Snape's the Rescuer - Really?/Justice to Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170702

Alla wrote:

> > Julie:
> > I missed where someone said he was "kind." 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Um, I often make reply to thread in general, when I reply to 
> particular post, sometimes I specify it, sometimes I forget. Sorry 
> about that. But it was said that Snape was **kind** in putting 
> Sirius  and kids on stretchers. I will hunt for this post if needed, 
> I am almost positive it was Carol's, just do not remember which one.

Carol responds:
Not even I would refer to Snape as "kind," though I did use the word
in a recent Snape post. Possibly this is the paragraph you had in mind:

"If conjuring stretchers to take unconscious kids, at least one of
them seriously injured, to the hospital wing rather than leaving them
on the grounds when there's even the remotest chance of their being
bitten by a werewolf isn't saving their lives, what is it? It's
certainly an act of mercy of some sort and protecting them from
danger. (That he had no kind feelings for or intentions toward Sirius
Black is beside the point. He thought Black was trying to murder
Harry, remember? He took him to Fudge rather than dispatching him
himself, which, for Snape, is an act of restraint.)"

So I did call it "an act of mercy of some sort," by which I meant that
he was rescuing helpless people from a sense of duty or
responsibility, not acting out of the kindness of his heart. Snape has
seldom been kind to anyone in the books though he's occasionally civil
or polite. I think the one exception is his treatment of Narcissa in
"spinner's End," and even there he's sometimes firm, sometimes kind,
sometimes noncommital. (Of course, he's not kind, and barely civil, to
Bellatrix and neither kind nor civil to Wormtail.)

At any rate, I have no delusions about Snape. He's sarcastic, he docks
points unfairly, he's not above petty revenge, and he's done some
regretable things (joining the Death Eaters and revealing the
Prophecy, for which he's expressed remorse and tried, IMO, to atone,
and killing Dumbledore--though that last remains to be explained).

Carol, under no delusions about Snape's "kindly" feelings toward the
"murderer" Sirius Black or toward Harry, the "mediocre" Chosen One
whose life he has to protect if he wants Voldemort to be defeated (and
I believe that he does)