Love and Severus Snape
<p>OK, I&#8217;ve read &#8220;Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince&#8221; and enjoyed it<br />
I have a theory about what will happen in Book 7.  Potential spoilers<br />
about Book 6 follow!.</p>
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<p>I think it&#8217;s going to turn out that Severus Snape is still, despite<br />
all appearances, working to destroy Lord Voldemort.  And, moreover, I<br />
think I know why.  I&#8217;m expecting that revelation to be the emotional<br />
climax of the last book.</p>
<p>Here is what I believe to be the central secret of Snape&#8217;s character.<br />
It explains his general bitterness, his hostility to Harry, and his outright<br />
hatred of Harry&#8217;s father.  It also explains why Dumbledore, if he knew the<br />
secret, trusted Snape absolutely but never explained why.</p>
<p>I believe that Snape was desperately, hopelessly in love with<br />
Lilly Potter, and still worships her memory.  That he hated<br />
Harry&#8217;s father for winning her and wants to hate Harry for being<br />
the image of his father.  But he turned against Voldemort when<br />
Voldemort killed Lilly.  He snipes at Harry, but is unable to<br />
muster the will to actually kill the boy in their last<br />
confrontation, because when he looks at Harry&#8217;s face he sees<br />
James&#8217;s face but Lilly&#8217;s eyes.</p>
<p>This would fit a continuing theme in the books, which is that<br />
only love is powerful enough to stand against Voldemort&#8217;s will.<br />
It sets up some dramatic final scene in which Harry and Severus,<br />
in spite of their history, decide that they must trust each other<br />
and act together &mdash; both in the memory of Lilly.</p>
<p>This culmination would also supply a motif that has been<br />
conspicuous by its absence from the books.  Amidst all of<br />
Rowling&#8217;s exploration of morality, good, and evil, there has so<br />
far been nothing of redemption.  No instance of anyone having<br />
walked down the path of evil and rejected it for the good.</p>
<p>&#8220;But&#8230;but&#8230;&#8221; I hear you say, &#8220;he killed Dumbledore!&#8221;.  True<br />
&mdash; and, I believe, a truly masterful piece of misdirection<br />
on Rowling&#8217;s part.  I think both Dumbledore and Snape knew that,<br />
with four Death Eaters pounding up the stairs behind Snape and<br />
Dumbledore so desperately weak, his chances of survival were nil.<br />
So Dumbledore paralyzed Harry; and his one-word plea to Snape<br />
was not to spare his life but to act so that his death would<br />
maintain Snape&#8217;s cover and not be wasted.</p>
<p>I think the truly pivotal confrontation was the later one<br />
between Harry and Snape on the front lawn.  Killing Dumbledore<br />
did not require Severus Snape to choose between light and darkness,<br />
because it was done (in effect) on Dumbledore&#8217;s plea but could<br />
always be spun as an act of loyalty to Voldemort.</p>
<p>But confronting Harry was different.  Snape knew the prophecy that<br />
only one of them could live; it was his report of that prophecy to<br />
Voldemort that had moved the Dark Lord to kill Snape&#8217;s beloved<br />
Lilly. Snape&#8217;s contempt for Harry&#8217;s attempts at throwing curses makes<br />
clear that Snape could have killed Harry at that point.  Instead, he<br />
talks.  Rehearses his reasons for hating Harry and Harry&#8217;s father,<br />
looks into Harry&#8217;s eyes &mdash; and <em>does not kill</em>.</p>
<p>I think that is the moment at which Snape makes his redemptive<br />
choice.  It&#8217;s the exact dual of Voldemort&#8217;s attempt to kill Harry.<br />
Lilly&#8217;s love saved Harry from Voldemort; Snape&#8217;s love for Lilly saves<br />
Harry from Snape &mdash; and, ultimately, Snape from evil.</p>
<p>Further prediction: Draco Malfoy is Snape&#8217;s dual.  In book six he<br />
hesitates, never taking the step into irredeemable evil. In the<br />
climactic confrontation of book 7 he will take that step.  What will<br />
propel him into evil is fear of weakness and the need to prove his<br />
will is strong &mdash; strong enough to deny the bonds of love as we<br />
saw him begin to do when he rejected Dumbledore&#8217;s offer. He will fall<br />
as Snape rises.</p>
<p>Of course I could be wrong &mdash; but can anyone plausibly deny that<br />
this is the kind of plotting Rowling <em>likes</em> to do?</p>
