Is Snape Really Evil?

[Asphodel]

Yup...... DD would neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever plead for his life... it's like... against his code of ethics.... can you see him doing that? That would be rather immature of DD.

[SunsetG|rl]

And still there is also a posibility that Dumbledore was convinced to the end that Snape is on his side. And he told him to kill him. But all along Snape has been playing on Voldemort's side. And made Dumbledore believe his death was acording to their plan when all along Snape had brought him into this, following Voldemort's order. But this would be too sad and I for one would like to believe Snape is good (Ps ...did I make sense? I felt I expressed myself rather confusing.)

[carsten]

Snape is the main person in HBP, but even though he is in the center of actions, we know little about his motives. Is he the bad guy in the series? I doubt that. JKR has laid out clues and hints to convince us of that, but I think she is planning for something different. Actually we know very little about Snape’s reasons for his doings, and nobody in the story does. Even DD seemed to be surprised about Snape’s role in the attack on the school. So I made up a few ideas about his possible base motif.

Before that, I am giving my top ten causes, why he might NOT be the villain of the story:
1. He is a teacher and JKR was a teacher. It would be a bad role model to make a teacher one of the ultimate villains.
2. He saved Harry’s life.
3. He played at least an ambiguous role spying for the order. He was a double agent, but he helped DD considerably.
4. JKR is doing the exact same thing she did in the first book. She led us to believe Snape was the bad guy, which he wasn’t.
5. He didn’t want to team up with Karkaroff, Wormtail, Lucius or another DE.
6. He was alarmed, when Harry tried to use forbidden curses against him.
7. He could have killed Hermione and Ginny when they came to warn him about the Death Eat-ers in the tower, because he must have made the choice to change sides at that point in time. Instead, he was just stunning them.
8. He needed to stay alive despite the Unbreakable Vow, because he must have a mission to ac-complish in his life, something more important than the order and DD’s life.
9. He could have killed Harry on the escape, because his cover was blown already. Sparing Harry for LV was a lame excuse, because Harry has served his purpose for LV on the grave-yard already.
10. DD was a legilimens and couldn’t have been deceived for such a long time. He trusted him.

The only major reason we know up to now, is Snape’s humiliation from Harry’s father. But is that enough for years of hatred? Them main story mover is the rise and downfall of LV. But we know nothing about Snape’s involvement in that. He must have his own causes, which are not necessarily the same as LV’s or the order’s. I did some guesswork on possible reasons based on the hints from JKR we have so far. I am sorry if this comes too close to fan fiction.

The story ignited with the course of events in which Harry’s parents were killed. Who were the mug-gles killed along with the wizards and witches? We know that Tobias Snape was a muggle, too. Could it be that he had business concerning his son with the Potters who were working as aurors at that time? Maybe he was concerned about the attraction which the dark arts had for Severus. He could have been among the victims. Snape couldn’t take revenge for that, because LV was gone. So he changed sides (which was easy under the circumstances given) and teamed up with DD to work off his guilt. DD would never relate that to Harry or anybody else of course. This would explain for years of loyal duty in the school.

The scene changed when Harry became a student. Snape’s memory of the humiliation mixed with the anger about the death of his father. This added up to the aversion against Harry. When LV became strong again, Snape was disappointed about his own role and Harry weakness compared to LV. Proba-bly he IS a coward when it comes to facing LV directly. That sparked his anger when he was called one. In addition he knows he can't kill LV because he likely knows the full prophecy, but the spying helped him to handle the situation for a while.

I am expecting Snape to work closely with LV in book 7, but giving Harry secret hints for the destruc-tion of the Horcruxes, because that would not be possible without help concerning the previous at-tempts.

Is Snape innocent? No for sure: He killed DD. No reason can justify that. His odds for surviving book 7 are rather small, because even if he might turn again LV in the end, his guilt remains.

[Snow_Crystal]

Wow that really was long...! I worry about my posts being long.

Um the only thing I would say is that when I need to make a decision, I look at all the angles, weigh them up and then make the decision, after that I tend to stick to it. I don't tend to dither on the edge once a decision is made unless there is damn good reason. If Snape is good, he is good, if he is bad then he is bad - there is no halfway house but double-agent acting is possible as long as you do not go 100% against your own will. I believe Snape has made the decision to be good and this is demonstrated by DD's loyalty to Snape. It was so avid even til the end and DD doesn't make decisions lightly either.

I really believe that DD convinced Snape that he had no choice but to kill DD (whether Snape liked that or not) as it was the only way to get to the end of this little saga. So on the basis that you can't be a halfway house, I think Snape had to kill DD because he knew it was the only way for peace, LV to die, greater good to rule etc.

Carsten, your post seems a little confused to me. Your last para "Is Snape innocent? No for sure..." If Snape is not innocent then when you say "giving Harry secret hints for the destruction of the Horcruxes" why would you think he would give Harry snippets to destroy the horcruxes?

If Snape was guilty and was actually bad then why would he bother to give Harry any help at all???

[carsten]

Carsten, your post seems a little confused to me. Your last para "Is Snape innocent? No for sure..." If Snape is not innocent then when you say "giving Harry secret hints for the destruction of the Horcruxes" why would you think he would give Harry snippets to destroy the horcruxes?

If Snape was guilty and was actually bad then why would he bother to give Harry any help at all???

Thanks for the thoughtful reply!

Actually I am not confused about the matter, but my post may still be. Sorry for that. I will try to explain further:

I think Snape has his own vendetta with LV. But since he is a coward and knows from the prophecy that only HP can destroy the dark lord, he keeps on the double-cross by trying to make Harry his instrument.

Good and bad is not fate. People don't misbehave because they are born that way, but mostly for what they consider good reasons. And Snape is such a strong character by now, that he must have some good reasons. And I am curious about them.

[Snow_Crystal]

Ooh I like that - using Harry as a tool and yeah, I agree - he does toy with Harry a lot of the time.

I also like the idea of a vendetta against LV - what do you think it might be? will it have something to do with his own mother? A long time ago i wrote a post here somewhere as I was confused the with the timeline. I've since understood more as I went on the HP Lexicon, but I think I worked out the Eileen would have been at Hogwarts at around the same time as LV.

I'm not sure Snape knows for sure that Harry is the one as he only heard part of the prophecy but I reckon he's not stupid and can work that much out for himself. Actually thinking on it, DD could have told Snape I suppose but even though DD trusted Snape I don't think he would have discussed it with anyone else but Harry.

[carsten]

...I also like the idea of a vendetta against LV - what do you think it might be?...

The only idea I have, is LV (accidently?) harming Snape's family. This would be a motivation strong enough to explain (not to excuse) his deeds.

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

It's only been recently that we've discovered more intimate details of Snape's life, and I've found they may help us to try and figure out his motives.

First of all, I have to get my head around something.

Agent: Working for Voldemort.

Double-agent: Working for Dumbledore.

Triple-agent: Convincing DD he's a double-agent but really being LVs...

Hmm. It gets a little shifty from there.

I think we'll have to look right back at his life from the beginning to try and get a picture of him.

In the beginning he's a kid with an abusive(probably) muggle father.

He must have grown up with close resources of magic next to him though? Surely it was his mother or another relative?

Because it says when he came to Hogwarts he already knew many curses, so he must have learnt them from someone or somewhere?

I think the period that will interest us the most is Snape's childhood, 5-11 years of age.

I want to know how talented a witch his mother was, because if not, he must have had something!

[Imelyen]

I HIGHLY doubt Snape's father was a normal muggle. In the OotP when snape was giving Harry Occlumency lessons he managed to break into Snapes mind and he saw Snapes Mother cowering from Tobias, so either his mother was a pretty crappy witch, or the father was something more (Still sticking with snape being half-vamp). As far as Snape's loyalties, I see two options and only two. He is either

A.) Working for Dumbledore
or
B.) Playing Voldemort and the OotP off each other

[carsten]

I HIGHLY doubt Snape's father was a normal muggle.

I am not a normal muggle!

... I see two options and only two. He is either

A.) Working for Dumbledore
or
B.) Playing Voldemort and the OotP off each other

Actually I am closer to Tanuki's point of Snape being his own faction, but whatever his true loyalties are: He needs strong reasons for playing such a dangerous game. I was guessing about them and only severe family matters fit my expectations. Remember? Snape's mother had "Prince" as her maiden name, which is even part of the book's title. So I am expecting some crucial information to come up in the next book about that.

[Asphodel]

Prince is a pretty common name though isn't it? I'm also beginning to wonder if J.K.R assumed that we would all assume that Snape was innocent, but then make it turn out that he was guilty.

[Imelyen]

I will not accept Snape being evil for one reason, and one reason alone. If Snape is evil that means Harry was right, and Harry is never right.

[Q.Araignee]

You've got a point. I think that Snape is with Dumbledore's side(requiescat in pace). Remember in book 6 when Hagrid "accidentally" overheard them arguing:
" 'Well - I jus' heard Snape sayin' Dumbledore took too much fer granted an' maybe he - Snape - didn' wan' ter do it any more-'
'Do what?'
'I dunno, Harry, it sounded like Snape was feelin' a bit overworked, tha's all - anyway, Dumbledore told him flat out he'd agreed ter do it an' that was all there was to it. Pretty firm with him."
Hmmm...

[dark wizard]

i hope he is evil, i like his bad side

[Phoenix in the Ashes]

Well, just because you're a bad person doesn't mean you're evil.

I really like the theory of Snape being half-vampire - I think it has merit.