School! Snape the bully? (was: Is Draco worse than James Was?)

[alicepmint]

No: HPFGUIDX 77682

~Margaret wrote:
> About Snape: He may not have had the kind supportive friends that 
HRH provide for each other, but he did have some friends.  Either 
Lupin or Sirius said in PoA that Snape was part of a gang of Slytherins 
> that all became Death Eaters.  It was after their O.W.L. exams, so 
it was their 5th year.   If he was going to have a gang, he probably 
had some of them by then. <<< 

We have no canon prove of the timing when he adopted his "friends." 
For now we can only interpret things according to your take on Snape. 
It just made much more sense to me that Snape started to join the 
gang of Slytherin later on in the game, especially AFTER the 
humiliate incidents (or even after the prank), out of the need for 
protection and allies. Snape did not seem the type who would make 
friends unless in some desperation. Based on his "nature" in making 
himself unpopular, he' just seems to me the loner/anti-social type. 
There is just no way out of the entire class who took that OWL exam, 
none of the Slytherin students came over social with Snape (or vice 
versa). It seemed so natural for him to go on with himself drowning 
in his exam papers without chit-chating with any of his classmate. 
The way he wrote his essay longer than anyone and studying his exam 
paper afterward, are almost obsessed-bookworm/over-achiever/Hermione-
ish in a way, and they tend to be friend-less and lonely at one 
point. 

Not to mention when Snape was being brutally bullied, no one 
stood up for him. James and Sirius approached "Snivellus" in such a 
casual predatory manner (just because Sirius was "bored", and they 
noticed Snape "like a dog that has scented a rabbit"). They do not 
see him as some threatening rival who would have known to have a 
dangerous gang to back him up anyday. James and Sirius did not 
wonders if "hey Snivelly where are your Dark Arts pals?" or "Maybe we 
better not go too far in case Snivelly's Dark Arts pals would go 
nasty on us later (in sarcasm of course)." 

When Snape said, "you - wait..." Sirius said coolly, "Wait for what? 
What're you going to do, Snivelly, wipe your nose on us?" Sirius 
could have OBVIOUSLY said, "Wait for what? That you would run back 
crying to your lovely Slytherin gangs to tell them how we mistreated 
you, how they'll come and get us for you?" 

According to JKR's style, she would put all sort of necessary details 
in there. She could have, in many different ways, to insert somewhere 
in the penseive scene to remind us about Snape's "gang", but she did 
not. Nor did Sirius and Lupin mentioned "but Snape has a dangerous 
gang of friends too" later when Harry confronted them. Therefore it 
is clear to me Snape was completely alone and friendless at that 
point in life. 

> Sirius said Snape never missed an opportunity to curse/hex/jinx 
> James, then implied that James was just faster so Snape didn't get 
> many opportunities.  James retaliates in kind, partly because he 
> doesn't like Snape personally, and partly because "What ever kind  
> idiot your father was, James always hated the Dark Arts."  And no 
> matter how awful he was to a kid who was obsessed with the DAs (he 
> became a DE after all) I don't think James would have tormented 
> someone like Neville. (I have a soft spot for Neville, which may be 
> part of why I'm so anti-Malfoy.) <<<

Remember, James "hexes anyone who annoyed him." When Lily 
asked, "what's he ever done to you?" James replied with that 
awlful "because he exists." No matter James was saying this to make 
himself look cool to Lily, there must be certain level of truth in 
there. James despised Snape as some low-form of trash, that his 
existence are either amusement or/and James has the right to 
disapprove such existence. James exercised his superiority by 
bullying the weak and the "wrong-kind" (according to him, the Dark 
Arts oddball kid has no reason to waste space on earth and James 
probably felt self-righteous in rid of their existence).  Since we 
have little canon details, we can only interpret things based on your 
view on these characters. Snape "never missed an opportunity to 
curse/hex/jinx James" could easily be an REACTION of being constantly 
the tormented target. You hate this popular ego-maniac who kept 
bullied you, but you can never fight back at him because he is faster 
and always has his own gang of friends around him. This is what Snape 
result to do - attack James whenever there's opportunities, to fight 
back at his tormentor the only way he can. 

Not to say Snape is justified to do that. But right now from what we 
have in canon, Snape is shown to be the weak and outnumber one in their 
rivalry (is it even a rivalry or a mere "bully-victim" relationship? For 
now I'm seeing the latter according to Lily's reaction). Notice they did 
not mention Snape "never missed an opportunity to curse/hex/jinx attack 
Lupin/Sirius/Peter", while Snape is NOT James's only victim (Lily 
said James "walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you 
just because you can,"). James hexes a whole lot more other people 
even if they did nothing as well, just because their mere 
existence "annoyed" James. We would never know, but what if the 
Neville-type also annoys James (because James could have been annoyed 
by the forgetful?) It's just not too far-fetch to think the ego-
maniac James *thinks* he could hexes the sense/wit out of a Neville-
like.    

> Sirius also said Snape was always following MWPP around trying 
to get them in trouble, even expelled.  Makes Snape sound more 
like the bully than the victim, doesn't it? (yes I know it's a 
very biased source, but it's canon that's never been contradicted.) <<<

Now this is where I have to strongly disagree. You see Snape as the 
bully and MWPP the victim??  Again you can interpret things 
differently. Why would Snape wanted to get MWPP expelled? Is it 
because he is a evil mean big bully therefore it is only natural for 
him get "good people" expelled? Or because he hated his tormentors who 
made his school life hell so much that he wanted to get his bullies 
expelled?  No one could contradict what was said canon, but the 
motivation and intention are arguable. 

Before OOP I didn't bother to think of this situation because MWPP were 
used to be these nice fun kids, prankster at most in Fred and George 
level, and Snape was this evil git (potentially bully) whose hobbies was getting Gryfinddor expel. But now knowing the true power dynmaics between 
MWPP and Snape, I'm not one-sided toward MWPP anymore. MWPP were NOT 
completely innocent in provoking someone who hated them enough to 
want to get them expel. I'm not trying to make Snape some poor 
innocent victim here. He did call Lily a mudblood. He has his 
Slytherin ways to get back to MWPP which in many of us are "scum-like 
behaviors" (as if some people seem to believe that "hexing someone in 
his back" is million times worst and unforgivable than "hanging 
someone upside down and take off his undies in public"). But you are 
stretching there in claiming School!Snape is the bully and MWPP the 
victim. Honestly, with big bully like James, it's no wonder someone 
would want him out of school for good.

 
> Basically, Draco torments everyone who isn't a Slytherin (except 
maybe the Ravenclaws, I don't remember him doing anything to them) 
and they can't ALL have humiliated him at some point! <<<

I'm no fan of Draco, but even that sounds weak. Draco torment and 
humiliate the entire school who are non-Slytherin? I just can't see 
that, he is just so useless, not nasty nor powerful enough to impact 
little in the story other than writing stupid lyrics (direct at Ron) 
and making stupid Support-Cedric/Potter-stinks badges, or to do 
Umbridge's dirty work, to have such an "honor" really. 

Alice