Various replies regarding espcially Snape.

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 172428

Alla wrote:
Hmm, what other crows I should eat? Oh Prank of course, I thought it
would be important and we are due further revelations and it so was
not.

Valky replies:
Oh I wouldn't say that Alla. When I was rereading The Prince's Tale I
noticed something a little remarkable about the prank. Did you notice?
It happened BEFORE the worst memory scene!! That day Sirius and James
taunted Snape in the schoolyard and Lily gave James a serve and a half
of what he deserved, all along, James had already saved Severus's
life?! I don't know about you but that puts a whole new twist on the
scene for me, a strange twist, I don't even understand it because it
barely makes any sense except that it shows James good side was
present even while he bullied Snape so ruthlessly, the rest is hard to
understand. Maybe it was James himself who was the jealous one, Lily,
clearly, to my mind loved Snape right back in the preceeding scene,
she is blushing at his compliments and pleading with him to avoid evil
for her sake, could that be the one reason that tips the balance from
James simply disagreeing with Snapes ideology over into the cruel
mercilessness in the Pensieve Scene. 
  

> Jo wrote:
> 
> In fact the pensieve flashback clearly shows us Snape does things
that has nothing to do with Lily and that he does believe in doing the
right thing.  Such as his attempt at saving Lupin. his anger and
frustration toward Dumbledore fatal injuired by the ring, his geninue
hatred feeling for having to kill Dumbledore, him telling Phineas
never using the word "mudblood", his lament on "people he couldn't
save"...etc etc.. I see him doing these beyond selfish reasons/love
for lily.
> 
> Dumbledore knows Snape DOES care for Harry deep inside his heart,
even if it's in a "tought love" sort of way. That's why he teased him
about it, even knowing Snape would not admit it. 
> 
> 


 Valky now:
I'm agreeing with you here, Jo. Even though Snape kept the best of
himself hidden all those years it grew buds in those final few years
with Harry. The singularly definitive moment that proves it beyond
doubt, he saved Remus Lupin's life at enormous risk to his own, REMUS
Lupin.. his years-old enemy who was about to be Ak'ed, Snape stopped
it, willfully risking is neck to do so, to me THAT's HUGE! when Snape
later rips Lily out of the picture with Harry and James it was a joke
in light of that heroic feat in he early chapters and it made me
giggle, I could only see it as Snape trying to convince himself that
he hadn't evolved feelings beyond his precious relationship with Lily,
but to my mind he was just in denial, that man would not have saved
the life of a werewolf who was his long time enemy, he would not have
had a second thought over an insult directed at the best friend of
James's Potter son, Hermione, who he thought of as an intolerable
know-it-all anyway, or protect Neville and Luna from the Carrows
knowing that nobody would ever see how much he risked for lives that
seemed so insignificant. No, Snapes heart turned out bigger than even
he could admit to himself, his redemption was conclusive enough for
me. He discovered the best of himself and finally ran with it in his
last days.  


Carol wrote:

 Voldemort, with his mangled soul, has to spend eternity as a
whimpering misshapen fetus wrapped in dirty rags. Dumbledore, in
contrast, has his blackened hand healed and the twinkle in his eye
restored. Snape's soul will not be damaged because he's not committing
murder: he's fulfilling Dumbledore's last request, to die with dignity
on his own terms (foreshadowed by Krum's losing the QWC on his own
terms, I wonder?). Snape is now beyond pain and suffering and lies and
having to witness the deaths of helpless people whom he cannot save
and to whose plight he has to feign indifference. JKR believes in the
immortality of the soul, and if we believe in her story, we have to
believe in her afterlife, too (at least within the context of the
books; I don't mean in the RW, where we're free to hold our own views
and accept or reject the concept of an afterlife).

Valky now:
I'm going to simply me too this Carol. I like the way you said this
and it reflects my own thoughts quite well. 


Valky