On the perfection of moral virtues.

[Dana]

No: HPFGUIDX 169042

> Julie:
> Then we're back to giving credit for unintended consequences
> that result from actions, with no regard to intent. Therefore,
> Snape saved the entire WW by blabbing the Prophecy, which 
> caused Voldemort to target and eventually kill the Potters,
> wherein his AK attempt on Harry rebounded and vaporized him.
> Thanks to this fortuitous event, Voldemort (who was clearly
> winning that first "war" according to Dumbledore) did not
> take over the WW, kill the Order members and their families
> (which would have included Harry Potter) and everyone else
> who stood in his way, and turn the lives of those who'd 
> managed to survive into living nightmares. I just want to
> know...why hasn't Snape been given the Order of Merlin for
> providing the WW with this 13 year respite from Voldemort??
<snip>

Dana:
Maybe you are forgetting that people still died because of him 
sending LV on a wild goose chase. Lily's self-sacrifice was a 
wonderful thing, Snape bringing the prophecy to LV so LV could go 
and kill some people was something entirely different. Lily did 
sacrificed herself to save her son and her love protected him and 
caused LV's downfall. This might not have been intentional but it 
nevertheless meant that LV could no longer terrorize the WW and she 
did sacrifice herself for it. Snape when he brought the prophecy to 
LV could not have know it would cause LV's downfall but he COULD 
have known that people were going to die because of it.  Did we see 
Snape sacrifice himself to save the WW? No we did not, he actually 
brought the prophecy to LV, according to DD, because he thought LV 
should know that someone was going to cause his down fall and if it 
was his intention to cause LV's demise then he just should have hold 
his tong and LV would never have known what hit him.

So if intent would indeed be an issue then in my opinion Snape was 
as guilty for causing these people's death as was LV himself. He 
wasn't merely the messenger that could not have foreseen that LV 
would be going to kill people because of it. And at this moment the 
only canon we have what caused Snape remorse, was not him bringing 
it to LV but just that he did not foresee which people LV was going 
to target because of it and that it involved people he knew. So in 
other words if it had involved people he didn't know Snape would not 
have felt any remorse about it at all.

JMHO

Dana