HARRY POTTER THREAD….I forgot about this before I went on vacation, but I have a question about Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. Since it involves a massive spoiler, it’s below the fold.
Here it is. As you know, at the end of the book Snape kills Dumbledore. However, it seems obvious that the whole thing was a charade and Snape will turn out to be a good guy when the series ends. Question: is this in fact as obvious as I think it is? Or are there alternate interpretations out there?
I hasten to add that I have no idea what kind of charade Rowling has in store. Perhaps the whole thing was a fake and Dumbledore isn’t really dead. Or maybe he’s “dead,” but he’s going to be revived later ? la Gandalf or Obi-Wan Kenobi ? perhaps via a horcrux of his own. Or maybe he’s honest-to-goodness dead, but this was somehow necessary to eventually defeat Voldemort. Who knows?
Still, there’s no way Snape turns out to be a bad guy, right? The whole dramatic arc of the series demands otherwise. And Dumbledore’s “pleading” with Snape is so artfully contrived that it’s plain he’s begging Snape to kill him, not begging him to spare his life.
Right?
