A/N: WARNING! This is an ESSAY! That means that you could be subjected to ten minutes of potentially boring discourse with which you may disagree. Hopefully, of course, it will not be boring. But keep in mind when you're flaming it that it is not my opinion that should be criticized, but my writing and innovation. Also, the fanfiction formatting is awful, and so my direct quote that is normally correctly formatted by MLA standards halfway down has been FUBAR'd. I apologize.

xxxxxxxxxxxx

Avada Kedavra! and Other Mistakes: a Portrait of the Man Behind the Grease

If there's one thing that makes J.K. Rowling's epic series so versatile between the age gaps, it is the fact that while twelve-year-olds around the globe are hung up on the magical trials and tribulations of their flawless hero with a funny name, there is, for the more mature literary analysts, the haunting presence of character depth that matures in complexity as the plot unfolds.

Upon consideration of Potions Master (and Defence Against the Dark Arts professor!) Severus Snape, a few nasty adjectives come to mind from the twelve-year-old within us all. In fact, I was even younger when I was introduced to his less than amicable tendencies, and that's all for which I took him: a resentful old, ugly man with awful manners and no sympathy. I was a pretty bright kid, so I may have picked up on the grudges he held, as well. But behind the bitter wizard who always gets the blame and even still, saves the day, there looms a dark, intricate character, who, upon analysis, proves to fill the unexpected archetype of tragic hero we of the muggle world recognize as Severus Snape. And with the incredible events that ensue between its covers, the Half Blood Prince sheds new light on the man behind the grease.

Contrary to relatively unpopular belief (again, I'll refer to the twelve-year-olds), Dumbledore is dead. Rowling has confirmed it. And Severus Snape killed him, with the flick of a wrist and contortion of the tongue. Severus Snape did what Voldemort could never seem to do to the only man he ever feared–he sent Dumbledore to his grave on the wings of a flash of green light. And so, finally, after pages and pages of the bad-guy, good-guy cycle revolving our most hated professor in its tantalizing grasp, the roulette has stopped on "bad-guy," fortifying every childish suspicion we've ever had about Snape with the utmost certainty. And what's worse is that now, as more mature readers, we can recognize that Severus Snape not only killed our favorite father figure, but also the only man to ever show him compassion, sympathy, loyalty, and perhaps, I think, even love. But initial responses can be deceiving.

In every book, Dumbledore assures a steadfast Harry that he trusts the man he commissioned to teach Potions at his school, and that's all there is to it. He never fully elaborates on this, further fueling Harry's distrust, but then again, I can think of a few times Dumbledore has not disclosed a perfectly good reason for why certain events have occurred to Harry. Dumbledore also happens to be the most powerful wizard in the world, and although he is capable of making mistakes, as he so denoted, his judgement is not to be taken lightly. There's another judgement, however, that Dumbledore maintained, that contradicts his claim of an intrinsic trust in Snape. In the Half Blood Prince, Dumbledore informs Harry that Snape, not Slughorn, will fill the Defence Against the Dark Arts position at the school, much to the latter's dismay. It's a bit surprising, then, how dense Harry is when Dumbledore later informs him that said position has been cursed by Voldemort, who, as a young Tom Riddle, applied for the job. Which introduces a few questions: How could Dumbledore, with his unfaltering trust in Severus Snape, enlist him to the Defence Against the Dark Arts position, knowing that he would somehow leave by the end of the year? Why would Dumbledore assign Snape to the position if his original reason for denying it to him (the one which maintained he could fall back to his old ways) was still prevalent?

Albus Dumbledore planned or at least knew of Snape's rather shocking exit from Hogwart's premises. There is no other reason he would have put a man he trusted in such a position, or even a man he didn't trust, for that matter. But he did. And there had to be a motive. Whether or not Dumbledore knew Snape would kill him is unimportant; however, I tend to think he did, for various reasons. But he definitely had something incredible planned. Throughout the sixth novel, Dumbledore restates often that he is invaluable, especially compared to Harry, because he missed his chance to overthrow the Dark Lord. Thus, his sacrifice could be crucial to ensuring Snape's position as a spy, which the Order needs desperately, and still be relatively unimportant. With the Death Eaters beginning to waver in their trust of Snape, who is now probably the second most powerful wizard in the world, as seen in the correspondence with Bellatrix and Narcissa in the second chapter, he needs to regain prestige. And what better way to do it than to kill off his master's worst enemy? I believe Dumbledore understood this, and was probably ready to embark on the "next great adventure." Also, clues come straight from canon in support of my theory. Hagrid mentions to Harry in one of their visits that Dumbledore was arguing with Snape over a specific duty of which he was unaware:

"I dunno, Harry, I shouldn'ta heard it at all! I–well, I was comin' out of the forest the
other evenin' an' I overheard 'em talking–well, arguin'. Didn't like ter draw attention to meself,
so I sorta skulked an' tried not ter listen, but it was a –well, a heated discussion an' it wasn' easy ter block it out."

"Well?" Harry urged him, as Hagrid shuffled his enormous feet uneasily.

"Well–I jus' heard Snape sayin' Dumbledore took too much fer granted an' maybe
he–Snape–didn' wan' ter do it anymore–"

"Do what?"

"I dunno, Harry, it sounded like Snape was feelin' a bit overworked, tha's all-anyway,
Dumbledore told him flat out he'd agreed ter do it an' that was all there was to it. Pretty firm
with him." (405-406, US)

This very well could be a megaphone's announcement of a clue, or it could mean absolutely nothing. Again, I tend to believe that it is a monstrous red alert. And if I'm right, when Harry brings Dumbledore back to Hogwarts and he requests Severus Snape alone, it was not simply a call for medical help, but a plea for death. But even more of a plea for death is the highly debated "Severus... please..." quote just before Snape kills Dumbledore, but not in prelude to donning a look of "revulsion and hatred." And, unsurprisingly, I side with Severus here. Rowling purposefully excluded the exact request from Dumbledore's plea because such an ambiguous quote would surely ignite debate over Snape's character (I wonder what sort of a person would be nerdy enough to actually contribute to them), and I think there's sufficient evidence to believe she meant to finish it with "fulfill your duty;" his duty, of course, being that of murdering Dumbledore. And, as for the sour grimace, I hope nobody is dense enough to believe it can be taken for face value, to pardon a pun. Or, perhaps, you believe that if someone you loved dearly asked you to kill him or her, you would most certainly do it with a wide, maniacal grin. (I know I would.)

Perhaps the most alarming piece of evidence is the fact that Snape did not kill Harry when he had the chance. He refrained from even attacking the boy. There is a perfectly logical reason for this: Voldemort wanted to do it himself. But the illogical event from the standpoint that Snape is loyal to the Dark Lord is the fact that Snape ran from Harry. He could have easily stupefied the boy and brought him to Voldemort to murder, but he did not. Thus, Snape is innocent not necessarily of Dumbledore's murder, but of betrayal of the Aurors.

But what is more interesting than the debate of Snape's innocence is his dialogue with Harry as he flees Hogwarts. As Harry taunts him with ideas of cowardice, Snape increasingly loses self-control, until he screams "DON'T CALL ME A COWARD!" This quite appropriately sets the premise for the argument of Snape's psychological state.

Opponents to the concept of Snape's innocence will site his utterly evil personality as proof that Severus Snape could never be acting in loyalty to Dumbledore. They hold that he is a cowardly man who cannot maintain the virtues of the order. They are half-right; Severus Snape is a coward who lacks the Auror mentalitེ, and he could never act in loyalty to Dumbledore. Severus Snape acts only in loyalty to himself, but he is not evil. He is deeply scarred and sorrowful. He is bitter and he is foul, and he has been involved in foul-play and has been fouled, and, thus, intrinsically woven in his code of ethics is the disdain of dependence. Severus Snape was abused by his father as a child, as denoted by Order of the Phoenix. He was more than unpopular in school–he was generally disliked. And he adhered easily to the doctrine of the Death Eaters–that muggles and mudbloods were inferior–probably because of his intense hatred for his muggle father, and also probably because the power and influence it promised was attractive to him. Finally, there was an outlet by which he could achieve recognition–and outlet through which he would be considered courageous rather than cowardly. And so, he was susceptible to dark temptations... but they were not limited to the power of wicked magic. No, Snape was susceptible to the dark temptation of lust. I believe that Severus Snape, throughout his adolescence and until her death, was in love with Lily Evans.

A man who told Harry that it showed weakness to wear one's heart on one's sleeve may not be the probable candidate for affection. But J.K. Rowling has assured in an interview directly preceding the publishing of Half Blood Prince that Snape has been loved, "which in some ways makes him more culpable even than Voldemort, who never has." She refused, of course, to designate his lover as Lily, saying simply "no comment," which speaks volumes in itself. Nevertheless, just as every other conviction made in the past of the future events in the Potterverse proven to hold truths, there is sufficient evidence in the books to believe this also to be true. In the Order of the Phoenix, Harry uses the pensieve to stumble upon Snape's worst memory, in a chapter that shares its name. In a pitiful and pathetic account, Harry watches as his father humiliates Snape by hanging him upside down, exposing graying underpants, and then scourging his mouth with soap. All of this occurs in front of Lily, who then pleas for James' mercy. She scolds him: "You think you're funny... But you're just an arrogant, bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone." Then when Potter (the elder) does not heed her warnings and hangs Snape upside down, she shouts, "LEAVE HIM ALONE!" for the fourth time, to be followed by another admonition. Snape, clearly embarrassed, then insults her by saying, "I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" It was a lose-lose situation; he'd been embarrassed by the school bully and then by the fact that he had to be saved by someone whom he viewed to be of an inferior race, who was also a girl. Whether or not he truly meant what he said is still up to question because of the given situation. However, with the similarities between the two students (Snape and Evans), and her courageous defence of him, one can't help but wonder whether he was attracted to her. They both shared a talent in potions and a hatred for James Potter. She was an intelligent, popular spitfire whom he probably deeply admired. She stood up for him when nobody else would. And then, there is the possibility that Snape's worst memory was not the worst because of the situation, but because of the way he'd treated Lily. He is a man racked with guilt.

...Especially because he is responsible for her death. Dumbledore sited Snape's disclosure of the prophecy to Voldemort as the "greatest regret of his life." He tells Harry, "Snape had no possible way of knowing–which boy Voldemort would hunt from then onward, or that the parents he would destroy in his murderous quest were people that Professor Snape knew, and that they were your mother and father–" Is Dumbledore suggesting that his remorse may have faltered if the parents had been Neville's? Harry then brings up an important issue. "He hated my dad like he hated Sirius!" he contests, but Dumbledore only goes on to explain Snape's deep regret. But Harry is right on one point–he probably could not have cared less if James died. He probably would have rejoiced at that; in his mind, the man was an utter nightmare. So that only leaves Lily; there was something that made him rue her demise, and there is an incredible chance that it was because he had been in love with her. This could also explain the reason Lily got the choice to live in the first place–perhaps Snape had pled with Voldemort for her life. Perhaps he had threatened Voldemort with his own suicide or conversion to Dumbledore's side. Or, perhaps, Voldemort had done it to ensure loyalty; after all, he gave Pettigrew a silver hand, and so, he gave Snape Lily's choice. Which, in the end, caused his ruin.

Dumbledore told Harry that Snape had switched sides before the war was over–before Voldemort murdered Harry's parents and gave him the scar that would launch a thousand ships, so to speak. This brings us back to the question of why Dumbledore would trust Snape after the horrible deeds he'd committed. Well, we know at least one thing about Dumbledore: he values love over all. He'd been Snape's professor; if Snape had an interest in Lily, he may have known early on. And if Snape convinced him that he owed it to Lily Potter to switch over, Dumbledore would have trusted him completely, as he so denoted, because of his strong belief that love conquers all–a prevalent theme in the series. And so, Snape is never really loyal to Dumbledore nor Voldemort; he is loyal to himself, and he is loyal to Lily. And Lily was loyal to Dumbledore, thus, Snape was loyal to Dumbledore, and still is. Severus Snape is not an inherently good man, but he is working for the light side–a conjecture which shall be proved upon the coming of the seventh book.