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

[bfiw2002]

No: HPFGUIDX 170775

huge snippage
> 
> lizzyben04:
> In this,
> > Snape is almost unique in the Potterverse.
> That's my view of him -
> > Humanist!Snape. LOL. He doesn't save people because he likes 
them, 
> but
> > because they are human beings in need of care. 
> 
> 
> Lanval:
> "Almost unique", yes. The Healers (real Healers, not DADA 
> specialists), at St Mungo's. Madam Pomfrey. Surely they don't 
apply 
> their skills according to how much they may love or hate a patient?
> 
> lizzyben04:
> We don't see this side
> > of Snape often in the books, but IMO it is there in the 
> background. In
> > HBP, Harry finally got a chance to see this side of Snape.
> >

Biff
I'm afraid that when I read all of the "caring" things that Snape 
has done, I don't read them as anything more than a teacher doing 
what is expected of them. I think that Snape walks a tightrope in a 
way, being a spy. He's subjected to much more scrutiny, from both 
sides, and he knows it. It would expected that a teacher would take 
care of the children and he did. I believe he did it almost 
mindlessly, his mind compartmentalizing things that needed to be 
done. I believe he put Sirius on a stretcher because the children 
were on stretchers and it was just easier to transport everyone in 
the same way. Perhaps he would have had to perform 2 different types 
of magic at the same time to bring the children in on stretchers and 
Sirius, say, bound and gagged, dragged across the ground. His 
actions were almost mechanical, cold. 
And yet, he obviously can't help his personal feelings getting in 
the way of things at times, which I believe explains his gagging 
Sirius. He had pronounced sentence on Sirius in his own mind- he 
was "done" with him and didn't want to hear anymore from this 
person. 
Personally, I think that Snape has some very tragic points to his 
life and in many ways, his upbringing made the mold for the man 
which we see. But he made much of that himself and I simply cannot 
pity a man who willingly (and yes I believe he was eager) fell in 
with an incredibly powerful wizard who had a penchant for evil, and 
betrayed innocents to this evil man. He didn't know who he was 
betraying at the time, but he knew that he was giving information 
about a baby who was foretold to be the downfall of his Master and 
you don't do that without knowing what the results will be. Maybe 
not right away, but some day Voldemort would use that information 
and make sure this threat went away. 
I have been tempted over the years to feel sorry for Snape and to 
hope that there is something more there, just like I did with Draco 
(hey I like bad boys, ok?), and in some ways I do. But then I 
remembered part of an interview with Jo Rowling where she spoke 
about Draco. She was just amazed to find there were those who 
thought Draco was "misunderstood". They think he can be changed with 
love and tenderness. She wrote Draco to be bad. I believe she wrote 
Snape in the same way. 
My opinion only, of course.

Biff