Snape and those Troublemakers (was Snape (still!)

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 33747

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Edblanning at a... wrote:>

<snip> 

> However, I'd like to expand a theory  I mentioned once before. What 
if Snape 
> never was really a 'bad guy'? What if he's always been battling the 
two sides 
> of his nature? I  agree with jchutney that Snape may see Dumbledore 
as a 
> surrogate father. I think he probably wanted to do so whilst at 
school. If 
> so, he must have been constantly disappointed by Dumbledore's 
apparent 
> favouritism for those troublemakers, Potter and Black.

Can you give some examples of Dumbledore's constant favoritism 
towards Potter and Black?  Does you mean that Snape went through 
seven years at Hogwarts trying to find a way to make a connection 
with Dumbledore as a father figure, only to be pushed away because 
Dumbledore preferred James and Sirius?  Or are you saying that 
Snape's perception while at school was that Dumbledore as Headmaster 
let Potter, etal. get away with things, even if that was not the case?

Potter/Black certainly caused trouble, according to McGonagall, at 
least.  And, in order to be recognized as troublemakers, obviously, 
they had to get caught a fair amount of the time.  (If their pranks 
remained anonymous, they would not have had the reputation they 
seemed to have developed over the years they were at Hogwarts.)

I don't know of any evidence that Dumbledore constantly let them get 
away with things.  I think it more likely that Snape felt that they 
never got enough punishment or a severe enough punishment and that 
may have colored his vision of whether or not they were Dumbledore's 
Pets.  His view may have been reinforced by the fact that James 
became a prefect and then Head Boy.  Snape could perceive this as 
favoritism, but, IIRC, Dumbledore doesn't unilaterally choose who 
will fill those posts. And, if a misbehaving student is caught, it is 
up to the Professors, as well as the Headmaster to mete out 
punishment.  That was not Snape's business.  

Ah, you're all saying, but what about the infamous Prank?  I think 
that is the only incident we know about where Snape has a case for 
finding Dumbledore too lenient.  I don't blame Snape for his feelings 
here.  At the time, he didn't know the whole story, seeing as how he 
thought Lupin was in on it, too. But, I can't help but wonder how 
much of the real story was explained to Snape afterwards, and how 
much of that he chose to believe or ignore.  We have the following 
lines in PoA:

Snape: Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of 
sixteen...You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster?

Dumbledore: My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus.

That exchange has always struck me as a case where two people viewed 
a past incident differently.  Snape is still convinced that Sirius 
truly intended to murder him, using Lupin as a weapon.  Dumbledore, 
it seems to me, sees a different, and perhaps a more encompassing 
view of the whole picture.  

Marianne