What might Snape consider cowardice?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 163628

Kemper wrote:

> In the Chapter discussion, colebiancardi synopsized:
> 
> Snape drops the big truth on Harry - he tells Harry that he, Snape, is
> the Half-Blood Prince. Harry tells Snape to kill him like he killed
> Dumbledore and again he calls Snape a coward. Snape yells at Harry,
> his face looking inhuman, "DON'T CALL ME COWARD!"
> 
> I, Kemper, wondered in one of my answers, what does Snape consider to
> be cowardice?  Even though some have suggested that he loses his cool
> hear because of some Marauder issues, I'm having difficulty buying it.
> 
> What would Snape consider cowardice acts during the events in the
> Lighting Struck Tower or the Flight of the Prince?
> 
> Kemper, who realizes his question in the Discussion may have been
> overlooked... or probably more accurately, underread
>
Carol responds:

I did see your question but didn't know how to answer. It seems to me
that (DDM!)Snape had only two choices, to kill DD but save the boys
and get the DEs out of Hogwarts or to die futilely along with (DD) who
could not have been saved regardless, taking Draco and, more
important, the Chosen One along with him. That would have been the
easy choice--avoiding infamy and a split soul and all the rest and
revealing his loyalties before dying--but it would have been
dishonorable and cowardly because it would have left the DEs free to
kill Draco and Harry and run through Hogwarts wreaking havoc and
murdering at will. To refuse the burden laid on him at that moment
would have been to hand the victory to Voldemort. That, in Snape's
view, would be cowardice. And he would be right.

Carol, hoping this is the kind of response you were looking for and
wishing Severus a happy 48th birthday (I think he was born in 1959,
regardless of the Lexicon's suggesting 1958)