Harry Potter--Half-Blood Prince: Snape is still a good guy

SPOILER ALERT: This whole post gives the ending away. Read no further unless you want to know the ending.

Granted, in Harry Potter: Half-Blood Prince Snape professes allegiance to Voldemort, and his killing Dumbledore seems irrefutable proof of his treachery against the Order of the Phoenix. Here’s an outline of why I think otherwise.

1. Throughout Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore has unqualified confidence in Snape. This is true even at the end (p. 588). That means a great deal and should color our interpretation of everything else we read.

2. The Unbreakable Vow to Malfoy actually demonstrates Snape’s utter commitment to Dumbledore and the Order. As we later learn, the Unbreakable Vow is not really unbreakable; the vower may in fact break the vow and die. Theory: Snape takes the vow in order to win the confidence of the sister (which, we see by her reaction, he does) and Voldemort. By taking the vow, Snape shows his willingness to die to serve Dumbledore and the Order (despite, as we shall see, his later killing Dumbledore).

3. Snape is not part of the final plan to kill Dumbledore. We see this twice in Draco’s own words (pp. 323, 588). Snape seems to have been trying help Draco (ibid), but in a way consistent with trying to obtain information. Snape’s killing Dumbledore is not actually related to Draco’s plot, although Snape uses the killing as false evidence of his devotion to Voldemort. Why does Snape kill Dumbledore, then?

4. Dumbledore pleads with Snape to kill him. Here’s the evidence:
a) The potion does much more than make Dumbledore sick and weak. It has done something horrible to him internally. As he tells Harry, "That potion . . . was no health drink" (p. 580). In fact, Dumbledore seems to have somehow been shattered or lost internally. As he tells Draco, he drank and came back, but only "after a fashion" (p. 590). Something grave and hideous has happened to Dumbledore.
b) From drinking the potion, Dumbledore seems to be doomed to die anyway, and that kind of death may mean catastrophe not only for him but for others. The likelihood of his death is based on (1) his weakening in the tower and (2) the contents of the note (p. 609) in which R.A.B. mentions he will be long dead by the time Voldemort finds his horcrux missing.
c) Worse, whatever has happened to Dumbledore may endanger others, as he suggests while drinking the potion. Dumbledore, for example, pleads, "No, no, no, no, I can’t, I can’t, don’t make me, I don’t want to," (p. 572). While drinking he also pleads, "Don’t hurt them, don’t hurt them, please, please, it’s my fault. hurt me instead," (ibid).
d) Dumbledore’s own death may be the only way to save others. We don’t know what bad things will happen to Dumbledore or others from the potion. We do know, however, that while drinking the potion, Dumbledore declares three times that he wants to die (p. 573). He then implores Harry, "KILL ME!" (ibid).
e) In Hogsmeade Dumbledore asks not for Madame Pomfrey (the healer), but for Snape, the only member of staff with both the resolve to use the Avada Kadavra curse and the skill in legilemancy to see Dumbledore’s need for death. The courage Snape shows earlier in taking a vow he knows will likely kill him demonstrates he has the strength of character to kill Dumbledore if needed.
f) Dumbledore does not plead with Draco or any of the Deatheaters when they come to kill him. When Snape arrives, however, Dumbledore makes a (verbally) unspecified plea (p. 595). Snape’s skill in legilimancy would allow him to perceive without words both the nature of Dumbledore’s request and his need for it.
g) Snape’s look of disgust at Dumbledore right before killing him is best explainable by his seeing, through his skill in legilimancy, whatever hideous damage the potion has done to Dumbledore and the threat he poses to others.
h) In Goblet of Fire we learn something about reversing spells with the use of a wizard’s wand. It is possible (though, I think, unlikely) that Snape may be able to reverse the killing curse in book 7.

5. Snape continues to give good advice to Harry even after killing Dumbledore. Snape deflects Harry’s attacks while doing him very little harm. While Snape is clearly angry with Harry, but he still helps him in a way.
a) He tells Harry that he, Snape, is the Half-Blood Prince.
b) Even as he blocks them, Snape gives Harry advice on casting more effecive spells: "Blocked again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed" (p. 603). This is valuable advice, and it is inconceivable that a true adversary would deliver it.

6. Snape has a good reason to keep his cover as a Deatheater and to keep Harry hating him. Rather than having to die in keeping Dumbledore alive, Snape uses the occasion of killing Dumbledore to cement his credibility in the eyes of Voldemort and the Death eaters (although I suspect Voldemort will see through Snape’s ruse and cause his [heroic] death in Book 7). As Voldemort can see into Harry’s mind, it’s critical that Harry not know Snape is really still on Dumbledore’s side (plus there is no time to explain). Harry’s loathing for Snape will further add to Snape’s cred with Voldy.

In short, Snape is one of the most heroic characters in the series, right alongside Dumbledore. As unlikely as it may seem, Book 7, I predict, will show this to be true.

Update: Two more predictions. Perhaps the reason Dumbledore knows he must die is that he himself has somehow become the horcrux or bearer of the horcrux through drinking the liquid.

Also, I predict Snape will die in book seven, and we will in that book discover he is a hero. His death will be heartbreaking.