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

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 178139

> Pippin:
> Harry did not want to save Peter. He wanted to keep Sirius and
> Lupin from becoming murderers. He said he was okay with
> Peter being turned over to the dementors. 


Alla:

Sure, yes, I meant only to save him from immediate death.


 
> Alla:
> > And when Harry is Christlike figure? ( Sorry, do not mean to 
offend 
> > anybody, but that is how I perceive it) That is what Christ like 
> > figures do IMO - they offer protection to anybody and see good 
in 
> > everybody.
> <snip>
> > As to what changed Harry even more? I say his death experience, 
> > nothing more than that IMO.
> 
> Pippin:
> But that doesn't work, because his decision to save everybody had
> to have been made  before he "died" although, as when he faked 
> doping Ron's pumpkin juice, the narration does not let us in on it 
> until afterwards.
<SNIP>

Alla:

I meant the protection thing that worked for everybody.
 
Pippin:
<SNIP>
> I wouldn't think we are supposed to see Harry as someone who
> could cast the first stone. 

Alla:

Yes, exactly and I do not remember Harry trying to kill Snape and I 
also said that this is what I would not be okay with.

 
>> Pippin:
> See, there's this pattern in canon of people thinking that they
> can approve of killing because it's only inferior, unsympathetic 
> people who are going to be killed. And then they find out that 
> it doesn't work like that, and it changes everything. 
> 
> It isn't only Dumbledore and Ariana, but also Snape and Lily,
> and Regulus and Kreacher.  
> 
> It seems to me a similar transformation took place in Harry,
> although in his case any sympathy for Snape would not have 
> been kindled until after Snape was dead. But still he would
> have realized his mistake, just as Dumbledore and Snape did,
> and that's why he chose to protect everyone from Voldemort,
> not just his friends, IMO.
<SNIP>


Alla:

Pippin, approve of killing to me is very different from not 
interfering when one DE is killing another. I do not know if Zara 
talked herself into it, but she certainly talked me into Harry 
staying because he was consciously or not wanting to help dying man. 
That is so much more than I would ever expected from him. Sorry for 
being a parrot, but I would never want or expect him to start 
Voldemort's fighting to save Snape. Medical help, sure, but not 
fighting.

Pippin:
<SNIP>
> A Harry who learned from his mistakes the way Dumbledore
> and Snape did is more real to me than one who has saintliness
> bestowed on him as a reward for his courage, especially since
> Snape himself was very brave and it certainly didn't make a
> saint out of him!

Alla:

Yes, I understand. I think Harry made plenty of mistakes in book 7, 
IMO this is not one of them. To me Harry who would suddenly forget 
what Snape did to him and other people and rushed in the battle to 
save his life and limb would be not real. To each their own, really.


Pippin: 
> But that doesn't make the pure-and-uncomplicated Harry
> reading wrong, I'm just showing that there's room for another
> way to look at it. 
>

Alla:

Eh, thanks, I guess for thinking that my reading is not wrong. Just 
to be asbolutely clear - my reading is not pure and uncomplicated. 
My reading is Harry who is not going to suddenly save the life of 
another DE risking his life for that. Nope, not pure and 
uncomplicated.

My Harry though is the one who would still stay for the last request 
of the man who tormented him in school and who helped make him an 
orphan and who killed Dumbledore in front of his very eyes.

My Harry is the one who would still stay and honor his last request 
even though I think he had every right to say - thank goodness Snape 
that you are dead.

Well, I guess my Harry is pure enough, but not Saintly to start 
battling Voldemort for Snape.

JMO,

Alla