McGonagall & Riddle/Snape and Harry/Snape and Sirius

blpurdom blpurdom at yahoo.com
Mon Apr 22 14:29:19 UTC 2002


No: HPFGUIDX 38045

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "catlady_de_los_angeles" <catlady at w...> 
wrote:
> GulPlum wrote:
> 
> > I don't see any implication that McGonnagal went into teaching as
> > a career to the exclusion of anything else - after all, although
> > she'd have been the right age, she would have been there in 
> > Riddle's time...
> 
> She would have been a STUDENT in Riddle's time.

Actually, if she was around 75 in 1992 (wasn't it around the time of 
the second book that JKR said Dumbledore was 150 and McGonagall was 
75?) she would have been born in 1917, ten years before Riddle.  If 
she was actually born as late as 1921, she would have been a seventh 
year when Riddle was a first year, but I think they missed being 
students at the same time by a few years.  (She probably finished in 
1935 and he would have started in 1938.) There's no way of telling 
whether she went right into teaching after finishing school, but 
during Riddle's time in school, wasn't Dumbledore still the 
Transfiguration teacher? (Riddle's diary)

> Marianne wrote:
> 
> > "Who's he to lecture me about being out-of-bounds...after all the
> > stuff he did at school?" But, Harry is only mildy miffed at 
> > this; whereas had Snape said the same thing to him, Harry would 
> > have been very annoyed.  
> 
> But Harry COULDN'T have said the same about Snape, as he doesn't 
> know of Snape breaking any rules as a student.

This is true; perhaps Marrianne was assuming because of the 
statement about Snape knowing more curses when he started Hogwarts 
than many seventh years know; it's not completely off-the-wall to 
assume that someone who knows a lot of dark curses might actually 
use them.  (My guess is, however, that Snape would have masterfully 
eluded the authorities and rarely received detention.)

> Snape HAS done things for Harry's good (countercursing Quirrell's 
> effort to knock him off his broomstick for sure; beating him up 
> for being "our new celebrity" maybe) but I feel sure that Snape 
> has done things that were spiteful to Harry simply out of spite 
> and NOT for Harry's own good. I am not convinced that Snape 
> intended to teach Harry better judgment than to put himself at 
> risk by sneaking out to Hogsmeade; I think Snape was simply 
> relieving his own annoyance at Harry.

He also speaks repeatedly of Harry being as cocky as James.  Part of 
his complicated relationship with Harry definitely stems from his 
complicated relationship with James Potter.  And there's the time 
James saved his life, leaving him with a debt to repay (to someone 
whom he greatly dislikes).  One has to wonder how the Potters knew 
in the first place that they needed a Secret Keeper.  Most folks in 
the wizarding world didn't seem to have Secret Keepers.  Perhaps 
Snape got wind of the Potters being targeted and went to Dumbeldore, 
figuring that as big a git as he thought James was, he didn't 
deserve to die and have his family die as well.  It would also be a 
way for Snape's debt to be paid (plus escaping continuing to do 
whatever gruesome things he'd been forced to do as a Death Eater).  

Unfortunately, it didn't work, and the man he was trying to protect, 
James Potter, was killed, and his child orphaned.  Snape would 
obviously blame Sirius Black, whom he already didn't like anyway.  
This means he still has a debt, which is transferred to Harry.  
Harry displays many of the annoying traits Snape disliked in James, 
and he may also be annoyed that Harry's recklessness may prevent 
Snape from paying his debt.  He has also been carrying around 
resentment of Sirius Black (for multiple reasons) for many years, 
and suddenly being asked by Dumbledore at the end of GoF to work on 
the same side as Sirius has got to be giving him an ulcer or 
something. <g>
 
--Barb
The Triangle Prophecy is here!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HP_Psych
http://schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb   





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