http://weirdal.0catch.com/txt/27.list.html

[mike_smith]

OK, I gotta go back to work tonight, so I'm gonna make this one quick.

Comments

The Easily Misunderstood Mr. Snape

[anonymous]

I admit, the whole "Dumbledore begs before killed" struck me as really out of character. Dumbledore, even back in book one, viewed death as just the next great adventure. So unless Rowlings willing to have him pull a Saruman (from Lord of the Rings), it's more likely that he decided that the best course of action would be to have Snape kill him. Which would deal with all the "who's side is he really on?" questions - at least as far as Voldemort and the Death Eaters are concerned. Which, in turn, would let Snape bring about the victory of the light.

Of course, Dumbledore's master plan - or at least this part of it - depends on what *Snape* plans on doing. Personally, I think (strangely enough) Snape is on one side only: his own. This is a guy who's mental defenses are strong enough to protect his secrets from Voldemort. Which means that they're probably also strong enough to keep Dumbledore out too. Not to mention that he's been successful at playing "(probably) loyal spy" for both sides since shortly before Voldemort went to kill the Potter family. After over fifteen years, even Snape might have trouble figuring out which side he's really on.

Either way, Snape's odds of being alive at the end of book seven are lower than either Harry's or Wormtail's. IMO, of course.

.... Oh, and personally I have an even lower opinion of Draco then I did before I opened HBP for the first time. Whatever else I might have thought about him while going over the first five books, I thought Draco at least had enough fire in his belly to at least put his money where his mouth is. Instead, he now comes across as the kind of guy who's more than happy to say that he agrees with keeping US troops in Iraq - as long as he doesn't have to volunteer to join the US forces *in* Iraq.

The Apprentice