Snape and moral courage WAS: Re: The Houses, Finally

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 184676

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> > I am saying that Snape did not fulfill his promise to protect 
Harry, 
> Harry as a living and breathing being. NOT his soul, not protect 
him 
> from watching his friends dying, I mean,  I do not remember Snape 
> making all those promises you seem to be implying he really was 
> making.
> 
> I am saying that he did not fulfill his promise to protect 
**Harry**, 
> that's all. He followed Dumbledore's plans. I totally understand 
if 
> you consider those plans noble, good for all mankind, for Harry's 
> soul, whatever.
> 
> **Harry** as far as Snape knows has to die. Snape promised to 
> **protect** him. You truly do not see a contradiction here? I 
start 
> to feel as if I am talking crazy here and really am missing 
something.


Leah: Just looking, after a night's sleep, at what Dumbledore 
actually asks of Snape in 'The Prince's Tale':

'"You know how and why she died. Make sure it was not in vain. Help 
me protect Lily's son".

"He does not need protection. The Dark Lord has gone--"

"--The Dark Lord will return and Harry Potter will be in terrible 
danger when he does"

....."Very well....." (UK hardback pp544-545)

The most obvious interpretation of this is that Lily gave her life 
to try to save her son's life, that Harry will be in physical danger 
from Voldemort and that Snape must protect him from this, saving his 
life if necessary.  That's certainly how Snape has been interpreting 
it, trying to save Harry from jinxes, werewolves, putting himself in 
mortal danger from Voldemort etc.-"Everything was supposed to be to 
keep Lily Potter's son safe".  And it was necessary for Snape to 
interpret the words in this way, because Harry has been in physical 
danger,and Dumbledore did need to know what Voldemort was saying to 
his Death Eaters. (And of course, Snape never actually breaches 
that 'promise' in reality, because telling Harry that he must be 
killed by Voldemort allows Harry to live thanks to the blood 
protection in Voldemort's veins)

However, there is nothing in Dumbledore's words, the cunning old so 
and so, that actually means that Snape has promised to keep 
Harry 'safe' in the way Snape interprets it, or to protect him as 'a 
living, breathing being" as you put it.

"....how and why she died": Well, literally throwing herself in 
front of a killing curse to protect her baby.  Magically,her 
sacrifice, combined with the actions of Snape and Voldemort,  
operates to make Harry into the one with the power to destroy the 
Dark Lord. "Make sure it was not in vain". If Snape hides Harry in 
Australia or similar,if he ignores Dumbledore and does not tell 
Harry that he must die (with the likely result that Harry would have 
been killed in battle by one other than Voldemort), Lily's magical 
sacrifice will have been in vain.  Voldemort will not be destroyed 
and Harry may well die anyway. "Help me protect Lily's son".  
Not "go out and do whatever *you* think necessary to keep Harry 
physically safe", (though this is what Snape does up to DH),but 
assist me in *my* protection of the boy--whatever that may 
be. "Harry Potter will be in terrible danger when he does [return]": 
Again, the obvious interpretation is physical danger, which is 
partially true. But there is also the danger of the scar horcrux. As 
Pippin and I have both said, we don't know what the long-term effect 
of that would have been if Harry and Voldemort had 
both 'survived',though Dumbledore describes the scar horcrux as 
a 'parasitic growth', growing stronger.  Is it really protecting 
Lily's son to let him live on with Tom Riddle feeding off him?  At 
the end of Dumbledore's persuasion, Snape does not say, "I, Severus 
Snape, solemnly vow to protect Harry Potter and keep him alive", he 
says "Very well" to all that Dumbledore has said. You say that Snape 
did not make the promises Pippin is implying he made, but actually 
neither did he make the actual promise that you (and he) think he 
made.  

I suspect, Alla, that you will say, 'So what? Whatever he actually 
promised Dumbledore, Snape still breaches the promise that he has 
made in his heart, he is horrified that Harry is being raised 'like 
a pig for slaughter, but he still obeys Dumbledore'.  I don't 
dispute this, but I don't condemn Snape for re-examining his 
interpretation of the promise.  As Snape says slightly before 
the '"You have used me"' speech, he has lately allowed to die "only 
those whom I could not save".  Once Snape knows that Harry is a 
horcrux, Snape may eventually accept that, despite all his 
endeavours, Harry is one whom he can not save, but that he can try 
to save many others through Harry's death. He may, as I have 
suggested before, suspect that there is more to Dumbledore's plans 
than he has told Snape, and there may be some hope for the boy.  He 
may re-examine what he actually promised Dumbledore and come to an 
understanding that, although he has definitely been 'used', his 
interpretation of that promise was too narrow. If Lily died to make 
Harry the 'Chosen One;', Snape can not let that not be fulfilled.  
He may conclude that he would not be protecting Harry to let him 
live on as a horcrux in a world where Voldemort rules. As I have 
said in another post, what shows more moral courage, to say, "I am 
so obsessively in love with Lily that I will continue my narrow 
interpretation of the word I gave to Dumbledore, I will continue to 
keep her son alive whatever the cost", or, "I will do what I am 
asked in the hope that the world will be saved from a great evil"?

Leah