**This post contains spoilers to the Harry Potter series (particularly the final installment, and the Deathly Hallows). You have been warned**
This is all conjecture. Do with it what you will (except consume it with a grain of salt. That will hardly do anything for the flavor).
So we all know Rowling hails from the Presbyterian background (...right?) and we all know that the old Presbyters developed their theology from John Calvin, the sweetheart of a man who, unlike Martin Luther who sought reform, designed to completely break away from the established (thus, at that time, Catholic) church. Basically there was no love lost between those two groups, Calvinists and Catholics, that is, we are all of course aware of denominational disunity ("Oh, they can't be Christians, they...").
Ok, that's the set up. Let's build.
Severus Snape is forever oscillating in our minds from "good guy" to "bad guy." It's never clear where he stands. "If he's a good guy, which that action makes him out to be, why is he so mean to Harry that Harry can only hate him back, unless that's for his cover... but still, he doesn't have to be such a jerk," versus, "He's such a jerk. He obviously just did that seemingly good thing just to keep his position of double-double agent intact. He's covering his own ass and he's an ass, to boot!"
Then what happens? (This is where the spoilers come in. Stop teasing yourself if you haven't finished the stories yet. This will ruin it for you!!!). When Snape's ("Professor Snape's, Harry") life is forfeit, and he's in his final moments, he gives Harry his memories, which reveal that Snape's perpetual love for Harry's mom, Lily, was the driving force behind Snape's actual working-for-the-good-guys work. We see that, while Snape truly didn't like Harry for Harry's resemblance to his father James, and treated him thusly, Snape was doing all he could to subvert, and surreptitiously help Harry eventually end, Voldemort's reign of terror for love of Harry's mother.
In the epilogue, when Harry's son, Albus Severus Potter, is anxious about which House he will be sorted into ("...not Slytherin..."), Harry tells his son that he's named for two Hogwarts headmasters, one of which is from Slytherin, and "he's the bravest man I've ever known."
When Harry sees the fullness of gravity of the position Snape put himself in--and more importantly, why--he doesn't just say "Oh, cool. Snape was good after all. Sweet." No! His entire perception--thoughts and feelings--change. Snape is now the bravest man Harry knows. He now is filled with such respect and admiration for the man that Harry names his very son after him. Think about it. How could you think or feel anything but all of this for the person who loves your mother so much that he puts himself in the position of physical torture, mutilation and humiliation just for the memory of her, just for her progeny (who he personally hates!).
Rowling's message to the Calvinistic world (and Christian world at large)? How can Catholics, who we see as having perpetrated injustices throughout Church history (to say nothing of the injustices all denominations have perpetrated since the beginning of their own personal histories) and who we think are just off theologically really be as bad as we think they are when they love the Blessed Mother of Our Lord (Luke 1.43,48) as much as they do?
How indeed, Mrs. Rowling? How indeed?
([{And, Chris, Aaron, this isn't the piece I've alluded to. No, that one is far more brilliant and dazzling to look at (if it ever gets finished)}]).
