Could Harry have saved Snape? (was Reacting to DH...)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 178088


Lizzybean: 
> JKR wanted Snape to die horribly, and plotted his death from way 
back
> for the ultimate "irony"/poetic justice. And she did this in order 
to
> get revenge on an old chemistry teacher who gave her a bad grade. In
> her latest interview, JKR confirmed that Snape was based on John
> Nettleship, and that he deserved his fate.


http://blog.nola.com/living/2007/10/new_orleans_students_give_rowl

Potioncat:
Whoa. Hold on a minute. Do you have more than the recent New Orleans 
interview as your basis? Because that's not what she said. She was 
asked about writing if you have bad grades, then she brought up 
basing Snape on her chemistry teacher.

They weren't discussing Snape's death, they weren't actually 
discussing Snape at all before she said Potions was based on 
Chemistry. Then she said the teacher deserved to be modeled as Snape--
-not that he deserved to die like Snape or that Snape deserved his 
death.

She based the character and the classroom situation on her chemistry 
teacher. If she was really really just getting back at him, she 
wouldn't make the Snape character conflicted and, in the end, a hero. 

So that tells me that Nettleship was a tough, sarcastic teacher who 
would die for his students. The kind  you hate as a kid and look back 
on differently. I've wondered for years if Nettleship did something 
to help JKR's mother or her family. Because JKR's mother worked at 
the school. I'm not sure if she worked for him, in the science 
department or just at the school. Not that I think he was in love 
with her, or betrayed her to an evil overboss. ;-)