Greetings, fellow Snape-Trusters!
This is Jillian here, webmistress of itrustsnape.com
If you're getting this email, it means that you have signed up on the Trust List, and therefore trust Snape! With the release of the Deathly Hallows so soon upon us, ITrustSnape and Defogthefuture (our affiliate) have teamed up to offer all Snape-Trusters a deal on Defogging the Future.
Written by Louis CasaBianca, Defogging the Future is a brilliant collection of speculations and theories that will start the cogs turning in the head of any HP fan. With evidence from all six books coupled with a frequently humorous and witty prose, DTF is really something that every HP fan can benefit from.
Following is a small excerpt from the heart of the book, a section fully devoted to Severus Snape:
Snape hates Sirius Black, and Black deserves much of that hatred. Snape loathes (POA 93) Professor Lupin, with only slightly less justification, and Snape clearly hates Harry Potter. And yet, at the end of the book, when he has the perfect opportunity to revenge himself on his schoolyard tormentors and to kill the boy responsible for his "Lord's" downfall, he does exactly what Mrs. Weasley or Professor Sprout or Professor Moody would do under the same circumstances. Exactly. In the matter of a few minutes, Snape:
1. Spares Sirius' life.
2. Spares Lupin's life.
3. Spares Harry's life.
4. Spares both Ron and Hermione.
Then, a few minutes later, after being attacked by Ron, Harry and Hermione, he spares Sirius again, spares Harry, Ron and Hermione again, and brings all four of them to the castle; the children for medical care, and Sirius for execution.
Those seem the perfectly normal things to do, and we're not surprised Snape does them, because at that point in the series we think Snape is a relatively normal, if extremely unpleasant, person. In 1999 we didn't give Snape credit for not murdering five people because such a thing would have been unthinkable to us. But if Snape is the person he claims he is in HBP, his failure to commit murder when Harry and Sirius were at his mercy is inexplicable. Re-read the section of POA, from 358 to 392, especially when Harry is listening to Snape in the hospital. Are those the actions of a loyal Death Eater? Is there anything Snape does that Professor Sprout would not also have done under the same circumstances?
Think like a Death Eater for a minute. You've got Harry Potter, his two pain-in-the-neck friends, one man whom you loathe, and another man whom you hate, all helpless and disarmed in front of you. The whole world thinks the man you hate is a mass murderer. What would you, as a Death Eater, do? Kill them all, of course, then put the bloody knife or the guilty wand in Sirius' hand. At the very least you would kill Sirius, right?
Snape doesn't do any of this. His screaming, yelling and frothing at the end of POA conceals, or rather overshadows, the inescapable fact that Snape had Harry Potter and Sirius Black at his mercy, and he also had a perfect, once-in-a-lifetime alibi that would have allowed him to kill Harry and let Sirius take the blame. And yet Snape does the right thing. He takes them all to the hospital after he knows Voldemort is back with enough power to possess Quirrell, and after he knows the Chamber of Secrets was opened.
To order your copy of Defogging the Future (and read more excerpts!), go to http://www.defogthefuture.com, and click on US Orders. Members of ITrustSnape.com can get a free upgrade to Express Shipping. Click on US Orders and when you get to the PayPal page, enter "I Trust Snape" in the message to the seller. Your book will be delivered Priority Mail at the Media Mail rate.
I hope you all have a great Potter-filled summer! It's not long now before our man is redeemed.
Cheers,
Jillian S.
itrustsnape.com