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What a wonderful topic. I so would love to participate...
I'll make it short.
"And my soul, Dumbledore, mine?" says it all, IMO. That was a desperate and honest. A murderer and cruel torturer would not have said this, because his soul would have been ripped already. Severus is concerned about his soul, even though he isn't asked to committ cold-blooded murder but more a kind of assisted suicide.
Bellatrix mocks Severus in the 'Spinner's End' chapter about being cowardly and always hiding under Dumbledore's protection. That doesn't look like a cruel torturer to me either. I think that Severus did just that, once he realized that being a DE was wrong: use Dumbledore as an excuse not to have to commit atrocities.
Severus watched Burbage die and did nothing. Yes. If he had tried anything, he would have died, too, as others have pointed out, and risked his mission, and Harry's. I think that is most of his crime and tragedy: that he had to watch and could do nothing. I think this scene was there to show a contrast to our hero Harry who saved these Muggleborns in the Ministry despite being in grave danger. Yes, but at that point Harry didn't know yet that he was a Horcrux. And the whole scene is so strange anyway that it is hard to analyse it. The invading DE are just as stupid, or more so, than Ministry staff. Neither protects themselves against Imperio or Polyjuice. Sigh… How can you analyse something in all seriousness that was plotted so carelessly? ~despairs~
Why were the other DE afraid of him? Perhaps because he didn't belong to any of their groups and had Voldemort's trust? Perhaps because he managed to be just as menacing to them as he was to Harry and the students, or most likely more so? The conversation with Bellatrix and Narcissa is very telling, IMO. A series of veiled threats, mocking and lying by telling the truth. If only DH had followed up on that, I loved that chapter.
How much would I forgive? I don't know. I always found it one of the most admiring characteristics of Sev to turn his back on the DE and spy… I admire people like that. However, there's a difference between people who pretend to turn last minute and those who turn because they realize the error of their ways.
I, too, grew up in Germany and had relatives and acquaintances who claimed they 'didn't know anything' or said about Hitler: 'it was wrong what he did with the Jews, but he gave people work'. I don't know how I would have reacted in those time, I'm not a brave person. I admire everyone who is, and stands up.
I don't think I could really forgive someone who enjoys killing and torturing. I might forgive standing by and doing nothing. It much depends on the circumstances, in real life just as much as in fiction.
I'll make it short.
"And my soul, Dumbledore, mine?" says it all, IMO. That was a desperate and honest. A murderer and cruel torturer would not have said this, because his soul would have been ripped already. Severus is concerned about his soul, even though he isn't asked to committ cold-blooded murder but more a kind of assisted suicide.
Bellatrix mocks Severus in the 'Spinner's End' chapter about being cowardly and always hiding under Dumbledore's protection. That doesn't look like a cruel torturer to me either. I think that Severus did just that, once he realized that being a DE was wrong: use Dumbledore as an excuse not to have to commit atrocities.
Severus watched Burbage die and did nothing. Yes. If he had tried anything, he would have died, too, as others have pointed out, and risked his mission, and Harry's. I think that is most of his crime and tragedy: that he had to watch and could do nothing. I think this scene was there to show a contrast to our hero Harry who saved these Muggleborns in the Ministry despite being in grave danger. Yes, but at that point Harry didn't know yet that he was a Horcrux. And the whole scene is so strange anyway that it is hard to analyse it. The invading DE are just as stupid, or more so, than Ministry staff. Neither protects themselves against Imperio or Polyjuice. Sigh… How can you analyse something in all seriousness that was plotted so carelessly? ~despairs~
Why were the other DE afraid of him? Perhaps because he didn't belong to any of their groups and had Voldemort's trust? Perhaps because he managed to be just as menacing to them as he was to Harry and the students, or most likely more so? The conversation with Bellatrix and Narcissa is very telling, IMO. A series of veiled threats, mocking and lying by telling the truth. If only DH had followed up on that, I loved that chapter.
How much would I forgive? I don't know. I always found it one of the most admiring characteristics of Sev to turn his back on the DE and spy… I admire people like that. However, there's a difference between people who pretend to turn last minute and those who turn because they realize the error of their ways.
I, too, grew up in Germany and had relatives and acquaintances who claimed they 'didn't know anything' or said about Hitler: 'it was wrong what he did with the Jews, but he gave people work'. I don't know how I would have reacted in those time, I'm not a brave person. I admire everyone who is, and stands up.
I don't think I could really forgive someone who enjoys killing and torturing. I might forgive standing by and doing nothing. It much depends on the circumstances, in real life just as much as in fiction.