On horcruxes and the saving of souls

[likeaglass]

It was sunny and the grounds around him were full of laughing people, and even though he felt as distant from them as though he belonged to a different race, it was still very hard to believe as he sat here that his life must include, or end in, murder....

OotP, 855-856

Comments

[likeaglass]

Thanks :)

I believe with you that, quite apart from any motives or plans we can only take a stab at, Snape made the right choice by not encouraging a sixteen-year-old to kill someone, even if it meant he had to do the killing himself; he effectively saved Draco's soul.

Oh yes, definitely. Snape may or may not have been working for Dumbledore, and he may or may not have only been doing it to save his own skin, but whatever the reason, the outcome is the same. A teenager's soul was saved from destruction, at great personal cost.

I sometimes think that Snape's capacity to kill - or more generally, to do extreme things that other, 'softer' people would object to - is one of the reasons why Dumbledore kept him around at all

Yes, I've thought that, as well. I can't imagine McGonagall or Remus letting loose with an AK, but Snape is obviously the exception.

God, I hope Snape doesn't die, but I think you're right, and that's where it's heading. At which point I will set my book on fire and run screaming into the night in anguish DDD: Well, probably not, but I'll be upset. I think Rowling thinking up a painful death is slightly unlikely, though, because, no matter what she says, these are books mainly geared towards children-young adults. And she has a history of killing people off with painless means: Cedric with AK, Sirius by drapery. I just don't think the Order would be capable of something suitably brutal, and I don't think Harry's going to go apeshit and start whacking Voldemort with a club (though, I must admit, that is quite the mental image :D)