[TightyRighty]

I don't have the book here but I recall the scene where Dumbledore says "You disgust me." IIRC, Dumbledore says something like, "it didn't matter to you that two people were going to die as long as the girl you loved lived." Snape then hesitates and says, "Okay, save them all."

He didn't care that Harry and James were going to be killed - his only worry was for Lily.

[ksen]

I don't have the book here but I recall the scene where Dumbledore says "You disgust me." IIRC, Dumbledore says something like, "it didn't matter to you that two people were going to die as long as the girl you loved lived." Snape then hesitates and says, "Okay, save them all."

He didn't care that Harry and James were going to be killed - his only worry was for Lily.

I thought Dumbledore reacted so harshly because he was reminded of his younger days when he was willing to sacrifice family members in order to pursue what he wanted.

[r9etb]

He didn't care that Harry and James were going to be killed - his only worry was for Lily.

I think it's clear from the book that we have to look at the story as, in part, a Christian allegory. And thus we must see Snape in a different light.

Snape had been twisted by evil his whole life -- he was very much a child, an infant even, in the selfish way he interacted with other people.

He had only this one pure thing, his love for Lily, which he treasured to the very end. He knew love; he knew remorse; he had "good" in him, even if he fell far short of actually being good.

But that describes all of us ... and Christ died for us while we were yet bad.

Harry understood that, which is why his kid's middle name was "Severus."