I trust Snape. Do You?

Here is some old news. So if any of you fellow Potter heads didn't know, the 7th and Final Book of the Harry Potter epic will be released July 21st of this year.

The Harry Potter series is, hands down, my favorite fictional work. In fact, for a few years, I read little else recreationally. So as the series draws to a close I am sure I will be rejoicing and mourning with the millions of other Potter Fans.

Spoilers Follow

One of the most oft debated aspects of the story roils around the character Severus Snape's loyalties. Is he on the side of Light? Or, is he loyal only to the dark lord Voldemort? In the fifth book he stops teaching Harry Occlumency and in sixth he kills Dumbledore. So some people take these actions at face value and assume he is an agent of Voldemort. I disagree, with Snape there is always more that what you see on the sureface of things. I think there was always viable motivations for what he did.

In the case of the occlumency lessons, it was wounded pride. Not a noble motivation by any means, but how many good people have done foolish and stupid things out of wounded pride?

In the sixth book, we witness a partial conversation in which Dumbledore is begging Snape to promise something. Something that Snape really does not want to do. I think Dumbledore was aware of the plot on his life and was asking Snape to kill him, when the time came, to spare Draco Malfoy from doing the deed. To preserve the last remaining fragment of Draco's innocence.

Is Snape a good person? Certianly not. Overall he is a horrible person, but he does have some redeeming qualities. I beleive that he will still be loyal to Dumbledore. I believe he will continue to work against Voldemort and the Death Eaters, even though he has been forsaken by Harry and the Order of the Phoenix. I think that he will save Harry's life one final time in the last book (probably at the cost of his own).

I trust Severus Snape. Do you?
Let me know in the comments.