"Always."
Throughout Harry Potter, the theme of 'love' is evident. Love is constantly saving Harry's life and it is love that prevails over evil in the end. First, we learn that the reason that Harry lived and how Voldemort cannot kill him is because his mother gave herself to protect him. Love is a very strong emotion. Voldemort could never possess this emotion because he was conceived under the use of a love potion. This love is powerful, yes, but the main love story is hidden throughout many of the books, revealed in the last and final piece in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. In this, we learn that Severus Snape, who has seemingly been Harry's enemy (other than Voldemort, of course) throughout, actually did everything that he did because of his love for Harry's mother, Lily Evans Potter. He may have hated Harry a little, but that was only because he reminded him of his father, James Potter who made fun of Snape during their time at Hogwarts together. A quote by Nietzsche says that, "There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness." I believe that this quote applies to the Harry Potter series because although it seems absolutely crazy that Snape ultimately dies to save Harry's life because he loved his mother so much, he knew that it had to be done in order to bring down the dark Lord Voldemort once and for all.
The reason that we know that Snape has done all of this because of his love for Harry's mother which is an incredible type of love known as, 'agape.' This term is used by David and Catherine Deavel to express a much deeper love than "puppy love." We do not know just how deep this agape is until it is revealed during one of his last meetings with Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. During this meeting, Dumbledore reveals that Harry must die. Snape grows angry and accuses him of "raising a pig for slaughter." Dumbledore then replies with shock when he asks Snape if he has actually grown to care for Harry. What Snape does next is surprising, he casts his patronus and it is the same one as Lily Evans Potter's. Dumbledore looks at the patronus, stunned, and asks, "After all this time?" Snape replies with a simple, "Always." Descarte's view on love is that basically a person has two passions for love and abhorrence. A big disposition to excessiveness has just a love, because it is more ardent and stronger. I believe that this means that even though Snape despised James Potter, and because he hated him so much, also Harry Potter, he did everything he did to protect Harry because of his incredible love for Lily, because he always loved her. Always.
Isn't it strange how love and hate can coexist in the same psyche? It's not surprising, is it, that Snape couldn't ultimately survive the contradictions in his own. I have a hard time finding any redemption in his sacrifice, after a lifetime of nastiness. Love doesn't conquer all, after all.
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