I'd do the same thing. And I agree, it IS Snapes entire fault the Potters are dead. I doubt Snape wanted Lily dead, most likely just Harry and James so he could try and get Lily to himself. Now that I can see why he gave Voldemort the part of the prophecy.

 

Truth: I know that at least 45.5% of the HP fandom would openly prefer the Snape on the Right.

@EvilSkittles: It's a shame how I actually know what you're talking about. And...now I'm combining Snape and...and. *head 'splodey*

 

Hmm... you see, my impression was that Snape didn't actually know who the prophecy was referring to before he gave it to Voldemort. I thought it was only AFTER the Dark Lord began hunting the Potters that Snape had his 'OH SHIT' moment and defected. He might not have cared that James and Harry were going to be toast, but his love/creepy-obsession with Lily drove him to Dumbledore.

To me, Snape seemed more desperate at that point because he thought Voldemort was going to kill the Potters, not that his plan to get Lily by handing over the prophecy had blown up in his face and Voldemort had said 'fuck that' to Snape's desire to keep Lily alive.

EDIT:

And people wonder why most of DLP has little respect for that 45.5% of the HP fandom. Admittedly very thick people, but they wonder nonetheless.

 

Thick is one thing. Being shallow is another. Oh for the days when characters didn't have to be aesthetically pleasing to be interesting. And I don't even really like Snape. Then again, DH kind horrified me a little, so I don't know if I can count Snape from DH as Canon Snape.

Who am I kidding? Of course I can. ...The question is, do I want to?

 

For all we know, Voldermort actually intended to let her live. Maybe that was what saved Harry, instead of sacrificing last five or ten minutes of her life, like other mothers would, Lily gave up a possible long life in defense of her child.

 

Well, Voldemort did tell Lily to "stand aside, silly girl!". Or something like that. But she refused. So Voldemort didn't keep his word to Snape, which I doubt he would have in the first place.

 

So Snape didn't intend for Lily to be murdered, only her husband and her baby. He clearly cared for her, with a love that was both gentle and pure.

Fuck Snape with a backhoe.

 

Yeah, pretty much. Well developed character - alas, his own character was less than desirable.

Harry should've maimed him something terrible in book six. I would have paid for Snape not to run off; thus allowing Harry a chance to give the man a great big kick up the ass. For srs.

 

Snape was a better dueler than Harry was. But if it were me? I would'a killed the bastard in third year, myself.

 

The thing about Snape that really irritates me is that JKR set up Snape's history as a brilliantly intelligent (manipulated the Dark Lord and Dumbledore,) strong-willed (he could resist Riddle's and Voldemort's attempt at mind-reading,) highly placed spy (which makes him perceptive and good at on-the-fly judgement calls.) Based on the facts as presented in the books, he risked his life repeatedly willingly in a court that makes the Borgias look safe.

Then she made him a child abuser. Even more heinously, she made him abuse children that were under his care. People trusted him with their children's well-being and their future, and all based on AD's word that Snape was not a DE. No one, not a single parent, not even Molly Weasley or Augusta Longbottom is recorded as filing a complaint about the way he treated the students. Canon states that he's tall, skinny, and has horrible personal hygiene.

The actor who played him had loads of personal charisma, but the Snape-as-a-sexy-beast fanfreaks were already obsessed. My theory is that the fangirls figured he *had* to be stunningly intelligent and therefore there was some underlying reason for his unpleasant aspects (all of which were voluntary, and thus must be choices.)

I will admit that I expected the Slytherins to be more ... umm ... complex. I kept waiting through Book 5 for JKR to develop the House of Ambition. But we saw them through Harry's eyes.

Harry is startlingly unperceptive.

 

Sadly, this is true. What I would have done to get a Draco Malfoy POV. Heck, almost anyone else's POV at anytime during the books would have been awesome (and the one's that were available were...I think the phrase might be 'too third-person' to get closer to any particular character).

Excluding a Ginny POV. I shudder at that concept.

 

A Ginny POV? Oh christ, I can see it now from the little starstruck stalker and her little masturbating sessions in broom closets.

 

I need some rum to wash my brain.

 

Identifying Snape's feelings as either love or obsession is up to each reader's interpretation. I'm rather inclined to thinking it was love; obsessive love maybe, but love all the same -- if only because refusing to call it "love" sounds too much like I'm denying he's capable of love, just because I don't like him (or am an obsessive James/Lily shipper).

He just happened to be a jealous, possessive bastard at the same time.

And besides, as Silens said, Snape had no idea who the prophecy was referring to. He was certainly not planning to get back at James when he gave it to Voldemort -- he was just being a zealous Death Eater.

He spent a lifetime paying for his responsibility in Lily's death (even though he didn't give a rat's crap about James', or about the consequences on Harry's life). Which is far braver and more mature than fleeing so he doesn't "have to deal with people."

..."Voldy"?


On-topic, I like Snape's character in canon; he's not someone I'd have over for dinner, but he's an interesting person -- ambitious, intelligent, with a huge superiority complex to make up for being ugly and socially inept; and on top of that, in love with a girl he lost through his own fault. He spent his remaining years, his ambition and his talents, making amends for her death. His own death, already mentioned, was the perfect end to his wasted life.

Kind of puts a bullet in the head of 'love salvages everything.'

On a side note, even if Lily had known about Snape's true feelings, she would never, ever have returned them. Period.

 

Tinn Tam: Yes, Snape is much more mature than me. I'm 17 and I haven't had to deal with a war and killing someone I love. If it were me, I would have left, but this is Snape, and I do admire him for being brave and staying.

Also, someone was calling me to do something (I think it was my mom for dinner) so I wrote Voldy in a hurry instead of Voldemort. Plus I always misspell that and have to go back and fix it. I usually put Voldmeort.

 

JK Rowling tried to make Snape the "asshole with a heart of gold", but it failed miserably, and by catering to all the Snape fangirls she made Harry look like a retard who just forgives some douche who makes up for killing your entire family by humiliating you for 7 years and trying to pay off some debt he acquired because the guy who he killed, Harry's dad, saved his life. I mean seriously? That's supposed to be the "bravest man he ever knew"? WTF? What about his parents? His parents had more courage in their shits than Snape showed his entire miserable "life."I will never forgive JKR for that bullshit.

 

I liked how J. K. Rowling characterized Snape at first. He was the jackass potions teacher who played favorites but never got fired. It was good that he was put in like that because it's true to real life: If you're famous, there will always be someone who doesn't like you even though they don't know you. (I'm guilty of it too, so is probably most if not everyone else on this site.)

But then at the end of the book, J. K. Rowling goes and makes Snape into a "good guy" and Harry just forgives him for 7 years of abuse worse than he was giving everyone else? Sorry JKR, but you made Harry look like a real idiot.

And I also agree with afrojack about Harry's parents sort of. What they did could be interpreted as bravery, but I always thought it was love. They loved Harry, so they died to save him. Harry also didn't know his parents. He did know Snape (although how Snape dying by snake bite makes him "brave" I still don't get) so that might have made him say Snape was "the bravest man he ever knew."

 

Um... no, she didn't. Exact quotes:

"OK. Snape is the - er - very sadistic teacher loosely based on a teacher I myself had, I have to say. Erm .. I think it ... Children are very aware - and we ... we're kidding ourselves if we don't think that they are - that teachers do sometimes abuse their power and this particular teacher /does/ abuse his power. He is not a - he is not a particularly pleasant person at all."

"It's fun to write about Snape because he's a deeply horrible person."

You don't use words like "horrible" and "sadistic" and "not particularly pleasant" if you want your character to be an antihero. You use them if you mean for your characters to be necessary evils for the side of "good" in your story.

It was Alan Rickman who said "He does have his positive side though", which I think is the jumping point rabid fangirls tend to go from.

 

Inferno + afrojack: While I do agree that forgiving someone like Snape is an idiotic thing to do, it does fit Harry's character in a way. Plus it goes together with that whole "Power of Love" and forgiveness stuff that is supposed to be what separates Harry from Voldemort.

This is one of the things that seriously pissed me off about the whole series. Harry seems to be such an unobservant little dumbass that the reader only really gets half the story when it's told more-or-less from his POV.