Snapedom

It is very messy - which is precisely my problem with it. Bravery is trumpeted as an ideal, yes, and as a virtue and the issue of moral courage does come up. But we also have presentations of different, more morally problematic, forms of bravery. Things like Sirius' recklessness, physical bravery a la Bellatrix, etc. The text doesn't leave out the idea of moral bravery - but it is nowhere near being *clear* enough about equating any given instance of the unqualified term "bravery" with specifically *moral* courage as the default for it to play the role she is trying to make it play here.

I see where you are getting your argument. I just find that the text is not unambiguous enough on this issue in order to make Severus' redemption unambiguous. Nor was the issue of his moral redemption ever clearly framed in terms of bravery beforehand - had she done that, "the bravest man I ever knew" would have really carried a ton of weight. But it doesn't - we need her explanations to fill the gap, which disappoints me as a reader.

(I'm also less inclined to take Dumbledore seriously on moral topics, given what I saw of him in DH, and I think this was building up for me over the course of DH. So his statements on moral issues carried less weight - something JKR perhaps ought to have considered when giving her voice of morality so dubious a personality...but oh wait, he's still the epitome of good. I think JKR doesn't realize half the things she does in the text.)

The fact that JKR missed the mark on so fundamental a point of the narrative really skews things for me, because big points like this are precisely where I expect her to be making it as perfectly clear as possible. The fact that a huge point is left so unambiguous, intentionally or not, just makes me miss it all the more.

I can totally buy that JKR thought she was doing what you say. But it simply isn't there for me.

But thanks for discussing it with me. ;) I do see where you're coming from. I just need to have it in the text.