Emotional Baggage Handler!Snape, was Hagrid/Dursleys and owl post (a little bit of owl post)

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 41340

> But again, I keep thinking maybe this is an act. Snape knows he has
> to put on the "hate Gryffindor" vibe for the benefit of Draco, Crabbe
> and Goyle.

It's been a few eons, so I'm going to throw out my "why Snape hates Hermione
(and others)" thoughts for dissection and general trampling.

I believe that Snape "sees" James and his friends in Harry and *his.* His
reactions to Harry, Ron, and Hermione are just as much reactions to James et
al., as they are to Harry, Ron, and Hermione. His feelings that Harry is
allowed to get away with murder are compounded and enhanced by old baggage
that James and his friends were allowed to do so, as well.

To me, there is a certain tragic element, in that Hermione seems to have
exactly what it would take to be the kind of student Snape should
appreciate, and he cannot accept or appreciate her because of her
association with Harry. His emotional baggage won't let him appreciate the
kind of student that comes along once in a blue moon, who really loves
learning for the sake of learning and is genuinely skilled at Potions.

This is even more unfortunate because at the time Snape made his judgement
of Hermione--the first Potions class--that judgement was wrong. She was
*not* Harry's friend, not yet. I suspect that when Harry referred Snape to
her for his questions, Snape assumed they were friends and the negative
associations began right there.

I think Snape favors Malfoy because he "sees" himself in Malfoy, just a bit,
as well, if only because Malfoy so obviously Harry's opponent. He gives
Malfoy breaks because he feels he, Snape, never got them. He's compensating.

I suspect that much of this is on an unconscious level. Not all, I bet,
because I think Snape is a ruthlessly honest person. He is a nasty, mean,
vindictive person, but I think he *knows* it. He is perfectly aware that he
acts in a biased manner, and I suspect he knows himself well enough to admit
why.

None of this discounts the other motivations anyone has put forward. I think
I was one of the earliest "Snape is doing Draco no favors" theorists (i.e.,
by making things so easy on Draco, Snape is deliberately not challenging
him, for the purpose of rendering him not-as-prepared to handle difficult
situations). I also think it's tremendously likely that Snape is favoring
the children of former Death Eaters in order to keep his hand in. Snape is a
complex enough character to have all these factor in his motivation, and
more. I think it very likely that Snape is vicariously compensating, through
Draco, for all the times he thought he didn't get the breaks, and at the
same time rather enjoying the detrimental effect it may have on Lucius'
little pride and joy.

This impression of mine, that many of Snape's actions and reactions are as
much to James/friends as to Harry/friends, is one reason I find that last
interaction between Snape and Harry at GoF's end-of-year feast so very
tantalizing. From the way they look at each other, it suggests that there
has been some re-examination. I think Snape is only now, after four years
and the events of GoF, coming to see Harry as Harry himself, instead of an
extension of James.

I have always felt that Snape's nastiness and general failure to bother with
personal niceties was a function of a sort of "autopilot"--he has been
through such dangerous and hair-trigger situations that the little
day-to-day stuff is pretty much menial. He's moved past where he cares what
many people think, and past where much of what goes on really matters a
whole lot. I think he realizes he's nasty and cruel, but I think he's been
in such awful situations that he really doesn't think what he does to his
students is anything but trivial. Only where his past rears up before him,
as in the Shack, or when Moody/Crouch is baiting him in the hall, or when
Sirius transforms in front of him, do we see a genuine, honest, deep
reaction.

I don't think he genuinely hates Hermione herself. I don't think he
genuinely has ever considered her as anything but a Harry extension, but as
*that,* yes, he hates her. It's simply easier for him to fall back on old
patterns, and treat Harry/friends in the pattern he developed for
James/friends, and treat Draco and the Slytherins in the way he thought he
and his 'gang of Slytherins' should have been treated. Otherwise, he must
invest some real part of himself in honestly seeing these students as
themselves. And I suspect that real interactions are not things he cares to
do for most people, particularly these particular students. Possibly not
until now, when events at the end of GoF have forced him to really see Harry
as his own person and an ally.

Anyway, this rambled a bit (I'm tired, cleaned house all day), but it's been
a long time since I floated the Emotional Baggage Handler!Snape stuff, so I
wondered what the current list would make of it.

--Amanda