Snape/nasty teachers/m-f friends

[Neil Ward]

No: HPFGUIDX 3518

Bonnie wrote: 

<<<Actually the rumor is that Snape will find love in Book 7. If that is the
case, then (with the downfall of Voldemort) Snape would actually be quite
free to love and do so quite happily.>>>

Snape in love?  Yes, it seems odd, but...

Continuing the 'Harry's POV' line, how much of Snape's persona is due to the
way he appears to the kids?  I can think of several of my old teachers who
were either unlikeable or downright vicious, but who revealed unexpected
traits later on.  One English teacher was a particularly nasty character -
always sacastic and unyielding - but he carried on teaching us when he
developed a terminal brain tumour and could no longer see, because he wanted
to do it (and in the end, we wanted him to do it).  Another teacher - A
Chemistry teacher - was the bane of my life, until he and his wife
volunteered to chaperone a school trip to Switzerland. I discovered that he
was funny, generous and very cool. He didn't change his teaching style, but
I changed my view of him and rose from the bottom to the top of his class.
I'd hated his guts, but he changed my life.

Okay, I think I'm stretching a point here, because JKR clearly intends Snape
to be vile, bitter and unpopular (even with the adults), but who, part from
the author, knows what we *don't* know about him?  What hobbies does he
have?  Who are his friends?  What is the big secret with him?  Equally, the
teachers who seem nice and harmless may be hiding something more sinister.
Perhaps Professor Sprout is a sadist - look at her treament of the Mandrakes.   

***

Re boy-girl friendships (following Milz asking who had them at 12-14): 

Personally, I'd say a person's sex is quite far down the attribute list when
it comes to making friends, but I can't deny my history of hanging out with
girls. Just to contradict myself, I went to an all-male grammar school, so
at 12-14 my fast friends were boys, but until that point, I'd had boy and
girl friends in equal measure. As a pre-teen, my theatrically-minded parents
sent me to a 'school of dancing,' where I was hugely outnumbered by girls.
I'd often, also, play house with the girls in my street while the boys
kicked a football around; the girls always wanted to be 'nurses,' swept off
their feet by my amorous 'doctor' (hmmmm, and this was the late 60s/early
70s - so much for the sexual revolution). At college, I was part of a group
of five friends - two women and three men -  and there was sexual tension,
but no sexual action, between us. We all had other friends and loves as well.

I see nothing odd in Hermione's friendship with Harry and Ron.  My
understanding of Susan's phrase 'male-identified' is that it refers to
Hermione being "one of the boys" and denying herself the chance of female
bonding experiences. I do think that's an incorrect assumption. If JKR had
not made Hermione a close friend of the two boys, she may have ended up as
another extra in the story or as one of a pair or threesome of girls
involved in some side-plot. By making her a platonic, close friend of
Harry's JKR ensured that at least one girl was central to the action.
Surely Hermione doesn't return to the Gryffindor girls' dormitory each night
and just sit on her hands?  She might be a bit of a loner, but I doubt that
she's shunned by the other girls.  

Neil, who is supposed to be working tonight, but who feels like rambling...


            Flying-Ford-Anglia

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   "Then, dented, scratched and steaming, 
   the car rumbled off into the darkness, 
   its rear lights blazing angrily"

 [Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets]

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