[HPforGrownups]Tantrums? (WAS: Snape: motives, relationships with Harry/ Dumbledore/Voldemort. DADA)

[heathernmoore]

No: HPFGUIDX 31275

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Susanne Schmid <pigwidgeon37 at y...> wrote:
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>   heathernmoore <heathernmoore at y...> wrote: 
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> <snip>
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> >For Severus to behave in the way he does (down to disgracing >himself in front of the Minister of Magic with his uncontrolled >tantrums) *entirely on the basis of childhood grudges* *would* >mark him out as unstable and unsuited to teaching. Dumbledore >would seem to recognize that there's something else behind it. >At the moment, I believe we can reasonably deduce that >"something else" as intense frustration. 
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> Surprise, surprise, I'm going to defend Snape- now that's something new ;P
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> But please, please, don't be so unjust with him, in this particular situation he *really* doesn't deserve it! For Snape, like for everybody else but the witnesses of the Shrieking Shack scene and Dumbledore, Sirius Black is one of Voldemort's most faithful supporters- the one who finally opened him the way towards the Potters. 
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> Now try to imagine just for a moment how Snape must have felt throughout the school year! What logical reason might there be for Voldemort's most faithful servant to escape from prison, just out of the blue? The most consistent explanation would be that he had been contacted by his master, wouldn't it? For a traitorous ex-DE, this isn't a very funny thought. IMO, this explains to a large extent why he is so furious with Harry about having gone to Hogsmeade against everybody's strict veto. (And I think that he's extremely angry with Lupin because he plays along and gets Harry out of that scrape, whereas he would deserve punishment)
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> OK, now he thinks that Voldemort's servant is safely locked up in the West Tower and will finally get what's coming to him and suddenly he's...gone?! It's as clear as daylight that somebody had a hand in it: It can't be Lupin, because he's just transformed and somewhere in the Forbidden Forest. Snape would never suspect Dumbledore, so the remaining (usual) suspects are Potter, Granger and Weasley, but they are locked in the Hospital Wing. OTOH, they are *convinced* of Black's innocence, so Snape's logical conclusion is that it has to be Harry's doing. Maybe he even feels that Dumbledore might have given a hand, but he can't prove anything. The alleged DE Sirius Black runs free again.
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> If you look at it from this POV, Snape's breakdown becomes a lot more understandable. And as today I seem to discover some doubts about Dumbledore (maybe it's only a subconscious wish not to have to buy tomatoes, but getting them thrown at me): Does anybody agree with me that Dumbledore's behaviour towards Snape at the end of PoA is not 100% correct? Wouldn't have Snape have trusted him enough to believe in the incredible story about Pettigrew? I think D. should have told him, after he had calmed down a bit, not in the presence of Fudge, but afterwards.
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Snape may have been just too worked up to be reasoned with for a while.


 Excellent post, but I surmise that I should have been more explicit in talking about Snape. I agree with you that given the info and responsibilities *Snape* has, his tantrum was reasonably justified.  I was arguing that the overwhelming force of his anger would seem excessive if we believe that Snape's sole emotional relationship to Harry is "God, I hate this kid; he's just like his dad." 

Unless we suggest that Harry's endangerment would have a direct, visceral personal effect on Snape, his extremely emotional *accusations* of the boy *right in front of the Minister of Magic, who is entirely justified in finding them illogical* are reduced to the "childhood grudge" context. 

However logical we believe his tantrum to be, Fudge could not *possibly* find it so, and from the text he clearly doesn't. Snape has utterly lost control of temper in a very unfavorable context. Oy, the MOM, dementors, an executioner! All here despite Dumbledore's attempts to avoid this very scenario! These are not the people around whom Snape really needs to be acting like an unhinged nutter. 

For Snape to still get in *that* much of a rather public lather motivated primarily from an adolescent jealousy would bespeak instability, as Fudge suspects. Given Fudge's limited information, Fudge is correct in that assessment.  Lupin and Harry are also correct in believing that Snape would be "pathetic" if his attitudes and actions were motivated by school resentments. 

But I think Fudge, Lupin, Black, and the Trio are misunderstanding the situation because they don't have all the info -- every bit as much as Snape misreads the situation in POA because *he* doesn't have all the facts.

I don't believe Dumbledore would entrust students, especially Slytherins, to someone who could become so unhinged that way without real justification. Dumbledore obviously realizes that Snape has *adequate* reason to take the situation as a deadly personal one. 

I believe that Snape *does* still carry the old grudges in his skin, and that he *is* a spiteful, uptight bastard in many respects. I also believe that there has to be some additional motivating (and honorable?) force in his contradictory behavior, which Dumbledore feels mitigates his tendency to be an ass. I don't think the explanation we've been given so far - Snape was jealous and resentful of James and still holds a grudge against Sirius - is nearly the whole story.