Thanks! Here's my theory on what you've just said: it has struck me that Rowling is a good observer who's very bad at seeing the implications of what she observes. Thus, in little Sev, she can describe quite accurately a needy and socially awkward (perhaps even a very shy) child, while at the same time trying to paint him as a budding stalker. In adult Severus, she can describe, equally accurately, a young man suffering from longstanding, low-level depression while joking in interviews that he probably doesn't care about his appearance because he thinks he's just fine as he is. It's oddly obtuse and I can't understand it. But at least I now know (if my assumption that she's an extrovert is correct) why introverts like Snape get such short shrift in her story.

As to the Unforgivables being Mortal sins - no, not exactly, but you'd have to be committing at least two mortal sins (the sins of pride and anger) to cast *one* Unforgivable. Of course, nothing is unforgivable, in my tradition, if you confess and truly repent. Even the mortal sins can be forgiven if you repent. And Snape is the *only* person in the saga who does anything at all like that - and what reward does he get?

I would feel better about this if Rowling hadn't been so darn nasty in her interviews. My sister, who liked the book *because* she loved Snape/Lily and saw that Severus had been proven a hero, got an angry gleam in her eye when we were talking about Rowling's interviews. I just cannot understand what the woman is trying to say or why she thinks this book is Christian in any way. At this point (but I've probably been thinking about it too much), I can hardly find anything positive in it at all, and what is positive does not seem to be intentional on Rowling's part.

Not sure that's at all clear! Anyway, thanks for your comment and your support.