Slytherin as villains / Ender vs. Harry SPOILERS for Ender's Game

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178973

Besty HP wrote:
> Both Regulus and Snape suffer, for me, from acting for very small
and personal reasons.  Snape was horrified that the girl he loved was
going to be killed.  Regulus was horrified that the house-elf he 
loved was nearly killed.  Neither seemed to have come to a 
realization that Voldemort overall was bad news.  <snip>
> Just as the Malfoys would not have betrayed Voldemort if their son's 
> life wasn't on the line.
>
<snip>
So the personal (very personal) actions of a few, didn't do anything
for their house overall for me. <snip>

Carol responds:
I understand your disappointment here, and I was one of those who
argued against a Lily/Snape SHIP because it didn't seem to me to be
sufficient motivation. However, setting aside the shared virtues of
love and courage that enabled Snape (too late for him but not for
Harry) to persuade Harry to trust him and to act on his message and
enabled Harry to understand and forgive him as no other virtues or
values would have done (IMO), I disagree that neither Snape nor
Regulus realized that "Voldemort was overall bad news." Regulus
sacrificed his own life not only to avenge his House-Elf (that
Voldemort would force an innocent House-Elf to drink that horrible
potion and leave him to be killed by Inferi must have opened Reggie's
eyes to the atrocities of which LV was capable), he also figured out
somehow that LV had performed the greatest crime of all, creating a
Horcrux. And he was determined to undo that evil, to make Voldemort
mortal again: "I face death in the hope that when you meet your match,
you will be mortal once more" (HBP Am. ed. 609). I'm pretty sure from
those courageous words that Regulus knew that Voldemort was thoroughly
evil and wanted him to be destroyed. A mortal Voldemort is a killable
Voldemort.

As for Snape, I'm not going to restate all the arguments I've made
that there's more to his repeatedly risking his life to lie and spy
for Dumbledore than love for Lily. I'll just repeat that he continues
to protect Lily's son even after he knows that they're not really
doing it for Lily, that DD has used him, that Harry will have to
sacrifice himself (and, Snape thinks, die in the process) to destroy
the soul bit. And he saves people who have nothing to do with Lily and
nothing to do with protecting Harry even if they're connected with him
(DD--admittedly only extending his life, but he would have saved him
if he could; Katie Bell; Draco; Lupin, of all people). Nor are these
the only people that he has saved since he makes his remark, "Lately,
only those whom I could not save," before any of these actions. He
expresses horror that DD has (apparently) se Harry up for death. He
dies giving Harry a last important message--and the means to
understand and forgive Snape himself. And if Harry acknowledges only
Snape's love for his mother and his courage rather than his other
gifts (which he knew about already), it's because those were the
virtues that caused him to oppose and continue opposing Voldemort, to
risk his life over and over again, and to agree to Dumbledore's wish
to be killed by him as no one else would have done--not for Lily but
for Draco and for DD himself. I can't persuade you otherwise, but I
can't and don't share your view that his seventeen-year opposition to
Voldemort was *only* because of Lily. I do agree, however, that if it
weren't for his love of Lily that opposition would never have begun.
Love, after all, is the great force that defeats Dark magic, as DD
repeatedly reminds Harry. And it's through Snape that Harry finally
learns that lesson.

As for personal motivations, can you think of any character in the
books who doesn't oppose Voldemort for personal reasons? Remember
Harry in SS/PS? "He killed my mum and dad." And he repeats that
motivation, with a bit of nudging from Dumbledore, in HBP. In DH, he's
seeking to destroy the Horcruxes, along with Ron and Hermione, because
he's the Chosen One and because DD assigned him (them) that job. Ron
and Hermione are with him because they're his trusted and loyal
friends (Ron's temporary defection notwithstanding). They have an
additional personal stake in the outcome: The DEs are persecuting
Muggleborns and Hermione is a Muggle-born (and Ron is in love with
her--love again, along with friendship, as a motivator). Dobby rescues
Harry and his friends out of love and loyalty, not principle, unless
you count fear of Voldemort's winning and resuming their abuse of
House-Elves (a highly personal matter to Dobby). Ditto for Kreacher,
who fights in the name of brave Regulus, who died for him. Dumbledore?
I think personal guilt was as important as principled opposition in
his battle against Voldemort. McGonagall? Probably the welfare of the
school, but the name that triggers her battle rage is Dumbledore.
(And, of course, she thinks that Snape murdered DD, a personal grudge
against him matching Harry's own desire for vengeance against Snape
until he learns the truth in the Pensieve.) Lupin? Making the WW a
better place for his newborn son. Molly? Protecting her children.

Principle may play a role for some characters, but in the end, it's
love and loyalty and friendship that are important. As Hermione tells
Harry way back in SS/PS, there are more important things than books
and cleverness (or school or life itself, apparently), "friendship and
bravery." Or, put another way, "love and courage," the very virtues
that we see illustrated by Regulus and the Prince in their respective
tales. And, of course, by Harry himself, who differed from the
Slytherin heroes primarily in having the support of friends and a
greater share of luck.

Carol, apologizing for sounding a bit snippy in her previous post