Snape, Obliviate, Neville?

[lindseyharrisst]

No: HPFGUIDX 44587

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "anakinbester" <anakinbester at h...> wrote:
> Amy wroter (paraphrased)
> > In some fanfics, Snape seems to have an antipathy 
> > toward Obliviate.  Is there canon support for this?

-Ani then wrote:

As much as I'd like to say that Snape is hard an Neville for some 
nice reason, I really think he treats Neville like that simply 
because the poor boy is so bad in potions.

I personally have thought, since we discovered the truth about 
Neville's parents being aurors who were now in a vegetative state in 
St Mungo's, that Snape's treatment of Neville is a response to his 
guilt about that. I am not saying that Snape was the DE who attacked 
them, just that he shares collective responsibilityas a former 
member of that group. As a reformed man, it would hurt him to bear 
that far more than it would someone like Lucius.
While it might seem illogical, - afterall, you'd think that if you 
were to blame for someone's misfortune, you would try to be extra 
nice to make it up to them,- I think snape appears to hate Neville 
because the nervous, inept boy is a reminder to him of his DE days 
and the consequences of his actions at that time, for wich he can 
never atone. 
Anyone who knows about Neville's past must conclude that his shyness 
and weakness are effects of being brought up an orphan whithout the 
mother-love that breeds inner strength. (Before it's said, yes I 
know harry is also an orphan, but it effects people in different 
ways. Just becuse Harry is not shy does not mean that parentlessness 
is not the reason Neville is).

Snape hates this because he feels responsible. Perhaps by being 
harsh he is trying to get Neville to finally "snap" and stick up for 
himself. This would make Nevillle more able to look after himself in 
a world with Voldemort on the rise and also perhaps make Snape 
himself feel better. Sometimes one needs to feel that one has been 
punished in order to move on and Snape never truly has been since 
Dumbledore gave him a second chance. It can only be over and 
forgiveness asked for once the perversley longed for punishment is 
complete. Readers know this method is unlikely to work, but I expect 
it's what Sanpe would do if roles were reversed and we all operate, 
to some extent basing our ideas on what would be true in our case.

An additional theory is that Snape at some level hates Neville for 
his weakness because he considers that he would have been a better 
person and not committed DE attrocities if someone had been firmer 
with him as a pupil or those he killed had put up more of a fight. 
All it takes for evil to triamph is for good people to do nothing 
and he resents that he was allowed to get away with his worst 
excesses. He almost feels, as I said above, cheated of the right to 
be punished, though in this case in a slightly different way.

All this does not mean he would otherwise like Neville or be 
demonstratively nicer to him, it just explains why he gets treated 
worse than any other Gryffindor.

Lindsey