Snape's general behavior-Cool Cats

[Demelza]

No: HPFGUIDX 25659

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., lady.nymphaea at f... wrote:

> > Dumbledore in SS/PS tells Harry that Snape and James had a 
> > relationship very much like Harry's and Draco's: antagonistic. The 
> > origins of that antagonism haven't been completely revealed. Maybe 
> it 
> > was a combination of things. Maybe Snape referred to Lily and the 
> > other Muggle-borns as  "mud-bloods". There has been bad blood 
> between 
> > the Snape and Potter families for generations.
> 
> That last statement isn't proven. It seems like it's more than 
> Quidditch rivalry that caused the Potter feud, as both Snape and 
> Black seem to lead Harry to believe was the cause, but this looks 
> like it's another one of these Items to be Revealed Later.
> 

Mea culpa. That sentence should read "Maybe there had been bad blood 
between the Snape and Potter fammilies for generations". Bad 
proofreading on my part.

As you wrote, I too think the reason for the feud is more complex than 
simple envy. The reason is probably multifactoral with the other 
factors being of a more 'mature' nature and we'll find it out as the 
series progress. 

Or it could simply be that the Snape Slytherin Clique and the Potter 
Clique just disliked each other for the inane reasons groups of 
adolescents  don't like each other. In my high school, there was a 
clique of girls who made fun of anyone who didn't dress in a certain 
way. I don't know the UK equivalent of the American High school clique 
system, but kids were usually divided up into jocks, freaks, geeks, 
preps and the fringe (the very few people who didn't fit any of these 
cliques and was "cool" with all of them).

Which leads me to Martin's post. The Marauder's could very well have 
been representative of the houses, but they could also have been 
divided up into the American high school clique system too. Jocks are 
athletes. Freaks are the pot-heads or the guys who ran around wearing 
Van Halen or Metallica t-shirts (I suppose Goths can be freaks too) 
or the quiet introverted types who weren't bright enough to be geeks. 
Geeks are the bookish, smart kids. Preps are the rah-rah, school 
spirit kids who embody the stereotypical "high school student" (think 
Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon Beach movies). Of course, there 
is over-lap among the categories.

James was a jock. He excelled in Quidditch (something substantiated by 
 several people). Sirius strikes me as a geek (the smart kid). Lupin 
as a prep, mainly because I think he would try to hide his werewolf 
problem by 'blending in'. Peter, I envision as a freak: the quiet, 
introverted type.