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

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 169772

> wynnleaf
> We may feel Harry deserves many things, but a literary character
> "deserving" something does not mean that they'll get it.  Harry
> deserved to have a father figure and JKR still killed off Sirius.
> If he couldn't have a father figure, Harry "deserved" to have 
> someone as a trusted mentor and JKR killed Dumbledore off, too.
> Harry deserves not to lose any more friends, but he probably will
> anyway.
> 
> Harry deserving something isn't why he'll learn why Dumbledore 
> trusted Snape.  He'll get that revelation for the same reason he'll
> get any other revelation -- to move the plot.


Jen:  I'm talking about what moves the plot!  You interpreted what I 
said to mean I personally think Harry 'deserves' information but it's 
all right there in HBP what Harry's blocks are about trusting Snape 
and he never received a full answer: "AND YOU LET HIM TEACH HERE AND 
HE TOLD VOLDEMORT TO GO AFTER MY MOM AND DAD"; "Haven't you noticed, 
Professor, how the people Snape hates tend to end up dead?"; "Well, I 
don't! [referring to Dumbledore saying he trusted Snape]" (HBP, 'The 
Seer Overheard')

How does the part of the plot that is about Harry and Snape move if 
Harry believes these things?  Learning why Dumbledore trusted Snape 
will likely explain why he was allowed to teach at Hogwarts and why 
Dumbledore trusted him even after the Potters died, after Sirius 
died, up to and through the night he himself died, but it doesn't 
mean Dumbledore's ironclad reason will be the whole of Harry's trust 
as well.  It might be the basis for Harry to come to that same belief 
and understanding but now Harry has some things to resolve in his own 
mind about Snape's actions that Dumbledore isn't around to explain.  

wynnleaf:
> Any extra revelation about Snape (such as regarding a life debt), is
> useless if it won't change Harry's viewpoint or actions because of 
> his beliefs above -- that Snape is a traitor, murderer, liar, etc. 

Jen: I see it as a possibility that what Harry really needs to learn 
is how destructive a person's actions can be when hatred is allowed 
to rule; Snape seems to be the one in the position to show him that.  
Sirius and James, for all their flaws, appeared to move on after 
Hogwarts in the short time they had to do so.  They joined the Order, 
James married and had a family and Sirius became Harry's godfather 
and the Protector of all the Potters when asked to be Secret Keeper.  
Yes, they were brought down by betrayl from the inside, but their 
intentions and actions are presented as essentially in trying to do 
the right thing when a threat was in their midst.

What happened to Snape?  We don't know much at all about his life at 
the tail end of Hogwarts and up to the point he took the prophecy to 
Voldemort.  What we do know is that some 20 years later the Marauders 
are still very much a part of his life, a resentment and hatred he 
nurses.  Was Sirius thinking about Snape while in Azkaban or when he 
took off to find Peter? Nope, not a word about that.  In fact, he's 
completely surprised when Lupin talks about him in the Shrieking 
Shack and then refers to him rather distantly in GOF as someone he 
wasn't sure what happened to after Hogwarts. Was James spending time 
thinking about what Snape did to him when there was a threat against 
his family?  Very doubtful.

So far Snape's claims about his own innocence and the Marauders' 
guilt haven't made a dent in Harry's hatred.  Harry paused to worry 
about his own father after the Pensieve scene but was reassured when 
he learned from Sirius and Lupin that yes, life marched on and James 
moved with it.  So what about Snape's continued victim status is 
going to move Harry?  I see that it might be time for Harry to learn 
what intense hatred can do to a person, how it can fuel actions and 
override judgement to the point that a life can be taken over and 
become very small.  Isn't that what Harry is trying to move past?  To 
realize he must forgive and move on, the very thing Snape never 
did?   Where you see that it will only fuel Harry's hatred, I see the 
possibility for Harry to learn more about Snape and say, 'uh-oh, no, 
I'm turning into him myself now and that's *not* what I want for my 
life, it's not what my parents, Sirius or Dumbledore wanted for me 
when they died to protect me.' 


Jen