Snape's Remorse (Was Re: Would Harry forgiving Snape be character growth)

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 164240

Eggplant wrote:

Let's see, where in 6 books has Snape ever expressed genuine remorse?

va32h:

Of course I can't speak for Carol, but I think she may have been 
referring to the remorse Snape showed to Dumbledore. Which I admit, 
is not much to hang our hats on at the moment. 

Snape doesn't treat Harry as if he is the least bit remorseful for 
killing his parents. Dumbledore says that Snape resents James having 
saved his life, and I wonder if there is more to that than we know. 

Dumbledore says James saved his life, but Lupin tells us the story of 
James preventing Snape from discovering werewolf Lupin. Did 
Dumbledore ever confirm that's what he was referring to?

Could there have been a separate occasion upon which James saved or 
spared Snape? James and Lily are candidates for the prophecy because 
they have defied Voldemort three times. Well, Frank and Alice 
Longbottom were Aurors, no surprise there that they would have defied 
Voldemort. What did James and Lily do to defy Voldemort three times? 
Could any of these acts of defiance have involved Snape? 

And what is the nature of a wizard's debt anyway? Does it *have* to 
be repaid? What would happen to say, Wormtail, if he chooses never to 
repay Harry? If Snape owes James a life-debt, and not only fails to 
repay it, but actually causes the death of the person to whom he owes 
the debt, is that magically binding him in some way? That might be 
why Snape regrets causing James' death - it has made the life debt 
even worse - while not actually regretting that James is dead?

justcarol wrote:

Killing him would be both unoriginal and unimaginative. 

va32h here:

Do you mean Harry's killing Snape? Or JKRs killing Snape? I honestly 
think Snape will have to die in the end. He's a doomed character, 
IMO. No matter what happens between Snape and Harry, there will be 
too many people who only know that Snape is the one who killed 
Dumbledore. He can't go back to teaching, he won't be needed as a spy 
once the war is over, and what else has he ever done in his life?

I also think that Snape will be the sacrificial character that so 
many readers want Harry to be. Which *is* unoriginal, but JKR has 
done plenty of imaginative things with unoriginal themes before. 

va32h/Barbara, who can never thing of pithy comments to make in her 
signature.