A Different Look at Snape

[elfundeb]

No: HPFGUIDX 35661

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "brewpub44" <brewpub44 at e...> wrote:
> Cheers!
> 
> I wanted to put forth a different look at Snape, more specifically 
> what a nasty teacher he is to his students.
> 
> > Potions are not trivial 
> things, and poisons are real things. And if Harry is hated by DEs 
and 
> LV, is it unreasonable to assume someone will try to poison him? 
Not 
> at all! In fact, if he is so seemingly impervious to LV's magic, 
> poison to me sounds like one solution (so would a bullet, but we're 
> not going there right now).
> 
> Not only that, but Snape has seen the DEs. He has been one of them. 
> He has been daring and bold in his betrayal of them, and 
understands 
> he could very well pay the price himself. He knows the darkness 
that 
> confronts his students.
> 
> So here is the lesson I am trying to impart: Snape is the best 
friend 
> the Big Three have. Pampering them will not help them at all, 
making 
> them tough, smart, skilled, and capable will. It's a tough world, 
and 
> requires tough people.
> 
> A Barkeep in Diagon Alley

I see Snape's personal meanness to Harry & Co. in a similar light.  I 
believe Snape says somewhere (I would be grateful if someone can 
point me to this quote as I'm suddenly afraid that I completely 
imagined it) something to the effect that James was effectively done 
in by a belief in his own invincibility, which Dumbledore implicitly 
fostered by letting him get away with breaking rules with impunity. 
Snape undoubtedly knows better than anyone at Hogwarts just what kind 
of psychological punishment LV can inflict.  So he inflicts some of 
his own and Harry learns to take it.  Much of Snape's behavior toward 
Harry, beginning with the "new celebrity" line in PS/SS right on 
through his dramatic reading of the Witch Weekly article in GoF, 
appears to be calculated to remind Harry that he is not in control 
and he is not immune from danger.  I think Snape truly believes that 
if he doesn't suppress any invincibility tendencies Harry may have, 
then LV will have been handed a great weapon.  And Snape, who is a 
traitor in LV's eyes, cannot afford to have the good guys lose 
because he would not survive an LV victory.  So he has every 
incentive to do everything he can to enhance Harry's chances of 
success.

In other words, I think Snape is intentionally toughening up Harry, 
whether or not there are also other reasons for Snape's cruelty, e.g. 
that he hates the 
Gryffindors for their apparent position as Dumbledore's favorites who 
get away with [attempted] murder, and/or a need to counter 
Dumbledore's favoritism by showing similar favoritism to the 
Slytherins, or whether his actions are made easy because Harry's 
appearance reminds him of James and Lily.   

The flip side to this is that while Snape SEEMS to favor the 
Slytherins, he is not equipping them with the real world survival 
skills that the Gryffindors are getting.  Leading Draco on to believe 
that he appoves of his suck-up comments ("I'll tell Father you're the 
best teacher . . .") and letting the Slytherins get away with 
classroom behavior that would earn the Gryffindors detentions isn't 
going to make the Slytherins tough.  So if 
some of the Slytherins end up fighting with the DEs, they will not 
have the preparation that Harry & Co. received, right under the 
Slytherins' noses.

Debbie, thanking all the Snapes in her life even though they 
still make her angry