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I was thinking about the "Harry won't believe it no matter what" factor, and then I remembered the Pensieve.

Knut, regarding your ducks, I don't worship Snape in any way, and I subscribe to that theory. It makes perfect sense, given the facts and JKR's past storytelling history.

Right, that's a good point. [ edit: Hec's point about Voldemort trusting Snape more. ] But I think her main point was that Dumbledore knows Harry very well, and he knows how much Harry despises and distrusts Snape, in spite of Dumbledore's reassurances that he really is on their side. So for Dumbledore to arrange for Harry to witness what would be, to his mind, the absolute worst thing Snape could possibly do, shows a lack of foresight on Dumbledore's part, because it's all but guaranteed to send Harry round the bend and convince him that Snape is irredeemably evil. Which may all be part of the plan, as you pointed out, but also means that Snape can never really return to the Order.

On the other hand, I think that they were pretty well trapped at that point, and Dumbledore didn't have much of a choice; it was either let Harry go, and possibly get killed or blow Snape's cover (thus, quite likely, getting many more people killed), or keep him around and try to keep him from doing himself or anyone else harm. And, on the meta level, the book is all told from Harry's POV at that point, and it would muck up the momentum to suddenly switch to someone else's--and Dumbledore's death is pretty much the climax/turning point of the whole book, so Harry needed to be there so that the readers could witness it.

So. I think I disagree with her, but I'm not 100% convinced.

cereal:

Knut, I think you're on the right track with the Pensieve, and maybe the headmaster portraits will play a part as well in convincing Harry where Snape's loyalties lie.

P-C, I'm not saying that it's a theory held exclusively by Snape worshippers at all. In fact I agree, after reading the arguments here, that it's a possibility. But I wouldn't be surprised if it began as an effort to reclaim Snape.

I want Snape to be a bad guy, honestly, but I think chapter two is the clever way of misdirecting me away from it.

I never assumed Snape was a bad guy. I always had him pegged as a representative of "people who hate you can still be on your side, so you'd better be careful about those snap judgements." A bit of a lesson in tolerance and "it's not about you"-ness.

I feel differently about Snape this time. I guess without thinking I was, I took Harry's view.

If I'd only read the books and not the reactions to, I'd be perfectly happy with Snape being a hateful good guy. I just ... I just want people to be Jossed, I suppose.

I could be nicer.

Go away, Perkins.

connie, that's always been one of the main reasons why I like Snape.

Rereading the book I kept noticing all these details about Harry and Snape's relationship. Several times someone either compares Snape to Harry, or Harry thinks about how much he's learned from the HBP, etc. In a weird way, I think Snape has sort of become another father figure for Harry (although Harry would never admit or even realize this).