Is Potter's foe, Severus Snape, good or evil?

Playing both sides?
Countless essays have been written to justify both positions, but the essentials can be boiled down to a couple of sentences.

Snape is good: He’s had every chance to kill Harry during his six years in Hogwarts and hasn’t done so, and instead he’s helped Harry stay alive through his lessons and his active participation in fighting dark forces. Dumbledore trusted him and they must have had a prearranged agreement that Snape was to slay the Hogwarts Headmaster if provoked.

Snape is evil: He’s a Death Eater, he has a longstanding grudge against Harry’s father, he’s been nothing but nasty to the boy since his arrival, and he’s generally an unpleasant fellow to be around. Oh, and by the way, he killed Dumbledore!

Each side has its fervent admirers, but there’s a third possibility as well: that Snape is on neither side, but has been serving his own interests throughout.

Every time Snape has a chance to fully commit to one side or the other, he pulls back just enough to leave things in doubt. He claims to take orders from Dumbledore and Voldemort, but sits outside the traditional hierarchy in both groups and doesn’t seem to respect anyone else enough to be anything more than civil in their presence.

Moreover, Snape has a knack for doing just enough to win trust and engender suspicion at the same time. Without his warning to the Order of the Phoenix about Harry's predicament at the Ministry of Magic in the series’ fifth book, the Hogwarts friends might have been overwhelmed and killed. But Snape’s delay in sending help likely contributed to the death of Sirius Black.

On the other hand, Snape swears an unbreakable oath to Narcissa Malfoy in the sixth book, after answering invasive questions from a skeptical Bellatrix Lastrange questioning his loyalty, and then follows that up by killing Dumbledore. But his answers to Bellatrix are generally a fancy way of saying “Voldemort trusts me, so you should too.” And he fails to kill Harry when he has the chance at the end of “Half-Blood Prince.” The fact remains that Snape has been Harry’s teacher for six years, with greater access to his person than anyone else with the Dark Mark, and has never tried to kill him or deliver him to Voldemort. When Harry has been in grave danger in Hogwarts, it’s been at the hands of other characters.

Love for Lily?
One object of speculation over the Internet has been the relationship between Snape and Harry’s parents. There was no love lost between Snape and James Potter’s group of friends, and it’s doubtful he shed a tear when Sirius was killed.

But what about Harry's mother, Lily? Could a failed relationship or an unrequited love, and lingering guilt that he may have contributed to her death, be a source of conflict to Snape now?

For six books, Snape has been whatever the reader wants him to be. There’s evidence of his goodness, and evidence that he’s evil. Finally, with the release of the final book in the series, Rowling has final say.

Craig Berman is a writer in Washington, D.C.

MORE FROM FINAL HARRY POTTER BOOK

Sales for final Potter book now top 11 million

Sales for final Potter book now top 11 million Living, breathing Harry Potter weathers storm Rowling: I wanted to kill parents Stop your sobbing! More Potter to come No more happiness after ‘Deathly Hallows’ Readers rave about ‘Deathly Hallows’ Potter spell broken for fans with missing pages Review: ‘Deathly Hallows’ packs a punch First Person: Potter-mania at the book release Rowling: ‘Harry’s story comes to a definite end’   Add Final Harry Potter book headlines to your news reader: