This just had me laughing my ass off.
Granted, the way JKR has written the character, he is terribly complex and convoluted, but there is no way in hell that he is innocent.
With the exception of this first book, everything we’ve seen of this character has been colored by the “Harry radar,” and those glimpses gives us a look at an unpleasant man who enjoys terrorizing those he holds within his power. What I mean is, throughout the HP books, we basically have Harry as the narrator, but he is an unreliable one at best. We see everything colored through Harry vision.
For example:
Malfoy is, by din of that one small little meeting in Madam Mankin’s, now the new Dudley, and there for we have the initial set-up of why Harry will never be his friend. Yes, I know the dislike goes much deeper than that, but it is that first impression which leads the reader to know that Draco Malfoy and Harry Potter will never be friends.
The Weasley’s also, by din of first impressions, become very important to Harry. We first glimpse them in the train station trying to get onto platform 9 and ¾. We have Molly, ushering her children in the most common, motherly way, onto the magical platform from school, and when Harry asks for directions, she gives him kindly, motherly advice on how to get by. This is not something that Harry had ever experienced. I think, with the exception of Hagrid, Harry had never had any kindness from any of the adults in his life, and that creates a big impact. Harry can also relate to Ron, who despite his loving parents, has known the frustration of having nothing. Harry has known that feeling very well. So, it is a beginning bond of understanding and desire that forges the first tentative friendship between Harry and the Weasley clan.
Our first view of Snape is no less colored, he appears evil and unpleasant the first time Harry views him, and that impression is confirmed (at least in Harry’s eyes) by Snape’s actions on the first day of class. To Harry, Snape is evil personified, more villainous than Voldemort at times, and we, are lead down the primrose path of Snape’s inevitable hatefulness.
I can hear the gasping sobs of… but, but he’s saved Harry and he’s a spy for the Order, and he’s done this and that. Ah yeah, okay.
Even away from the Harry goggled vision, Snape is not a pleasant person. This is a man who has been unpleasant since adolescences, and has not outgrown it. His teenage years are filled with ensuing violence, and while yes, I can see how he would have to protect himself from the “bullying Marauders,” he went above and beyond protecting himself. As we can see from HBP, he created some pretty nasty jinxes, and if we take the pensive memory from OoTP, he used them quite liberally. There is no doubt in my mind that he had a right to protect himself, but I think the animosity between Snape and the Marauders goes far beyond that. This is not to discount the horrible things that the other side did either, for pre-meditated murder is not merely a high-strung antic, and this is precisely what Sirius Black attempted.
I have no idea if the actions of Sirius Black pushed him into an untenable position or not, but the past actions of others does not absolve Snape from the actions he later took. He joined a group of radical fanatics wanting to purge the Wizarding World of the invading Muggle menace, and yet he too is a part of that invading menace. Under this so-called purification group I have no doubt that he committed some horrific atrocities, probably more than willing in some cases. If the way the Death Eaters react to him during the scenes before and after Dumbledore’s death are any indication, Snape is one badass motherfucker. That, itself, speaks telling volumes. What savagery has Snape done that makes other psychotic killers back off?
Then we have, of course, the final nail in Snape’s coffin, at least as far as Harry is concerned. We have the death of Dumbledore at the hands of the man he had placed a significant amount of trust in.
Does all this mean that Severus Snape is irredeemably evil?
Lord no. There are so many other things to consideration, things that better people than I, have pointed out.
We, for starters, have no idea what lead Snape back into Dumbledore’s embrace. We have the *nudge, nudge, wink, wink* version that Harry came up with and Dumbledore alluded to when Harry presented his case, but we have no honest way of knowing whether or not this is the truth. It may very well be that Snape is the consummate double-crossing spy, firmly in Voldemort’s camp while stringing along the Order, but, somehow, I doubt this. I’m probably grasping at straws, but I believe that had Snape firmly been Voldemort’s man, he would have gift wrapped Harry and presented him to the Dark Lord instead of merely blocking Harry’s rampage as he retreated. Nor, I think, would he have stopped the other Death Eaters from casting curses on the boy-who-lived. Seriously, would Voldemort really have cared in what condition Harry Potter was in, if presented the opportunity to end the opposition to his return? I don’t think so.
All book six does is lead me to believe that Severus Snape is a man who cannot get past certain grudges in his life. I’m not saying that he hasn’t a legitimate complaint against the recently deceased Black, but his actions and reactions towards Harry and Lupin border on obsessive compulsive. It paints a picture of a sad little man, so unhappy with who he is and all of the bad choices he mad that he can’t allow himself to grow beyond that point. He may have a strange honor code, he may be striving to do the right thing, but overall, how he presents himself will always drag him down.
Evil, probably not, but innocent, ah hell no.
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