Why we'll get no further revelations that Snape is Really Evil (even if he is)

[wynnleaf]

No: HPFGUIDX 169747

Many posters who believe Snape is either Ever So Evil, loyal to
Voldemort, or loyal to Dumbledore, but still really nasty, speculate
that DH is going to have further revelations showing us new Bad Things
about Snape.  These include (in part) 1.  Snape wanted to kill
Were!Lupin while in school 2. Snape tried to get Sirius killed in OOTP
 3. Snape's actions in "alerting" the Order and Dumbledore in OOTP
were really part of a plot he had going with Voldemort.  4.  Snape
only saved Harry in PS/SS because he had to maintain Dumbledore's
trust.  The list can go on and on and on.

But we're not going to find out those things.  Why?  JKR doesn't need
to convince Harry, or any other character, that Snape is a Bad Man,
hates Harry, is disloyal to Dumbledore, and EVIL.  JKR, in her
interview with Emerson and Melissa back in 2005, commented that
Harry's hatred of Snape is now "personal" and that his greater hatred
would be important for when they meet again.  Sorry, but JKR has no
reason at all to show Harry or anyone else that they need to hate Snape.  

No one needs to learn "by the way, Snape is really even Worse Than You
Thought," because there's nothing much worse than betraying the
prophecy to Voldemort which led to the Potter's deaths, killing
Dumbledore, and being a Death Eater.  

This is a long book coming up and JKR isn't going to be spending time
explaining to us things that won't move the plot or change any
opinions of the characters.  

Learning that Snape really *was* working with Voldemort in OOTP, or
really *did* help in getting Sirius killed tells us absolutely nothing
if Snape is Evil -- because if JKR isn't going to show us Snape is
really Loyal, then we can just assume he had generally bad motives for
whatever he did, and we don't need explanations of How He Did It or
Exactly What He Did.  

But we're almost certain that JKR is in fact going to produce some
revelations about Snape.  Why do we need *any* revelations about Snape
if they are only to convince us that he's just as bad as killing
Dumbledore would lead one to believe?  JKR doesn't need those
revelations about Snape if he's really evil.  She only needs
revelations about Snape if she's got to change the opinion of her
characters -- which is currently that he's an evil, murdering traitor.   

Many expect that she's going to tell us more about the Werewolf Prank.
 While I'm not at all convinced that she'll tell us more about it, if
she *does* choose to do so, it will not show us new revelations of how
bad Snape was.  Because that is just pointless, when she's already let
us think he's a murderer, traitor, and loyal Death Eater -- if that's
true, who cares if he wanted Lupin dead in school?  So if JKR does
revisit the Prank, and if she does give us new revelations about it,
we won't be finding out anything more Bad about Snape.  The only
reason for further revelations about Snape would be to *change* her
characters opinions, not confirm them.

The huge interest in Why Dumbledore Trusted Snape is almost certainly
going to be addressed.  Why will JKR address this?  Will it be so we
can all learn that Dumbledore was wrong to trust Snape?  Really?  If
Snape is really evil, we already learned that in HBP.  Do we really
need to learn that all over again?  Harry certainly believes that
Dumbledore's trust was misplaced.  Why would JKR produce the Reason
Dumbledore Trusted Snape, just so Harry can say, "Wow, Dumbledore
really was foolish after all -- just like I already thought."  No, the
only reason to find out why Dumbledore trusted Snape is to find out
that Snape was trustworthy.

wynnleaf