[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape's the Rescuer - Really?/Justice to Snape

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 170677

Lanval:
That's a good comparison with Draco, as far as setting 
things in motion, and the realization "Whoa, we're talking death 
here* are concerned. I wish JKR had included some suggestion that 
Draco felt remorse about almost killing Katie and Ron, though. I'm 
willing for now to believe that it did make him feel bad and added 
to his general state toward the end of HBP (instead of it just 
being fear for his own life).

Magpie:
Personally, I do think his response to Katie and Ron adds to his state--it
seems important to get him there to me. That's how he learns he's not a
killer, is through the different realities of death or almost death he
experiences throughout the year. He's not specifically mourning what
happened to Katie and Ron (especially since they were okay) but that's what
gets him not continuing to try to kill anyone in the second half of the
year even as teh pressure mounts. Instead he concentrates on the cabinets
alone, and knows by the time he gets up to the Tower he does know what
Dumbledore is going to tell him about himself.

Lanval:
To me any suggestion that Snape is meant to come across as caring is 
negated by his appalling behavior in the Hopital Wing.

Magpie:
Yes, and I think that's the idea. There's a difference between Snape
"coming across as caring" and just a scene where Snape's taking care of
people, which I'm saying this is. A scene where he's putting people onto
stretchers to bring them back, that knowledge that he cures Katie, the
scene where he cures Draco, counter-curses Quirrel etc. There are no scenes
of Snape really being a caring person, exactly (maybe Spinner's End a bit
for some). Scenes where he's showing his personality is almost uniformly
negative. JKR never softens him up and shows him being some kind of softie
underneath.

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