered, has unexpected talents as a Healer, in
addition to known brilliance in Potions and (for me) anticipated
brilliance in DADA. And, as she said herself, he's a "gift of a
character." While Dumbledore's death served a (double) plot function,
leaving Harry without a mentor and intensifying the Harry/Snape
conflict almost beyond endurance for characters and readers alike, and
Sirius Black's death bereft him of his father/brother figure and is
(IMO) helping him learn compassion for the losses of others (e.g.,
Luna), as well as perhaps setting up a trip through the Veil (and
back), Snape's death could serve no purpose. I hope I'll step on no
toes when I say that Sirius Black was a character without a future,
but Snape is another matter. If the WW can be made to understand why
he acted as he did and that it would have been worse *not* to kill DD
than to kill him (I won't reiterate my reasons for thinking this was
the case), Snape might get a short sentence to Azkaban, but it would
make more sense for the MoM to put his talents to use, for example,
making him do community service as a Healer for St. Mungo's before
setting him free to do what he does best, researching spells and
potions. I don't think he wants to go back to Hogwarts as either a
teacher or headmaster, but he could do Hogwarts a real service by
incorporating his potions improvements into a new Potions textbook or
two, and he could make a fortune by selling a book on his invented
charms and hexes. 

Far from having no future, Snape could become the character he would
have been if he'd never made the mistake of joining the Death Eaters.

Carol, hoping that Snape will survive into the Epilogue, having
persuaded Harry, the WW, and the majority of readers of the necessity
of his actions on the tower and his unshakeable loyalty to Dumbledore