Well yes, but that's the thing about HP- it doesn't operate in a perfect world, where people do things out of the goodness of their hearts. It's a world where the laws of magic apparently reinforce moral benefits- and I think that's similar in the two cases we have. Before the Shrieking Shack incident, James is a complete tosser. Afterwards.... sure, he's not perfect, but he seems to reform enough to let Lily marry him. Harry was all for killing Sirius when he thought that he was the Secret Keeper, but afterwards he seemed a little more able to have mercy- only to lose it again when he tries to cast the Cruciatus Curse on Bellatrix but, hey, he's still learning. Snape, though, is somebody who has already learnt to do the right thing even when it costs a lot, and I think he knows, however grudgingly, that good deeds are their own rewards. He doesn't need Harry in his debt to save him, and that makes his deeds virtuous in their own right.
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Date: 2004-11-17 11:16 am (UTC)