Snape Respects Harry Now

[Deb]

No: HPFGUIDX 74929

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "ellejir" <eberte at v...> wrote:
> The point is that Snape has hated and mistreated Harry since he first 
> met him (when Harry was an 11 year old boy, I will remind you.)  Was 
> he nasty to Harry during his first Potions lesson because Harry was 
> insolent and arrogant?  Nope. He began his public-humiliation-of- 
> Harry campaign simply because Harry looked like his father. 

I do think that Snape came to that first Potions class with
pre-conceived ideas about Harry.  Possibly because he expected that
Harry, looking like his father, would act like him.  Possibly because
he  read Harry's mind under the Sorting Hat going "Not Slytherin, not
Slytherin." And likely because of the reaction of the other students
and staff, who were in awe of him, and not because of any effort on
his part. 

On the first day of classes "Whispers followed Harry from the moment
he left his dormitory next day.  People queuing outside classrooms
stood on tiptoe to get a look at him"
Canadian edition, p.99

and with Flitwick, when he took attendance, "when he reached Harry's
name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight" p.99

Snape being Snape, can see why he would be suspicious of Harry's
attitude the first day.  He assumed Harry would be full of himself, as
his father was. All his comments to Harry were from this point of view:

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry potter. Our new - celebrity." p.101

He asked those questions of Harry to prove a point.  As he said "Tut,
tut - fame clearly isn't everything." p.102

The man isn't nice.  He does not have a positive teaching method. He
is not fair.  But, I think there were reasons behind his first
reaction to Harry beyond him just looking like his father.

Deb S, aka readzalot, Canada