Snape's role

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 176610

Alla:

My point  was that **without Snape** Harry had a chance to have a 
normal life  without Snape needing to save his life even, I do not 
see how anything  that you wrote refutes it. 
Was it a guarantee? Surely not. But I stand by  my opinion that 
without Snape James and Lily would not have been a  prophecy couple 
and had a chance to survive first war, just as Moody,  Lupin and 
other members of the order did.

And Harry would have had  a loving mum and dad, maybe.
 
Julie:
I go by canon here, and canon is that Voldemort was *winning* the war.  There
is no indication that Dumbledore had any clue about the mulitple horcruxes  at
this point, let alone could have hunted them all down before Voldemort did  
win,
take over the WW, and wipe out what was left of the Order. This also makes  
the
fact that Lupin, Moody, et al survived the first war actually irrelevant,  
because
they only survive if Voldemort doesn't win, which wasn't what was  happening.
 
Is it *possible* that the Order could have turned things around, that  
Voldemort
might have lost, and that Harry might have ended up alive with his loving  mum
and dad? Sure it's possible. But from canon it is very unlikely. It's a bit  
more likely
that *Harry* might have survived, assuming LV didn't as a matter of course  
kill the
young children of Order members (I can't recall the canon on that issue) as  
they
were no real threat and could be "retrained" to his views once he took over  
the WW.
 
Finally, if Snape's did make Harry's survival possible, and everything that  
went
with it, including the eventual defeat of Voldemort (and it's a very good  
possibility
that he did), so what? People's actions have unintended consequences, which 
by definition are unrelated to intent or to their "goodness" or "badness."  
(We can
say for instance that without Harry sparing Wormtail, Voldemort might never  
have
gotten his body back, and the WW might have been spared the second war,  
Lupin,
Tonks, Fred, et al might still be alive, etc, etc.) If Snape did  "save" 
Harry and the
WW, he was joined in this act by Voldemort, who also set this course by  
acting on
that silly prophecy. And I see no reason why Harry would or should  thank 
Snape--
nor why Snape would expect or want thanks--as it was just one more in a  long 
line
 
of unanticipated consequences that make up much of the story of human  (and 
WW)
existence!
 
Julie 




************************************** Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL at 
http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]