There are so many pupils here at HiH. It's crucial that all of the students here get the opportunity to voice their ideas on a variety of HP-related topics.

Every issue, this section will come up. It's where we give a HP-related question and ask YOU GUYS what you think!

If you would like to be one of these people, please don't hesitate to contact me, whether on my wall or via owl, here: https://www.hogwartsishere.com/1032268/

So, without further ado, let's get started!

Today's question was "Is Snape a good person?"

Alex Halsey (1st year Slytherin)

"First, let's look at the fact that Snape was a death eater, which already shows that he was willing to do things that are immoral. While it is noted that he did change sides and turned spy against Voldemort before his downfall, this doesn't show goodness either; this is just a sense of self-preservation. Disloyalty towards someone who trusts you, no matter how bad that person may be, is still disloyalty, and the timing of this strikes me that he only turned sides because he sensed that things were not going to work out well for Voldemort and the death eaters involved with him. If you were to help someone cheat on exams and, just as you were all about to be caught for it, you turned the others in to minimise repercussions for yourself, you are still guilty of your involvement in the cheating.

Next, we'll look at his treatment of students, especially those outside of Slytherin, when he was a teacher. He favoured those in his house, to the detriment of other students, and took joy in belittling and shaming them. This is not the mark of a good teacher, or a generally good person. A good teacher knows that their job is to build their students up, not knock them down, and a good person would not be so willing to make people half their age feel terrible about themselves. We see it especially with his treatment of Harry Potter and his friends though, and there have been many reasonings for this; some say he was 'protecting Harry' and looking out for him, and we have heard that it was because Harry reminded him of James. In essence, he is treating a child with contempt because of what their father did. While this is an understandable response on some levels, a good person would realise that this is not an appropriate response and try to change that behaviour.

So, no, I don't think that Snape is a good person. I think that he did some good things once he stopped being a death eater, and we don't know every aspect of his life outside of these main things. However, behind a lot of the good deeds we saw from him, there was an ulterior motive of some kind that would benefit him, and we also saw a lot of actions that were not good at all. To be a truly good person, one needs to try to do good because it is right, not because it is good for them."

Loreley Granger (6th year Gryffindor)

"No. Not really. Through his years, Snape was not kind to Harry for the majority of knowing him and others too. Both adults and students. Perhaps it's all that he's been through that made him who he was (attitude wise), but everyone has a choice and much of those choices he got to make he, chose wrong and it seemed it was to keep himself safe and well. What has been witnessed and heard from Snape towards people was not always good. His intentions too were not always good. He was always hard on others, too strict and quick to judge. If I were to say he was a good person, that would only be somewhat, and only partially since he did very few things good. But one good thing was he protected Harry a few times, even if it was by Dumbledore agreeing with Snape's figuring out that Harry was kept alive by him "so that he can die at the right moment."

Brittany O'Hara (4th year Ravenclaw)

"I think he is not. He was selfish and took out his anger of Lily's rejection towards Harry. It only protected Harry for Lily and would not have likely care about the boy if she was not his mother."

So there you have it, folks! Thank you so much to our wonderful answerers and their input. A reminder: If you would like to be one of these people, please don't hesitate to contact me, whether on my wall or messages, here: https://www.hogwartsishere.com/1032268/

You can also join the official Horntail Gazette readers group, which I will talk more about at the end, if you want to be a part of these spotlights! You can find it here: https://www.hogwartsishere.com/groups/70891/

- By Sabrina Tabac, HG Founder, Editor & Manager