Okay, I've been finished with the book for about five and a half hours now, so I may be able to write something coherent now. My thoughts are still pretty jumbled but I've got to vent some comments...



Severus Snape: Evil Turncoat or Used and Abused Pawn?

First of all, my fellow Snape fans, calm down. It's not as hopeless as it looks at first glance.

Yes, Severus has done a very very bad thing, but honestly now...anyone who's read the first five books should know by now how JKR operates. Nothing is ever exactly as it seems. (Well, the major things, anyway. Sometimes a mouth organ is just a mouth organ.) ;) A throwaway mention in one book can be hugely significant thousands of pages later in another book, and she pulls off the most mind-blowing plot twists imaginable over and over again. Scabbers is Pettigrew, Sirius is innocent, Moody isn't Moody, Ginny is controlling the Basilisk, etc. I've said it before and I'll say it again: JKR is not a hack writer spewing crap onto fanfiction.net. She's clever, talented, and highly educated. Yes, she can make mistakes; she's human, after all. But when it comes to the big things, she's fiendishly sneaky and ingenious. I won't believe anything, up to and including character deaths, is final until I close Book Seven. Part of what makes JKR such a great, addicting, amazing author is her ability to confuse, mislead, awe, surprise, shock and stun us. She keeps us guessing. HBP is not the final book in the series, and she's got plenty of surprises up her sleeve yet.

Having said that, I should also say that Snape is still my favorite character, whether he's irredeemably evil or just a miserable, misunderstood man now firmly on the side of good. Either way he's the most fascinating character in the series to me. I do prefer him to be on the good side, but heaven knows I'm not above fangirling villains. Lots and lots of villains. More villains than protagonists, actually. Heh. ;)
I want Snape to end up on the good side because I think it makes a better story and more insightful writing that way. And as a lit geek, I see how JKR's mind works and although I obviously don't know her plans for Book Seven, my hunches about HBP were surprisingly accurate.
So as a writer, reader and amateur literary critic I will be disappointed if Severus ends up truly supporting Voldemort 100%. As a fangirl, I'll shrug and continue, well, fangirling. Looking up at the Plastic Harem on my computer desk, I have Aragorn (good guy), Imhotep (bad guy), Agent Smith (bad guy) and Don Karnage (bad guy). Snape's welcome on that shelf regardless of his loyalties. ;)


Okay, enough context. On to the events of the novel itself.

I'm going to attempt to stay on the topic of Snape and his actions in the final chapters without going off the dozens of tangents that are also begging for commentary. I have plenty to say about other things, but I'll deal with those later. So much new canon to absorb! o_0

I know I'm biased and more inclined to look for good-but-snarky!Snape instead of OMGTEHEVIL!Snape, but the more I try to filter out that bias, the more convinced I am that Snape is still on the side of good. Yes, even after all that happened in Book Six.
The average, non-Snape-obsessed reader probably wouldn't pick up on it, but I get a strong feeling that Harry is not the only person to receive firm orders from Dumbledore to obey orders, no matter what. Harry hesitated, "but but but"-ed and looked for wiggle room, but the Headmaster was firm. Do not question. Obey. Trust me. Don't second-guess me and try to save me from harm. Just obey without hesitation.
I posit that Dumbledore told the exact same thing to Snape, but Snape didn't acquiese as quickly as Harry. The resulting strife was what Hagrid overheard by the forest.
Of course Snape wouldn't want to swear such unconditional obedience. It's just not Slytherin-ish. He overthinks things and tries very hard to use logic instead of submitting to "useless" emotion. And he knows how secretive and stubborn Dumbledore can be. Vowing to obey orders--any and all orders--without knowing what he's agreeing to would not be something Snape would be comfortable with.
This holds doubly true if Snape and Dumbledore both knew about the Unbreakable obligation Snape is under. Snape would hardly jump at the idea of killing one of the very, very few people he respects: the one who gave him a job, a second chance, protection from Voldemort, and some sense of absolution.
And I don't think this esteem is fanon, either. Throughout all the books, Snape consistently acquieses to Dumbledore's wishes. Even when Dumbledore is (inadvertently?) a bit condescending and undermines his authority in front of students, even when Snape has no idea why Dumbledore assigns the tasks he does, even when his personal safety is at risk, Snape obeys. He obeys not from fear, or blackmail, but because he respects Dumbledore. Like only the Bloody Baron can knock sense into Peeves, only Dumbledore can keep Snape from succumbing to his weakness for the Dark Arts and the bitterness in his soul.

So yes, if Dumbledore ordered Snape to hold his cover as a Death Eater and to protect Draco from following in Severus or Tom's footsteps, Snape would bow to the Headmaster's wishes. He's put himself in great peril before, spying for the Order. And despite his grouchy, sarcastic, abrasive veneer Snape does care about his students' safety. Neither of these concepts are anything new, or anything he would balk at.

Being ordered to carry out this mission at the expense of the Headmaster's life...well, that's a new wrinkle. Snape already harbors tremendous guilt over his role in the Potters' deaths. Not only did he fail to prevent their murders, he unknowingly pointed Voldemort in their direction by relaying the prophecy. There's no reason to doubt Dumbledore when he says in HBP that Snape was deeply troubled by his role as prophecy delivery boy. (This all reeks of Severus/Lily, but that's another essay...) Already haunted by these and other deaths he was indirectly and directly responsible for during the First War, it would be a boggart-worthy horror to be once again put in a position where he had to orchestrate the death of someone else he cared about.

Thus it doesn't take much suspension of disbelief to see how Snape would balk at an order that could lead to Dumbledore's death at his own hand, and would argue fervently against the plan. Hagrid overheard Snape's protests and Dumbledore's insistence.

Upon returning to Hogsmeade in a very bad state, Dumbledore was adamant about seeing Snape immediately. They had an agreement worked out, and he needed to be certain that was clear and unchanged. If Dumbledore did not have the utmost trust in Snape he wouldn't have been so desperate to put himself at Snape's mercy in his weakened condition.
And yes, the more obvious reason is valid, too--Snape had already helped him stabilize the ill effects of the ring on his blackened arm. Dumbledore said earlier that most people would have died in that situation, but due to his own strength and Snape's expertise he survived.
If Snape was secretly plotting Dumbledore's demise all year, why wouldn't he have seized that opportunity to do him in? Considering what Dumbledore had just done no one would have been suspicious. Most people would have died from that ordeal, and Dumbledore was feeling his age more and more. For the destruction of the Horcrux in the ring to have killed him would be utterly plausible. There, problem solved, Draco off the hook, Unbreakable Vow satisfied, all neat and tidy. But he didn't. He healed Dumbledore.

Furthermore, he could have killed far more people than just Dumbledore. Taking the Order by surprise as he did, he could have flung a shower a curses at them and taken out more people. Aside from Stunning Flitwick as a necessary cover, he didn't hurt anyone else.

He arrived at the Astronomy Tower to find a textbook worst-case-scenario, one he and Dumbledore had almost certainly planned for at some point. Draco had obviously lost his nerve, there were Death Eaters all over the place, and Dumbledore was clearly in a bad way. Remember that no one but Dumbledore knew that Harry was even present.

Snape may have even known the nature of the errand that took Dumbledore and Harry out of the castle that day, and took an educated guess about how the Headmaster came to be in such a weakened state. We still don't know exactly what that potion was that he was forced to drink, or the long-term consequences of ingesting it. Snape would know, however; exotic and unpleasant potions are a speciality of his, to say the least.

So assuming Dumbledore had explicitly ordered Snape to follow his instructions to the letter, as he had ordered Harry, there were only a few options for the Slytherin:
1. Follow Dumbledore's contingency plan and kill him. Draco is spared, the Unbreakable Vow is fufilled, and his own safety from Voldemort's wrath is assured. Flee to the Dark Lord and do what he can from the inside to undermine Voldemort's plans.
2. Attempt to defend Dumbledore and Draco. Best-case scenario he takes out one or two of the Death Eaters before they kill him and the Unbreakable Vow kicks in and kills him. Then the DEs kill Dumbledore, and Voldemort will have Draco and Narcissa killed. Worst-case scenario he's killed instantly and the DEs kill everyone else anyway.

Dumbledore did not fear death as Voldemort does. This was reinforced over and over again through the books. "Death is just the next great adventure," "There are fates worse that death," etc. He was also a man of great dignity in situations like this. When he was sacked and ejected from the school in OotP, Fudge and his cronies expected him to put up a fight, but Dumbledore didn't make a scene. He accepted his fate with aplomb. I suspect that, his great powers aside, a large part of the reason why he was "The Only One Voldemort Ever Feared" was because of what he himself didn't fear: death.
So would this strong-willed, dignified, controlled wizard beg for his life in front of his enemies? I highly doubt it.
"Severus, please..." was not a plea for his life; Dumbledore was no fool and he knew what a dire situation they were all in. He and Snape both knew their options were precisely as above: Snape had to either kill Dumbledore and keep his cover, saving Draco and himself, or defy the Death Eaters, leading to all three of them dying.

Honestly, what else could Snape have done?
Outnumbered, bound by an Unbreakable Vow, unable to Disapparate, with Draco's life in his hands...
Dumbledore's "Please" was his way of giving Snape permission to do what had to be done--although he had no doubt given it before--and to perhaps lessen the crushing guilt that he knew Snape would have to endure.


Afterward Snape flatly refused to fight Harry. He deflected every curse, hex and jinx Harry sent at him without casting any spells of his own. He made certain the other DEs wouldn't seriously harm Harry under the ol' "Voldie wants to kill the brat himself" excuse, but why not cement his place as the Dark Lord's right-hand man by flinging a Stupefy and binding charm at the kid and presenting him to Voldemort with a big red bow tied around him? If he holds Harry and his abilities in such low regard, surely he wouldn't be concerned about Harry somehow thwarting the kidnap attempt. (And we now know he wasn't at the graveyard in GoF, so he wouldn't have seen Harry in action then.)

Snape also has a freakout moment similar to the one at the end of POA (and in OotP) when Harry calls him cowardly. He goes all CAPSLOCK with fury, but he still doesn't really harm Harry! His rage is utterly understandable when you consider what he's just had to do. A coward would hide in the dungeons and whimper until it was all over. A coward would not march into the thick of battle and do what circumstances and Dumbledore's own orders forced him to do. A coward would not be able to spy on the Dark Lord for years without blowing his cover. A coward would not leave Voldemort at the height of his powers to side with Dumbledore because it was the Right Thing To Do. Snape is a lot of things, many of them unpleasant, but he's not a coward.

A bit of a side note...after Harry attacked Draco it was glaringly obvious that Snape put two and two together and realized where Harry got the spell from and why he was suddenly a Potions savant. But he didn't pursue the matter after his intial search of Harry's books. He saw the mangled version of Ron's name in the cover and knew darn well it wasn't Harry's book. He knew Harry had been using his old textbook with tremendous success. Yet he let Harry keep it. Why do that if he was plotting against Harry, Dumbledore, the Order, etc? Why leave a valuable tool in the hands of his supposed enemy? Did it gall him to see James' spawn benefitting from his work and ingenuity? Certainly, but he let the matter drop.


So.

Is it possible I'm full of crap and Snape really is wild-eyed, black-as-night, irredeemably EVIL? Sure. This is JKR's playground, anything can happen. But would the sort of complicated, red-herring-ridden, angsty plot twist I've just described fit right into the series, given what she's written before? Absolutely.
Anyone who's read the books should have long ago realized how perilous it is to take anything at face value in the Potterverse. Harry's been wrong about Snape before (suspecting him of trying to steal the Stone in Book One, and assuming he was lying about what a prat James was in Book Five) and JKR hasn't spent as much time on Snape's character as she has because he's popular with the fans. (If she operated like that there would be slashy pr0n all over. *gag* And Grawp would have died a horrible firery death.) No, she has plans for him. True, she also spent a huge chunk of HBP delving into Tom M. Riddle's backstory, but that's different. It's not first-hand experience seen through Harry's eyes. She's crafted Snape into a fascinating, realistic and even sympathetic character with a purpose. She named the sixth book after him! (She hasn't named a book after a Bad Guy yet, if that means anything. Which it probably doesn't. Heh.) Hate him or love him, Snape is a major player: always has been, and will continue to be in Book Seven.


*phew* I do believe that's the longest rant/commentary I've written in a very long time. o_0 And there's plenty more where that came from floating around in my head for another time.
And I'm sure I've made a zillion typos and will think of other nitpicky things to add later.



Holy cow that got long. 0_o



I just re-re-read the Dumbledore death scene, and something very interesting occured to me...

"We've got a problem, Snape," said the lumpy Amycus, whose eyes and wand were fixed alike upon Dumbledore, "the boy doesn't seem able--"
But somebody else had spoken Snape's name, quite softly.
"Severus..."
The sound frightened Harry beyond anything he had experienced. For the first time, Dumbledore was pleading.
Snape said nothing, but walked forward and pushed Malfoy roughly out of the way. The three Death Eaters fell back without a word. Even the werewolf seemed cowed.
Snape gazed for a moment at Dumbledore, and there was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.
"Severus...please..."
Snape raised his wand and pointed it directly at Dumbledore.

Dumbledore calls Severus' name in a "pleading" tone before Snape makes any threatening moves or does anything else to cast doubt on his loyalty.
Sure, the Death Eaters are talking as if he's on their side, but that's no surprise to anyone, given Snape's role as a spy. No, when Dumbledore first speaks to him, there's absolutely zero evidence that he expects Snape to do anything other than obey the orders he'd been given earlier by the Headmaster himself.
We're supposed to interpret this scene as Dumbledore begging Snape to help him, to defend him from the DEs. When has Dumbledore ever begged for help? *crickets chirp* I thought so. He doesn't. It's just not in-character. Yes, he could be desperate, on his last legs, but he's shown more composure than this in every single situation he's ever been shown in.

As for the "revulsion and hatred" on Snape's face...Snape's a poster boy for self-loathing, and being forced to kill his mentor would be a good reason to look revolted.

If you do a surface reading and don't question Harry's interpretation and knowledge, you get one impression. If you re-read with a more outside POV and try not to make the easy, "obvious" conclusion, you get a completely different impression. Which is the correct one? Only JKR knows, but given her track record in other books I never trust her to have only one surface meaning to a scene.




This post by maeglinyedi brought up another fabulous and fascinating possibility:
Dumbledore was slowly dying from the moment he got the Horcrux ring and blackened his hand. Only he and Snape knew. Thus when Snape made the Unbreakable Vow he already knew that Dumbledore had nothing to lose.

And a comment brought up a jarring thought, too...
Harry was willing to do the same thing as Snape did! In the cave he kept forcefeeding Dumbledore potion despite the very real danger that it could kill him, because he had given Dumbledore his word that he would obey orders. Dumbledore could easily have died there on that little underground island. Neither he nor Harry knew what the consequences of chugging that potion would be. If Dumbledore had died then and there, would fans be screaming for Harry's head? I highly doubt it. But mean ol' Snape does essentially the same thing and he gets villified more than ever. Poor Severus, always getting the short end of the stick. No wonder he's so grouchy all the time. :(


And because I'm just obsessing shamelessly, I got thinking of a sort of HBP soundtrack, and I thought of some lines from Richard Marx's Hazard that could be Snape right about now...

Here was I surrounded by a thousand fingers suddenly
Pointed right at me
...
I think about my life gone by
And how it’s done me wrong
There’s no escape for me this time
All of my rescuers are gone

/sappiness

I was also thinking back to one of my favorite JKR quotes, when she was asked which one of her characters she'd like to spend a day with. She said (I'm paraphrasing slightly) that she'd like to take Harry out for lunch and apologize for all the horrible things she puts him through.
Dammit, Snape deserves that apology lunch just as much now. :(

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