01.26.06
Snape, The Hero
A very convincing case for Snape being good has recently been posted on MuggleNet. The editorial theorises that one can discern what side Snape is on by looking at the number of things Snape has done for the Order that he did not have to do. It’s a convincing argument, especially when presented with the evidence. Indeed, in many cases, Snape has done things for the Order that were unnecessary to keep his cover of being a loyal member of the Order. Conversely, it seems that the only times that he has betrayed the Order were when it was vital to keeping his cover as an agent for Voldemort. Read and discuss.
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golfwidow said,
January 26, 2006 at 4:52 pm
I don’t know if I’m completely convinced … but I’m a lot more convinced than I was before I read that. I’m also even antsier than before for the release of the seventh book.
jane said,
February 11, 2006 at 2:07 pm
well i too think that snape is on dumbledore’s side… and if it is so it would mean that dumbledore wanted to be killed… which would mean there is something more behind it than we have seen… can it be that dumbledore himself, for some reason, MUST be dead for harry to succeed?
jane said,
February 11, 2006 at 2:11 pm
by the way, i am pretty sure snape was deeply in love with lily, therefore his hate towards james - and harry, since harry is not his son and reminds him of the lost love all the time. and it is for snape that voldermort was thinking to keep lily alive. without the husband and the son, naturally.
Blogging Harry Potter » The Snape Loved Lily, Voldy Spares Lily Theory said,
February 11, 2006 at 3:25 pm
[…] A recent comment on the Snape, The Hero post prompted me to respond with the following. Since I think it’s a theory that many people hold, I wanted to address it in it’s own post rather than in the comments. […]
jane said,
February 14, 2006 at 10:12 am
Another pro-Snape argument would be his… behaviour in Chapter 2 actually. Because he clearly lies to the Black girls in at least two cases - speaking about Harry’s abilities (well, this I agree is an arguable point, Snape’s opinion of Harry might indeed be not particularly high) and speaking about Dumbledore’s injured hand. Snape mentions that Dumbledore’s reaction is not as good as it used to be (same thing Dumbledore says about himself) and that he got injured in a duel with LV - which we know by now is not true. Why would he keep lying if he had been on their side all the time?
RavenclawWit said,
February 14, 2006 at 12:20 pm
True. According to Dumbledore, Voldemort does not know that Dumbledore and Harry, or anyone else for that matter knows about his horcruxes. But I wonder. Does Snape even know about the horcruxes? Dumbledore indicates to Harry that he wants to keep it as much of a secret as possible. Is it possible that he told Snape he was injured dueling Voldemort? That, at last, he was unable to trust Snape with this detail? It seems unlikely. After all, Voldemort would probably mention to Snape that he’d had a duel with Dumbledore, so the lie would not hold up for long. Also, it was Snape that treated Dumbledore’s hand. I would assume that Snape could tell the difference between an injury caused by a duel and something else.
jane said,
February 14, 2006 at 12:28 pm
I am pretty sure Snape knows about the existence of horcruxes. Whether it was Dumbledore who told him or not. I could even imagine that as a young ambitious student talented in creative potions and spells and attracted to the dark side he discovered how horcruxes are created, and this might play a role (you know how to destroy if you know what the spell is).
If Snape, however, does not know - whether he could understand immediately what the injury was, I doubt it. The injury was caused by a curse protecting the ring - but in a wizarding duel it would also be a curse to hit and not a projectile wouldn’t it. The only thing Snape would surely be able to identify is that it is LV’s curse that was destroying AD.
Brownhorse said,
February 27, 2006 at 4:44 pm
I believe that Snape is a hero. I also think that he was in love with Lily. Harry’s Aunt Petunia shall that “that horrible boy” told her about Azkaban prison. I believe that she wasn’t talking about James Potter but Severus Snape. I believe that Lily took him home with her once. I also think that Snape was present when Voldemort killed Lily. I think that he saved Harry with a spell that helped destroy Voldemort’s body when he tried to kill Harry. The horcrux is tha scare on Harry’s forehead. This is the reason why Dumbledor trusted Snape. I think that Lily made Snape promise her that he would take care of Harry and he has kept this promise. I believe that Dumbledor trust Snape with his life because of a plan that they made when Harry’s parents died. They planned that in order for Harry to kill Voldemort, Voldemort must believe that Dumbledore is dead and become careless. Voldemort does not fear Harry. He fears Dumbledore. Bellatrix Lestrange told Harry when he tried to use the killing curse on her and failed that he had to mean it. Otherwise it would only stun her. I do not believe that Snape meant to kill Dumbledor but to stun him.
RavenclawWit said,
February 27, 2006 at 8:02 pm
Some good points, Brownhorse. I too believe Petunia was referring to Snape when she made that remark. I do think Snape probably did harbor tender feelings for Lily, but I doubt Lily returned them except as a friend. She might have invited Snape to her home on the holidays, especially seeing as her parents were apparently very accepting of the wizarding world and that Snape’s own home life was apparently unhappy. However, I do not believe Snape was present when the Potter’s died. We know from Dumbledore in Goblet of Fire that Snape had already turned spy for the Order by the time the Potters were killed. I find it doubtful that he would have followed Voldemort to the Potter’s and then done nothing while Lily was murdered. Knowing Snape, he probably would have tried to save her, resulting in his death. I have heard this theory advanced a lot and I’m curious as to why people believe there was anyone there that night with Voldemort. I don’t believe there was, and there’s no evidence to indicate that it was so. Dumbledore clearly indicates that what saved Harry was his mother’s sacrifice. This caused the killing curse to rebound off Harry and hit Voldemort. This is why he lost his body. The only reason his soul wasn’t killed was because of the horcruxes he had already made.
As for a plan to fake Dumbledore’s death, I find this doubtful as well. The evidence in HBP (Fawkes, Dumbledore’s portrait, etc.) seems to indicate that Dumbledore is in fact really dead. However, that doesn’t mean that Snape’s “killing” of him is all it seemed. I happen to think that Dumbledore was already dying when Snape did the AK, and that Snape knew this, and it had been planned. Some people think it was the potion from the cave killing him, but I happen to think that Dumbledore had been dying slowly all year. I think the injury to his hand was mortal and that Snape was able to slow down the process, but not stop it completely. It was at this point that Dumbledore and Snape probably made the plan that if the time came, Snape would “kill” Dumbledore, thereby saving Harry for another day and preserving and cementing Snape’s role as a loyal Death Eater. As we could see from the beginning of the book, other Death Eaters, notably a very powerful one, Bellatrix, were starting to question his loyalty. As far as the curse goes, Harry was trying to Crucio Bellatrix that day, not AK her. I used to think that you had to truly hate someone to cast AK too, but after further reading of the books and comments by JKR, I’ve come to the conclusion that this may not be the case. You have to mean it surely, but that wouldn’t necessarily make you bad. Snape probably realized that if he didn’t AK Dumbledore, that would in effect be betraying him, especially when he pleaded with Snape to do it (”Severus, please…”). And so he did “mean” the curse, but he wasn’t happy about it. That explains the look of “hatred and revulsion”.
heidi said,
March 16, 2006 at 12:08 am
from a simple mind: i believe snape is a true ally to the Order and that dumbledore’s death was planned by the two of them. i also believe that dumbledore is really dead, but perhaps has his own horcrux…fawkes. that bird has burned up and come back probably a million times. could he be a horcrux for dumbledore?
thats all.
RavenclawWit said,
March 16, 2006 at 8:37 am
heidi, I agree with everything you say except the Dumbledore horcrux part. For one thing, to make a horcrux, you have to tear your soul by murdering somebody. I don’t think Dumbledore has ever murdered anybody. Also, if Dumbledore had a horcrux, he wouldn’t have died. The same way that the killing curse that rebounded off of Harry and onto Voldemort didn’t kill him because he had horcruxes.
Hermioneish86 said,
July 21, 2006 at 1:55 am
Remember, though, that Dumbledore defeated Grindelwald in 1945, Rav. I do believe that means he killed him. Not that I believe that he made a Horcrux, cuz I don’t. Just that he did kill somebody.
Guy said,
July 28, 2006 at 2:33 am
I’m going with Snape is good. As for Snape being there when the Potters died, it may seem farfetched, but possible. Suppose Snape was there, but he couldn’t find the way in the house because Wormtail hadn’t given him the address…(Wormtail was secret keeper)…..Suppose Snape had to sit back and watch while the Potter’s were murdered….n e way, i think Snape is good, and Dumbledore planned his death….Snape is Voldemort’s most faithful now, and Snape is a powerful wizard, putting himself in perfect position to kill Voldemort. I also think Snape knows about Horcruxes….He was deep in the Dark Arts, and probably knows as much if not more about them than Voldemort
nath said,
October 31, 2006 at 1:10 pm
yh but what about the promise he gave 2 malfoys mom, if malfoy dies so duz he. do u think he will really risking it by letting malfoy go back 2 voldemort. if he did another mission 4 him then he could die.. along with snape
bethanysnape said,
November 19, 2006 at 9:04 pm
yeah like totally snape would die if he did. but, i agree with guy on the whole darks art thing, cause snape, in the half blood prince, created all those spells, maybe he found a way to get rid of the unbreakable vow or reverse it, maybe even make it so it would be like someone else made the vow so it would kill them. and i agree that lily might have had a relationship with snape, but in the order of the phoenix, when harry goes into snape penisive, harry herd snape say “i dont need any help from a mudblood like her.”, maybe he said that because lily broke up with publicaly or not publicaly. although she sounded like she had feelings for him but had to keep it a secret. and why would snape save harry if he hated his father ,maybe harry reminded snape of lily because harry has her eyes, thats why snape saves harry, because he knows lily would have wanted him to. and i think that snape was somehow trying to gain harry’s trust by giving harry those occumency lesson to try and show him the horcruxes in advance because snape is the only other person to hear the profecy besides dumbledore, but, he was using the lesson as an excuse so voldemort didn’t find out so snape can continue to spy for dumbledore.