His own man (was Re: Snape's protection (was Re: Another thing...

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 179205

Julie wrote:
> I mostly agree with you, Sherry. Snape was Lily's man through and
through in the beginning. Later he adopted some of Dumbledore's values
(only abandoning to death those he could not save). But he also defied
Dumbledore when he felt Dumbledore was wrong (saving Remus Lupin, IMO,
when Dumbledore told him not to do anything that would compromise his
position with Voldemort, for instance). And in the end, I believe
Snape was his own man through and through, even if his own goals
eventually mirrored Dumbledore's. 
> 
<snip>
> 
> There is that "Severus, please" plea from Dumbledore. Twice.
Dumbledore wasn't sure Snape was in his pocket. Because he never
really was. Snape did do it eventually, but I don't think it was for
Dumbledore so much as for the cause. Snape, who saved those he could
at this point, understood that destroying Voldemort was the only way
to secure the survival of the WW, at least one worth living in, and
that Dumbledore's death was inevitable, as was the necessity of Snape
remaining close to Voldemort. And as was Harry confronting Voldemort
and presumably dying. There was no way to save Harry as long as
Voldemort was alive and determined to kill the boy, so in the end it
would be either Harry at Voldemort's hand--with Voldemort taking over
the WW--or the two of them at each other's hands--with the WW
preserved from Voldemort's tyranny. (And if it was only about saving
Harry, who couldn't really be saved as far as Snape knew, a Snape with
no goal beyond his promise to Lily would just abandon the undoable task.)
> 
> That's why I think Snape did all he did in the end, including things
that didn't directly serve his promise to protect Lily's son, or any
unswervingly loyalty to anything or everything Dumbledore asked or
demanded of him. Snape wasn't DDM or Lily'sMan, but his own man, IMO,
following what eventually became his own goals. <snip>

Carol responds:
I agree. Clearly, Snape didn't *want* to kill DD. He didn't even raise
his wand until DD had spoken his name twice. He had to choose whether
to die accomplishing nothing beyond saving his own soul (which might
not even be at risk, anyway) and doing what was necessary to
accomplish the objectives that he and DD shared, keeping Harry alive
for the moment so that he could ultimately confront voldemort, going
under deep cover himself so that he could return to protect Hogwarts,
and saving Draco. To do all of those things, he could not fight the
DEs or let the vow kill him. He had to keep his promises to DD and to
Narcissa. But it was his own choice to do so, and I think he did it
for his own reasons (those I just listed) as much as for the reasons
DD had given him (protecting Draco's soul and saving DD from a
horrible and degrading death).

We don't know how much of what he did (mostly offpage) in DH was his
own doing and how much was on DD's instructions, but the detention
with Hagrid seems to have been his own idea, and saving Lupin at the
risk of blowing his cover certainly was. Nor did DD apparently know
about those unnamed people whose lives Snape had saved when he could.
the last scene in which he appears shows him leaving, not to carry out
DD's plan to get the Sword of Gryffindor to Harry, but to carry out
his own ideas on the subject: "Don't worry, Dumbledore. I have a
plan." Using the doe Patronus to lure Harry to a deep pool into which
he has to dive to retrieve the sword is Snape's own idea. And so, it
seems, is drawing Ron back by having him, too, follow the Patronus.
And Snape's last act, giving Harry *all* those memories rather than
just the one containing the message that Harry has to sacrifice
himself, is Snape's own doing. (Surely, he had intended to deliver
that message in some way that did not involve his own death.) It was a
brilliant and highly effective last action, followed by a last request
which I take to be simultaneously a moment of seeing Lily rather than
James in Harry and his reward for his labors and perils in protecting
Harry and fighting Voldemort.

Carol, agreeing that Snape was ultimately his own man, who *chose* to
continue working with and for DD as the only way of bring LV down, but
who also acted on his own initiative to save whatever lives he could,
even those with no connection to Harry, Lily, or DD
>