What might Snape consider cowardice?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 163702


> 
> Betsy Hp:
> See, *I* think attacking a muggle with a nasty spell is cowardly, but 
> unless JKR is going for evil twins and evil Hagrid, she doesn't seem 
> to feel the same way.  Especially since Dumbledore had a bit of fun 
> using magic (though not nearly as nasty) against defenseless muggles.

Pippin:
Interesting, but this inspires a somewhat different thought.

I'm sure the Marauders thought using Dark Arts was cowardly, and
I wouldn't be surprised if in their earlier years, they took some of  
nape's more advanced magic for Dark Arts, as well. If Snape hadn't 
informed us that he was using legilimency and nonverbal spells 
to turn Harry's curses aside, and if we hadn't encountered 
these as legitimate uses of magic, we might have thought the same. 

How's this?  Snape accused the M's for being cowards
because they attacked him four on one, and the M's accused Snape
of cowardice because he was using unauthorized and possibly
Dark  magic.

 I think Snape may have joined the DE's thinking
that he would have the nerve to kill humans as easily as he once
killed flies, but he found, like Draco, that it wasn't as easy as
he had supposed. He would then have begun to feel cowardly
about letting other DE's kill for him, a feeling that reached its
culmination when Voldemort targetted Lily and James. And then
he realized that *all* dark magic was cowardly, and so the 
Marauders had been right about him, in a way.  Just
my opinion, of course. 

When Harry accuses Snape of cowardice for not fighting
back, Snape can banter about it, because he knows he's fighting
back by means he has now earned the right to use. But when he's
accused of killing a helpless person, it bites.

Pippin