TBAY: Oh, What a Tangled Web - Generational Parallels

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 78229

Laura fingered the engraved invitation that had accompanied the 
galleys of Abigail's latest scholarly article for the renowned Potter 
Quarterly Review.  "Wow", she thought, "Abigail's branched out into 
three-dimensional conceptual realizations!  And she's invited me to 
the unveiling of her first project! I can't wait!"  Eagerly she 
unwrapped the draft of Abigail's article and sat down to read...Hours 
later, after several close readings and much mulling of Abigail's 
theories, Laura was able to collect her thoughts and make some 
critiques. She collected her quill and parchment and found her self-
correcting ink, and wrote.

[big snip-this was all great stuff]
...Abigail says, frowning.  "I'm not 
> > crazy about OOP Fred & George, but I don't think they've ever 
> > reached the depths to which we saw James and Sirius sink in 
> > the Pensieve scene.  

Laura:

Oh, I don't know about that.  They sent Montague somewhere in the 
Vanishing Cabinet in OoP, and they had no idea where he went or when 
he'd return.  Sounds a mite nasty to me-although he probably deserved 
it.
<snip> 
> > "Is that it for James?"  Dicentra asks.
> > 
> > "Hardly."  Abigail smirks.  She picks up a new pipe and, with a 
> > flourish of her wand, labels it 'Draco Malfoy'.
> > 
> > "Both bullies."  She says thoughtfully. 

 Laura:

No, I don't think James or Sirius was a bully.  We have no evidence 
that they gave a hard time to anyone but Snape.  And Snape seemed to 
give as much as he got, even though we haven't seen details of any 
one incident (nor are we likely to hear a first person account with 
both James and Sirius gone).  So it might have been a campaign of 
mutual provocation but it wasn't bullying.
Draco, on the other hand, pushes around everyone he can get away with 
pushing around, for any reason and at every opportunity.  Since we 
see things from Harry's POV, we don't see how Draco treats kids from 
other houses besides Gryffindor, but there's no reason to expect that 
he would be any kinder to them, especially since each of the other 2 
houses would have mixed-parentage kids in it. 

<snip>... Abigail says sternly.  "Harry 
> > hates the Dark Arts, and so does Ron.  Neither of them would 
> > even consider the kind of display that James and Sirius make of 
> > Snape. 

Laura:

Want to bet?  I have no doubt whatsoever that if either Harry or Ron 
had thought of it, Draco would have been hanging upside down faster 
than you can say "mudblood".  They've both been enraged at him enough 
times-perhaps they just lack the necessary imagination.

Abigail: 
> > "Now, we've already said that within the Harry/Ron relationship, 
> > Harry parallels Sirius, so let's just take care of that."  She 
> bends 
> > the Harry pipe towards the Sirius pipe and welds them together.  
> > "Now, the general assumption is that Sirius is paralleled by 
> > Ron, and frankly that's not entirely off-base.  In terms of 
> > personality, Ron and Sirius are both hot-tempered and not a 
> > little reckless.  They tend to act first, think second, and leave 
> > more cerebral activities to their companions - Hermione in 
> > Ron's case, Lupin in Sirius' case."

Laura:

Sounds to me like that description could apply equally well to Harry 
or Ron.

<snip> 

  "Now, I don't think we can avoid 
> > paralleling Snape and Draco, because they both hold (or held) 
> > anti-muggle beliefs and represent Slytherin." 

Laura:

Snape would have those in common with anyone in that house.

 <snip> 
> > "In light of OOP, the real parallel is obvious."  Dicentra says.  
> > "Snape and Harry both come from unhappy homes.  They were 
> > both bullied and ostracized."
> > 
> > "But for different reasons."  Abigail points out.  "Just as Draco 
> > and James have different reasons for being bullies, Snape and 
> > Harry are bullied for opposite reasons - siding with Voldemort 
> > and siding with Dumbledore."  

Laura:

See above for reasons why James isn't a bully.  And I think you're 
off-base with the LV-DD parallel.  Snape was ostracized by the 
Marauders because he was a creepy, misanthropic kid who even at age 
11 was heavy into the dark arts and couldn't seem to keep his nose 
out of their affairs.  His connection to LV came afterward.  As for 
Harry, he was never ostracized for supporting DD by the other non-
Slytherin students.  The only people who gave him a hard time about 
that were Lucius, Fudge and Umbridge.  When Harry had problems with 
the other students, it was because they suspected him of something, 
like being able to speak Parseltongue or being selected as champion.  
snip> > "Of course, there are other similarities between Harry and 
Snape."  
> > Says Abigail.  "Will you listen to this?  It's from chapter 24 of 
> OOP, 
> > Occlumency, page 473 of the UK hardcover, during Harry's first 
> > Occlumency lesson."  She opens her book and begins to read:
> > 
> > ---------------------
> > 
> > '"Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord!" said 
> > Snape savagely.  "Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their 
> > sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad 
> > memories and allow themselves to be provoked so easily - 
> > weak people, in other words - they stand no chance against his 
> > powers!  He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!"'
> > 
> > ---------------------
> > 
> > Abigail closes the book with a bemused expression.  "That gave 
> > me quite a chuckle when I first read it.  Snape might as well be 
> > describing himself.  I especially liked the bit about wallowing 
in 
> > sad memories."
> > 
> > "Not always."  Dicentra objects.  "Snape can be cool as a 
> > cucumber at time.  Look at him when faced with Quirrel or 
> > Lockhart.  Or Lupin, for that matter.  How cool would you be if 
you 
> > were face to face with a man who almost ate you?  The most 
> > Moody can get out of Snape is an involuntary shudder, and he 
> > willingly exposes himself to Fudge as a DE.  Apart from Sirius, 
the 
> > only person who consistently gets under Snape's skin is Harry."

Laura:

I'd have to agree with Dicentra here.  Snape doesn't ever lose 
control in front of LV or his associates.  The only person who can 
drive him to meltdown is Harry-and that's Snape's own doing.  He was 
Harry's enemy before he ever met Harry.  It's just as well for SS 
that Harry *wasn't* sorted into Slytherin-can you imagine the 
conflict he would have felt?  And just because he removed memories 
into the Pensieve doesn't mean he was wallowing in them.  He just 
wanted to keep them private.  He does seem give most of his emotional 
energy to working out his past problems, though, which is probably 
why he's at Hogwarts-and why it's a bad idea for him to be there.  He 
can never correct the past no matter how much control he can exert in 
the present. 
One more thing-it wasn't Lupin who would have attacked Snape, it was 
the werewolf.  Remus had no control over what that creature did.  
Snape should have known that it wasn't anything personal in the Shack 
that night.  
> > 
> > "And vice versa."  Abigail says, nodding.  "Harry proves himself 
> > capable of self-control in OOP.  He stops himself from crying out 
> > or reacting in any way to Umbridge's punishment.  There's a 
> > similar dynamic at play - Harry is attempting to control his 
> > emotions out of spite.  He succeeds with Umbridge, but fails with 
> > Snape."

Laura:

That's because Snape knows exactly which buttons to push-it's 
personal with him, whereas Umbridge treats everyone the way she 
treats Harry (except for her Squad members).
> > 
> > "Snape looks at Harry and sees James."  Dicentra says.  "No 
matter 
> > how unlike James Harry is.  Weren't you surprised when Sirius 
told 
> > Harry so?"
> > 
> > "Well, it was a rather mean-spirited thing to say."  Abigail 
admits.
> > 
> > "Apart from that."  Dicentra insists.  "Even before the OOP 
> pensieve 
> > scene it was obvious that Harry and James are nothing alike.  
> > James was obviously an extrovert - we could see that just by the 
> > comparison to F&G in PoA and the existence of the Marauder's 
> > Map.  Harry keeps himself to himself.  He doesn't show his 
> > emotions, he isn't demonstrative.  He doesn't laugh often or draw 
> > attention to himself or show his feelings.  Neither Sirius nor 
> Snape 
> > seem capable of seeing this."

Laura:

Okay, maybe that wasn't Sirius's finest moment.  But if you look at 
it from his POV, you can see where he had good reasons to think that 
Harry really was like James.  Think about it:  whenever Sirius 
encounters Harry, Harry shows bravery, audacity, leadership, 
intelligence and resourcefulness (in the Shack and during the 
Tournament in particular).  Harry, like James, is absolutely loyal to 
his best friends and he detests the dark arts and everything about 
them.  If Sirius and Harry had had the chance to live together under 
normal circumstances, in which neither one of them was under 
emotional pressure, Sirius would have come to see that Harry was his 
own person.  As it is, it seems natural and reasonable enough for 
Sirius to identify in Harry qualities that he valued in his best 
friend-we're always looking for our friends in their children.  

There's a bit of sad irony in Sirius's jab at Harry.  Most kids at 15 
are looking for ways to be different from their parents-that's part 
of the process of building an identity and preparing to separate.  
But Harry is stuck in an earlier stage, never having had the chance 
to proceed through the normal course of development.  So a remark 
that most kids might have shrugged off becomes deeply painful to 
him.  Harry would have risked himself for Sirius (and did) but he 
wasn't willing to risk Sirius, and Sirius wasn't able to admit it. 
Sirius would have done better to direct his anger at the cause-
Dumbledore.  Yeah, I'm really ticked at DD.


Laura reread her notes, then carefully sealed them into an envelope 
and sent them winging off to Abigail.  "Now", she thought, "where 
should I go shopping for a dress for the opening?  Something black, I 
think..."