Snape and Marauders WAS :Draco and Intent

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 186903

Alla:
> > > 
> > > So now it is a certainty that another DE would have had the same assignment? I certainly accept it as a possibility, but I also accept as a possibility that but for Snape no other Death Eater would have overheard the Prophecy and did not report it to Voldemort. And he would have never attacked Potters thus leaving Harry with two parents, who while fighting in the war would have still had a chance to survive and even if they were killed later still give Harry some years of happiness.
> > > 
> > 
> > Montavilla47:
> > Maybe.  Or maybe Voldemort would never have heard the prophecy and 
> > never invoked it, and consequently, never have been stopped by anything.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Or maybe this prophecy would have remain an unfulfilled as many other prophecies in MoM. And maybe another prophecy about how to defeat Voldemort would have come to life at some time. OR maybe he would have just been defeated with no prophecy at all.
> 
> But we can endlessly come up with what ifs of course. My point is that I find the argument that Lily and James would have been **grateful** to Snape to be mind boggling.
> 
> It is to me as if Wormtail for example suddenly become very very very sorry (for real) that he helped Voldie to get a body in GoF and did some sort of great deed to help kill him. And then somebody would say oh yeah, we have to be really grateful to him. After all he helped to get rid of Voldemort, but to me nothing can change that he helped bring Voldemort back. I will be the first one to say that he can atone for this deed, but to be grateful for it?
> 
> And maybe it is just the matter of degree to me, but to me there are some deeds for which one just cannot be grateful at all. I mean, I am sure WW could be grateful to Snape, after all Harry did save their asses and Snape is responsible in the round about way for creating the Chosen one. But any of the Potters being grateful to Snape? For what exactly I wonder.

Carol responds:
For protecting Harry all those years, especially saving his life in his first year, and for risking his own life to fight Voldemort? For sending the doe Patronus to help Harry/Ron retrieve the Sword of Gryffindor? For the last difficult act of magic as he was dying that enabled Harry to defeat Voldemort through self-sacrifice?

Harry was grateful. I think that his family would have been, too.

I'm not saying that they should be grateful that Snape's love of Lily made her ancient magic possible, or even that he went to Dumbledore afterward to beg him to hide "her/them," a futile gesture because of Wormtail's treachery. But I think they would realize that he kept his promise to do "anything" and that he protected Harry for Lily, and, as essentially good people, they would forgive Snape's sin and be grateful for the ways in which he atoned for it, just as Harry himself eventually was.

And, of course, it's not a certainty (though I think it's a probability) that another DE would have been spying on DD and reported the Prophecy. But it *is* a certainty that no other DE would have asked Voldemort to spare Lily and triggered the love magic when LV broke his word. No other DE was in love with Lily. Consequently, if any other DE had reported the Prophecy to LV, all three Potters would have died. And the dead Potters, if they think about it, might actually be glad for Harry's sake, but, no, they won't be grateful to Snape for reporting the Prophecy. I do think, however, that they would forgive him for it given everything else that he has done.

Whether they would forgive *Wormtail*, who merely experienced a twinge of regret at the end of his life after betraying the Potters, killing all those Muggles, killing Cedric, and restoring LV to two bodies, I don't know. Certainly, they have no cause to be grateful to *him.*

Carol, who realizes that we will probably never agree on this point