I’m kidding.
Rowling has set Snape up to be the biggest, most misunderstood hero in the history of literature. I imagine a final scene in Book 7 where Snape is at last vindicated, when Harry realizes all he has done to protect him despite everyone’s efforts to bring him down.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a very good book, worth the wait, but a little lighter in detail than previous installments. I think my favorite books are still The Prisoner of Azkaban and The Goblet of Fire.
Some observations:
Rowling gave us a new clue we didn’t have before: Lilly Potter was excellent student of potions, whereas prior to the HBP we only knew her as an excellent charms student. The idea she would’ve been Snape’s frequent classmate opens up some intriguing possibilities.
The famously unreliable Trelawney has a couple of accurate readings (while conscious, too): once when she unknowingly stands close to Harry in the hallway, and the other when she predicts Dumbledore’s death in the tower.
Dumbledore told Draco that he could fake Draco’s death and hide him more completely than anyone would believe possible. Is Dumbledore faking his death to hide more completely? Is he going to pull a Gandalf?
Dumbledore appeared weaker and weaker throughout the book. He told Harry the horcrux that blackened his hand almost killed him and that it was Snape, not Madame Pomfrey, who saved him. What if the wound was fatal and Dumbledore went to Snape to prolong his life long enough to give Snape the ultimate proof of loyalty to Voldemort?
Snape didn’t touch a single professor after his betrayal of Dumbledore, despite many opportunities. His complete focus was getting the Death Eaters and Draco out of the castle as quickly as possible, and yet with his help and the element of surprise he could’ve decimated everyone.
Also that argument they had near hagrids hut, what if Snape didn`t want to be a death eater anymore and wanted to die rather that do what he had promised narcissa to do… and when Dumbledore pleaded, maybe he was pleading for Snape to kill him, and thats why he looked like he hated dumbledore, for him making him to kill him… plus he went schitzo when called a coward for killing dumbledore… maybe it took more courage than we all realised… ?
My thoughts exactly. I think Snape’s going to turn out to be a good guy.
An unlikable, greasy-haired good guy, but a good guy all the same.
Why would you think it’s a joke? It seems likely to me.
Snape has never done anything to hurt Harry, other than sneer. He kept Voldamort from killing him in the first book. It’s obvious that Snape and Dumbledore had HBP’s events planned. And Dumbledore has said he had an iron clad guarentee of Snape’s good behavior. What could be more iron clad?
There’s an old JKR interview where she was asked “Isn’t it all about Snape’s redemption” and she changed the subject.