HOW HALF-HEARTED WERE YOU?

This is a non-profit tribute to the works of JK Rowling who, together with her publishers and licensees, owns the characters and situations elaborated herein.

A/N: Spoilers. Thanks to all my reviewers.

Half-blood prince, Snape, how half-hearted were you?
One foot in each camp, how did you stay true?
Never quite trusted by any companion,
Order or Death Eater; layered like an onion,

Skin upon skin upon skin to the core -
Whom do you serve? What are you fighting for?
Where would you stop and how far would you go?
Which is the truth and do you even know?

Harry, you hate but are always there saving,
Voldemort, serve 'cos he's good at enslaving,
Dumbledore, follow in quest for redemption -
Hasn't your weary work earned you exemption?

Gryffindors, loathe them with passionate payback;
Point-scoring, point-taking, making them stay back
To scrub all the cauldrons or disembowel toads,
Clean hospital bedpans of odorous loads;

You can't forget what in youth had been done,
Sins of the fathers rebound on the son,
(Who learns from your book what he couldn't from you
Because hate mirrors hate.) Must you hate his friends too?

Weasley, you target by association
Longbottom, frighten into palpitations,
Know-it-all, sneer at for her erudition
Yet Draco, extol like a man on a mission -

But missions, like rabbits, for you multiply
And tasks tumble round you to do on the sly,
You know by experience what's worse than death
And you'll keep on fighting until your last breath.

There are vows to be kept, work to be done,
Teaching and reaching out to Malfoy's son,
Prying and spying, empty minds filling,
Wheeling and dealing, healing or killing,

The life that you saved is the life you must take,
With face made of stone and chest full of ache;
It's goodbye to good name and home and career,
The mentor you loved and all hope and cheer.

Half-blood prince, Snape, were you half-hearted then
Or simply much better than most other men
At hiding your purpose with poisonous face,
So no one would notice your heart's in its place?