JKR's crying at the end of writing DH/ Double agent's death

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 171566

Dana:
> I am not trying to resolve the debate what I'm trying to resolve is 
> understanding the meaning of what being a double agent stands for and 
> it is not some romantic label you can put on someone. A double agent 
> is a double crosser someone that pretends to work for the side 
> sending him but actually working for the side he is send to. 
> 

Julie:
That definition works fine for me, since LV sent Snape to spy
on Dumbledore, and now Snape pretends to work for the side who sent
him (LV's side) while actually working for the side he was sent
to (DD's side). 

As for "double-crosser," well, that's not a very meaningful
term on its own, IMO. It all depends on *who* you double-crossed
and *why.* Those are the two things we don't yet know for sure
when it comes to Snape. Maybe he double-crossed Voldemort and 
has been on Dumbledore's side since that first double-cross.
Maybe he's been double-crossing Voldemort and Dumbledore back
and forth repeatedly like a ping-pong ball, siding with 
whichever one is most helpful to his own objectives at that
given time. 

If Snape double-crossed Voldemort because of a complusion
(to repay the life-debt to James, because he took a UV with
Dumbledore) or merely to satisfy his own needs (for vengeance
if Voldemort killed someone he loved, to rid the WW of LV so
he can become the top dog), then while he may be nominally
"Dumbledore's Man," his defection won't resonate in any 
romantic sense. If however he double-crossed Voldemort 
because he had a true crisis of conscience, if he had come
to realize he was morally opposed to Voldemort's goals and
methods, then Snape as "Dumbledore's Man" would take on the
same romantic resonance it does when Harry states that he is 
Dumbledore's Man. IMO of course.

Julie, hoping for the second, and believing that even a
man with as bitter a relationship with the world around
him as Snape can possess a genuine moral code.