It’s about a week until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is released, so I thought I should write a bit about what might happen.
Since the end of the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, there’s been a debate raging about whether Snape is “good” or “bad”.
The people that think he’s “good” say that he killed Dumbledore because Dumbledore wanted him to, and he’s really still on the good side.
The people that that think he’s “bad” point to all the trouble that he’s given Harry over the years, and that he was playing Dumbledore for a fool the whole time he was at Hogwarts.
I can hear the arguments: “If Snape’s bad, why did he try so hard to teach Harry Occlumency?” and “If Snape is good, why did he kill Dumbledore?”
Believe it or not, I think it was the same reason: To get closer to Voldemort to kill him. If you’re curious why he would want to do that, read what I have to say about Snape being in love with Harry’s mother in a previous post. Snape knows that if Harry dies, there’s no way that he’ll ever get close enough to Voldemort to kill him and his chance will be gone. But what now?
Snape’s Dilemma
What’s Snape’s dilemma? I think Snape is in trouble no matter what he does.
As Book Seven opens, Snape is on the run. Whatever happens from now on, he won’t be safe. He’s a wanted man. The Order of the Phoenix will want him for Dumbledore’s death. The Ministry of Magic Aurors will be after him for killing Dumbledore. I’m sure Harry and Hagrid would want to get him. After going to the “good side”, Snape has got to be on the hit list of the former and present Death Eaters. He couldn’t very well go back to Voldemort and just say “Hey! I was kidding! I’m really on your side!” and have anyone believe him, especially after Dumbledore stood up for him.
The one thing that Snape could have done to get back in with the Death Eaters is exactly what he did… killing Dumbledore. Do I think he really wanted to kill Dumbledore? No. His look of hatred when he killed Dumbledore probably had a lot to do with the fact that Dumbledore DID know Snape’s biggest secret, and he hated Dumbledore for it.
If my revenge theory is correct, at some point Snape is going to try and kill Voldemort. I think he’s likely to fail (and probably die). It might just be enough of a distraction for Harry to finish Voldemort off. If Snape succeeds in harming or killing Voldemort, the Death Eaters will be after him. If he really did turn to be on Voldemort’s side, the Order of the Phoenix (and a lot of other people) will be after him.
He’s in trouble no matter what happens.
So, the bottom line is that at this point I think Snape is just looking out for himself and is really not on either side. He’s looking for a way to exact his revenge on Voldemort. Voldemort will meet his demise, I’m sure… The question is: Will Snape be there to see it happen?
Wow I had no idea!