Potter Post!

Spoiler Alert! This post contains information from the last released Harry Potter book, "The Half-Blood Prince." Don't read this post if you don't want to know what happens!

Accidentally, I'm in love with Professor Snape.

Well, ok - "in love" is probably not the right term, but if he was real and if I lived at Hogwarts, I would be in love with him.

I just have this thing for tortured, tormented intellectuals with long hair.

Wait a second - that sounds like me!

Anyway, I have just joined the Harry Potter "fanwagon" - so I know that the argument concerning Professor Snapes' innocence or guilt has already peaked and now most people are simply waiting for the final book. In other words, this old news.

But it's new to me!

So I share!

Ok, thing number one. Innnocent or guilty are the wrong terms.

A bit more simplistic, yet better for the discussion are the terms "good" and "bad."

Thing number two: Professor Snape is on the good side.

My first and foremost reason simply comes from "knowing" him. I don't know how else to say it, so I won't keep talking about. Just...I know him and he's good.

So I start with a bias, oh well.

Thing number three: A list of clues and reasons to point that he is on the good side.

1) Dumbledore begging for his life? Give me a break.

2) Dumbledore and Snape arguing (Hagrid overhears it). Do you really believe Snape would argue with Dumbledore if Snape was in the service of the Dark Lord? Snape is too tricky for that. A frontal attack on Dumbledore - never, never. They were arguing because Dumbledore had ordered Snape to kill him if and when the time came.

3) Snape has pity on Draco because he sees him leaning towards (and going to) the dark side. He makes the Unbreakable Vow to protect Draco and to "do the deed" for Draco if needed. I am fully convinced that Snape decides at that moment that he will protect Draco, yet not kill Dumbledore and instead die for breaking the Unbreakable Vow. He choses to lay down his life for Draco and Dumbledore.

(As a tag to the above comment - we know that there were three boys who could have fulfilled the Prophecy - and we know that Harry is the one, that Neville could have been...but we don't know who the third boy was. I believe it was Draco as he is unable to take the Apparating test because he is underaged - like Harry (the Prophecy says that the boy will be born in late July). This of course is an interesting twist because the prophecy says that the parents of the boy denied the Dark Lord three times before the boys were born, so what can we make of the Malfoys now? I don't know...)

4) I believe that Snape was in love with Harry's mother. Thus, tortured and tormented for many reasons concerning Lilly's life and death. Or maybe Draco's mother... I don't know exactly, but I think he has the feel of one who has loved and been rejected. Who knows? Maybe we'll even have a "Luke, I am your father" moment! Haha! Not really. I don't think JKR would do thta.

5) Ron and Hermione (and I think Ginny too) all drank Felix Felixer (or whatever that stuff was called) which we all saw how well it worked for Harry - leading him along in good fortune for Agrog's burial. Yet, we can hardly say that Ron and Hermione were fortunate that night that the Death Eaters entered the school and Snape did the deed. Unless, that is, we believe that the outcome was indeed good.

6) Snape, if he were evil, could have killed so many more people that night, but he didn't. He obviously was "blowing his cover" if he were on the dark side, so why not kill more people?

7) As Harry is chasing after Snape and begins firing curses at him, Snape not only blocks them and doesn't retailate (which even if he was suppose to save Harry for the Dark Lord, if he was evil, he would have at least tortured him) but is still giving instruction to Harry. He says something like Harry has to "learn how to shut his mouth and his mind when in battle." Meaning, of course, that if Harry will win a duel, he must be able to strike without verbally speaking the attack as well as protecting his mind so the enemy cannot see inside and know what he is planning. Why would Snape do this, if he were waiting for the Dark Lord to kill Harry?

8) When Harry calls Snape a coward, Snape's screams at him to not call him a coward and Harry sees Snape's face lose the stony arrogance and transform into sheer pain. I think Snape, because he was orderd to kill Dumbledore and because he had to protect Draco, had to screw up more courage than ever before, yet his courage is completely under the radar and he is the only one who knows what he has done. There is no more courageous place to stand than all alone, doing what is right, when everyone things you are evil. When Harry called him a coward, Snape not only heard Harry, but the echos of years gone by.

And that is why Snape is on the good side, though sadly I must say that I think he really did kill Dumbledore. Tortured and tormented, he must come to be understood in the final book.

posted by Headless-in-GR @ 11/28/2005 12:11:00 PM