1. Any theory that Snape is still good but “killed” Dumbledore on the tower has got to be linked to the “Stoppered Death” theory – that Dumbledore was already “dead” because of the ring horcrux destruction, but was being “stoppered” by Snape potion. Hence, Snape’s AK-ing Dumbledore on the tower was simply allowing the already-dying state of Dumbledore to finish its course.

2. The change-up in the misdirection with Malfoy is really quite ingenius! Yes, that makes the whole thing interesting. Rowling knew we weren’t falling for narrative misdirection through Harry anymore, so she made him right about Malfoy. But is this an even more complex attempt at misdirection? We’ve learned not to trust Harry, and then she goes and gives us a reason to trust him. In other words, she needed to rebuild our trust in Harry after his huge blunder in Order…but only so she can fool us with Snape.

CPA: Some interesting arguments there. Will pass those back to the resident Potter expert for her thoughts. But I don’t think Dumbledore accepting his death is an argument for assisted suicide – more an example of laying down one’s life for a greater cause.

And to expand a bit on why Snape killed Dumbledore, the Halton family theory is not that Snape did it simply as a calculated act to keep his cover. I agree that that would be inconsistent with the Order’s values. However, while can’t remember the name of the spell – will have to ask the RPE – IIRC Book 6 makes a great deal of the spell by which people agree (or are forced? Can’t remember) to obey somebody else on pain of death. Our theory was Snape had bound himself by that spell to both Dumbledore and Voldemort, and thus found himself in an impossible dilemma which was only resolved by Dumbledore effectively instructing Snape to go ahead and kill him.

“The only objection to Good Snape I can see is he killed Dumbledore. But given Dumbledore (a) sought his own death in place of Harry only slightly before this, and (b) is utterly unfazed by the prospect, then if Dumbledore doesn’t mind dying, why should we object?”

Sounds to me uncomfortably like an argument for assisted suicide. I really have trouble turning deliberate, calculating murder into something that is within the legitimate operations of the Order of the Phoenix’s methods — even if the murderee approves of it as a tactical necessity.

Travis is correct about the prevalence of misdirection, in previous books, with Harry getting things wrong all the time. But have you noticed that in Book Six the pattern is reversed? Harry suspects Malfoy, and turns out to be correct. He then turns out to be correct with Snape too.

One thing Snape did that was NOT “what Dumbledore would have wanted” was that he grossly mishandled the Occlumency lessons — something that lead virtually directly to Sirius Black’s death. Reading Book Five over again, I find myself very open to the idea that Ron too may have been right that Snape was deliberately intensifying Potter’s openness to Lord Voldemort’s mind in order to set up the ensuing events.

Finally, an odd little thing which may be just one of those “errors” in Book One. The first time Harry Potter’s scar ever twinges is when he sees Snape. Sitting next to Professor Quirrel, true, but it is definitely Snape’s glance that caused his first twinge. Could this really be a mistake, unplanned from the start?

JohnH– the school story genre is not as prevalent this side of the pond, I think. Never heard of the books you listed. There tend to be incompetent teachers in children’s lit here, but rarely sadistic ones… at least in the books I read as a child!

My conclusion is that Snape, while being a nasty, awful guy, will turn out to be loyal to Dumbledore

That’s exactly where me and Emily stand on this. “Good Snape”/”Bad Snape” is a slightly misleading way of expressing the question, because it is more a question of allegiance and ultimate loyalties than of being morally admirable. As I mentioned in my first comment, this is a very Christian perspective.

Another reason why I don’t think too much stress should placed on Snape’s “sadism” is that to do so can miss a point of fundamental importance about the Harry Potter books: their genre. While usually regarded as “fantasy” – which they are – they are also “school stories” in the line of Billy Bunter, Jennings & Derbyshire, even Molesworth, and the Sadistic Teacher is an essential feature of that genre.

Looked at in that light, Snape’s sadism actually supports “Good Snape”, because it would be entirely characteristic of Rowling to be working on the premise of “What if the Sadistic Teacher – one of those who ‘are always very ferce and keep thousands of KANES chiz moan drone’ – turned out to be on the right side after all?”