Ben Holiday said:
I finally got around to reading this as well and enjoyed it overall but found many of the same sore points others did here. It seemed quite strange how far school and characters were shoved in the back here 60% of the book seemed to be Harry thinking about Malfoy or trying to convince the others of his thoughts it just felt a little void of the usual goings on. I'm liking Snape more and more though unlike people who think he's still a double agent I'm hoping he actually is fully evil now and wondering if he could be a living horcux it would be interesting.
On the other hand if Snape is still on the side of good then I have to think back to Dumbledore's talk with Malfoy that he could easily make it appear that he was dead and so were his family. So could the headmaster have staged the whole coup at the end to up Snape's credebility and could they have faked his death?
Snape has been one of my favourite characters all the way through, and I'm having a very hard time deciding whether I think he's good or evil.
His hatred and bitterness is most definitely genuine, but considering:
1. While Albus and Harry were in the cave Dumbledore kept telling Harry that he was worth more than an old man - as if preparing him for the loss of his mentor.
2. When Harry and Dumbledore went to the school from Rosmerta's Dumbledore told Harry that he would have to get Snape. Not help, not another teacher, not the nearest authority (who would likely have been Minerva or Filius, living on the higher floors of the school), but Snape who lives the furthest away down in the dungeons. Why was it so important that Snape should be there?
3. The details of the events turned out differently than Albus had expected, but consider this: Albus can surely do magic without his wand. I believe he could easily have disarmed Malfoy (and if nothing else he could have let harry do it instead of Petrifying him). He didn't. He was waiting for something - I believe he was waiting for Snape, who else?
4. He used the time to talk to Malfoy, quite obviously an attempt at convincing him to do the right thing, and most definitely something that will keep Malfoy thinking hard in a long time afterwards. Snape killing Dumbledore in cold blood in front of Malfoy may also have an effect towards this end.
5. The "Severus, please..." can mean so many things I'm not even gonna list them, but obviously it proves nothing about Snape's allegiance.
Now I would like to know why Dumbledore trusted Snape so implicitly. What was it exactly that had happened back then when Snape swicthed sides? What exactly did he tell Dumbledore? An insight into this might make our judgment easier, but I doubt we'll ever know, Snape is the wandering enigma of these books. Snape is an accomplished Legillimens as is pointed out in the book, but so are Voldemort and Dumbledore, that means it all boils down to who's the better Legillimens. For all I know Snape can have fooled both Dumbly and Voldy and are currently non-aligned but will choose a side once there's a clear winner.
My reason for believing that Snape is not completely evil and nasty: He did not kill Filius Flitwick. He cannot have been aware of the two girls outside his chambers when Flitwick came to warn him of the attack. He could have killed Filius and no one would have known till after he had fled along with the Death Eaters thus 'declaring' his allegiance. Killing Filius would not have ruined any plans, would not have disrupted anything from Snape's point of view. But he did not kill him. Why not? As I mentioned he could not have refrained from killing Flitwick simply because it'd reveal him to the girls - he did not know they would be outside his chambers. This, to me, weighs quite heavily in Snape's favour. He did not kill needlessly - not exactly a trait you often encounter among Death Eaters.
So anyone agree with this assessment?
