A detailed analysis of Snape's hatred of Harry (S.N.O.T.)

[Diana <dianasdolls@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49057

I've been thinking all day today about Snape's hatred of Harry and 
how this may or may not change in future books, and why he loathes 
him so much.  I've come up with a detailed and very long analysis of 
Snape's feelings toward Harry, Ron, Hermione and Draco.

Not knowing Snape's true history with the Death Eaters, I don't know 
if Snape was always a spy for Dumbledore or is a former evil DE now 
working for the good side.  However, this does not affect my theory, 
which I've called S.N.O.T. or Snape the Nasty Odious Twit.  ;)

Let's start with Snape as a child in school.  I imagine Snape is 
very much like Draco Malfoy at that age.  Sirius even says in PoA, 
while explaining the "prank" they played on Snape to H/H/R in the 
Shrieking Shack, that Malfoy was always sneaking around trying to 
catch James, Remus and Sirius (and probably that rat Peter) doing 
something against the rules so they would be expelled.  This is what 
Malfoy does constantly - try to get Harry expelled. 

Snape was jealous of James' popularity, skill at Quidditch and his 
small group of close-knit friends, all of which Harry now has at 
Hogwart¡¦s.  Even twelve years after James' death, Snape says, 
sneeringly, "...a little talent on the Quidditch field..." with 
great derision while interrogating Harry after Harry's head was seen 
by Malfoy in Hogsmeade [PoA].  He even attributes "strutting" to 
James, and to Harry, though nothing in canon suggests that James 
actually strutted around the school. [C'mon, we all know James 
didn't strut, right?] We know for a fact Harry doesn't "strut".  
These are all comments made by a man so overcome with jealousy he's 
poisoning himself with it (figuratively, of course).

His jealously of James runs so deep that he's still obsessed by how, 
in his own eyes as well as other's eyes, he failed to measure up to 
James while in school.  I mean James and his wife Lily were murdered 
thirteen years ago and their only child has been living with 
hateful, spiteful nitwit Muggles!  That¡¦s an amazingly long-lasting 
and unceasing rage of jealousy for a person to maintain!.  

Why *would* Snape hold such a deep hatred for James for so many 
years?  Well, I would say that Snape went to Hogwart's with a vision 
of himself as *the* person [instead of James] who *deserved* the 
popularity, athletic ability and fun-loving personality that James 
must have had.  The problem was that Snape didn't have any of those 
things and these are things that can be gained by waving a magic 
wand and wishing them to be so.  When, for want of a better 
description, Snape ended up being the Draco Malfoy of his day; his 
resentment reached monstrous proportions - and is still very 
actively maintained and close to the surface no matter how many 
years may have passed between the boy he was and the man he is now.
Now take into account the prank, put into play by Sirius Black 
unbeknownst to James and Remus, that nearly cost Snape his life back 
in school.  Being attacked and eaten by a werewolf would have been 
an especially horrible and painful death, so I can kind of 
understand Snape¡¦s lingering hatred for the people who he thinks 
tried to kill him.  Despite Snape¡¦s mistaken belief that James only 
saved Snape from Wolf!Lupin to save himself from being expelled, 
Snape still owes James a life debt, which according to Dumbledore is 
a serious thing in the Wizarding World.  Snape would then owe a life 
debt to a person he loathes and envies more than anything in the 
world ¡V a person who Snape felt engineered the saving of his life 
[by endangering it in the first place] thus causing a life-debt for 
purely selfish reasons.  If Snape ever actually believed that James 
had no foreknowledge of the prank and saved his life just because it 
was the right thing to do, then Snape¡¦s head would probably explode 
in a fit of catastrophic jealousy.  After all, this would mean James 
may have been *worth* all the popularity and attention because he 
was a heroic and genuinely good person.  This is not a view Snape 
can ever accept for his own peace of mind. 

So, Snape, still intensely envious of a man who DIED young thirteen 
years ago [as of GoF, so far] sees this man¡¦s son enter Hogwarts and 
repeat his father¡¦s steps.  Harry has an amazing talent for flying 
and Quidditch, a very close-knit group of friends and ten-fold the 
amount of popularity of his father because he¡¦s famous to boot!.  
Snape sees Draco Malfoy start the same year and sees himself in 
Draco, an extremely jealous and spiteful boy in the same house he 
was in, and that Draco is immediately forced to take a backseat to 
famous Harry Potter and even to Harry¡¦s friends.  Snape, expectedly, 
boils over and relives his feelings of hatred for James and directs 
them at Harry.  Unlike when he was just a powerless classmate of 
James, Snape, as an adult and a professor, now has power to inflict 
verbal abuse, bullying and punishment on Harry, who not only follows 
his father¡¦s path in Hogwarts but even looks remarkably like him!  
Snape probably feels like he¡¦s getting to bully, punish and verbally 
abuse James every time he gets to verbally assault Harry.   That is 
why Snape enjoys picking on Harry so very much ¡V he¡¦s not punishing 
Harry, but James in the secret recesses of his heart.  

Extending the analogy further, Snape hated Sirius and Remus, too, 
because they were James¡¦ friends.  The prank also gave Snape 
reasons, independent of their association with James, to hate Sirius 
and Remus.  Many years later, Harry has Ron and Hermione, two close 
friends who would die for Harry, if it came to that, just like 
Sirius and Remus would have died for James.  Snape is going to hate 
them, no matter what, as extensions of Harry¡¦s unfairly *better* 
school life than what Snape had or what Draco has.  So, Snape is 
cruel [¡§I see no difference.¡¨ to Hermione¡¦s overgrown teeth in GoF, 
for example] to Hermione and Ron because he sees them as living 
examples of Harry¡¦s undeserved popularity and *better* life.    

***Note:  I do not mean to diminish Ron and Hermione as 
characters/people in their own right ¡V I¡¦m just pointing out Snape¡¦s 
point of view of them as pertains to my S.N.O.T. theory.***

Like James, Harry also gets away with breaking the rules, a lot, and 
gets a lot of breaks.  In Snape¡¦s view, this is another unfair perk 
that both James enjoyed and Harry enjoys while at Hogwarts.  What 
Snape doesn¡¦t realize in his obsessive hatred of all things James 
and Harry, is that Harry breaks the rules not because he *can*, but 
because he *must*.  Harry doesn¡¦t go after the Sorcerer¡¦s Stone for 
fun ¡V he goes to stop Voldemort from getting it first.  Harry 
doesn¡¦t go into the Chamber of Secrets because he¡¦s just curious 
what¡¦s in there ¡V he goes to save Ginny¡¦s life.  Harry doesn¡¦t 
*consort* [Snape¡¦s word, not mine] with werewolves and murderers 
because he thinks he¡¦s immune from punishment or injury, but because 
he was trying to save Ron from being eaten by an enormous black 
dog.  

When Harry does break the rules for lesser reasons, such as going 
into Hogsmeade without permission, walking the school at night and 
visiting Hagrid when he¡¦s not supposed to, he is fearful of being 
caught and expelled.  Harry is afraid of disappointing Dumbledore 
and of the consequences of getting caught.  Harry never assumes that 
if he¡¦s caught that he¡¦ll get off because of who he is.  He never 
trades on being famous and Dumbledore¡¦s favorite as the reason he 
breaks the rules.  Malfoy, on the other hand, constantly breaks the 
rules in front of Snape specifically because he knows he won¡¦t be 
punished.  Harry breaks the rules anyway despite his anxiety of 
getting caught and expelled because, like his father, it¡¦s part of 
his very nature.  Snape can¡¦t understand this and sees Harry¡¦s rule-
breaking as Harry proclaiming how special and famous he is ¡Vso 
special and famous he won¡¦t be punished for breaking rules.  

Harry also uses his father¡¦s invisibility cloak, which Snape 
discovers the existence of in GoF, without any supervision, 
repercussions or punishment from Dumbledore.  Snape must know that 
Dumbledore is not only fully aware that Harry has this cloak, but 
gave it to him and allows him to use it whenever he wants.  Snape is 
also probably aware that Dumbledore has not told any of the staff 
that Harry has an invisibility cloak as Snape had to stumble upon it 
himself by accident.  In Snape¡¦s view this is a classic example of 
Harry, like James, getting all the perks and good stuff in life 
without any of the punishments.

Now Draco, embodying Snape¡¦s adult view of himself when he was a 
child, sees Harry and his friends in much the same way Snape viewed 
James and his friends.  Snape would of course empathize with Draco 
and build him up while tearing Harry down every chance he got.  
Staying on Lucius Malfoy¡¦s *good side* by hating Harry while 
praising Draco for the possible purposes of spying on DEs or 
Voldemort would have nothing to do with how Snape treats Harry.  
Snape hates Harry for plenty of reasons already and would do so 
anyway without possibly needing to maintain a cover as a DE.  

IMO, Snape will *always* hate Harry because Harry, exactly like his 
father before him, is the person who gets everything while Snape 
[and now Draco] gets the short end of the stick.  Not only does 
Harry get to do everything without ever seeming to get severely 
punished, but Snape is obligated by a life-debt to a man he hated to 
repay that debt by keeping Harry from harm.  By harm I mean death, 
as I doubt Snape would care if Harry was badly injured as long as he 
wasn¡¦t going to die.  By example, I cite in GoF when Snape implied 
he was going to poison Harry at the end of class to test the 
students¡¦ antidotes.  Snape, as a potions master would have the 
antidote ready to save Harry¡¦s life but wouldn¡¦t mind subjecting him 
to some pain and fear of dying before dosing him with the antidote.  
When Harry is called out of class for photos with the other 
champions, Snape is furious because Harry¡¦s luck and *better* life 
has triumphed again and Snape was denied his little *torture of 
Harry* session.  

At the end of PoA, Snape is denied a chance to bask in some glory 
and fame by being the person who saved the life of the famous Harry 
Potter, so he vents with his bitter and nearly unhinged verbal 
attack on Harry and Hermione in the hospital ward.  Because Harry, 
Hermione and, importantly, Dumbledore, don¡¦t acknowledge and confirm 
Snape¡¦s view of events, then Snape is denied settling the life-debt 
he owes to James by saving Harry and is being dismissed, again, by 
Dumbledore as Snape feels Dumbledore dismissed Black¡¦s prank to 
murder him many years ago.  Snape can¡¦t claim he saved Harry¡¦s life 
by muttering a counter-curse to Quirrell¡¦s attempt to kill Harry at 
the Quidditch match in PS/SS because Quirrell stopped jinxing the 
broom before Hermione interrupted Snape¡¦s counter-curse by setting 
his cape on fire.  

Snape¡¦s treatment of Neville Longbottom is also very indicative of 
his unpleasant personality and complete lack of compassion.  Snape 
picks on Neville because he can ¡V and Neville gives him the reaction 
Snape wants, fear.

So, to conclude, Snape is an unpleasant, hateful, spiteful and petty 
person.  That is just who he is.  IMO, he is not trying to cover up 
his opposition to Voldemort and the DEs by abusing Harry ¡V he just 
hates Harry for personal reasons of his own.  If Voldemort was 
really dead with no chance of coming back, Snape would still hate 
Harry just as much.  I cannot see Snape changing such a basic tenet 
of his personality and part of his life ¡V his intense hatred for 
James, then Harry ¡V in some future book.  If Harry were to ever save 
Snape¡¦s life, no matter how accidentally, I imagine poor Snape would 
probably have an apoplectic fit to rival the Big Bang.  ;)

Going by my theory above, Snape isn¡¦t *truly* evil, not as defined 
by the likes of Voldemort or Lucius Malfoy, for example.  Harry, 
Ron, Hermione and Neville probably think he¡¦s evil, but I don¡¦t 
think he¡¦s evil, just extremely nasty, unlikable and full of 
boundless amounts of envy.  

Harry hates Snape just as much as Snape hates him, but probably 
hasn¡¦t thought through all the specific reasons and parallels 
between Snape and James at school and Harry and Draco at school.  I 
wouldn¡¦t be surprised though if the ever observant Harry finally 
connects the dots and sees Snape for how pathetic his hatred really 
is.  If Harry does that he will take away what Snape most enjoys ¡V 
getting a rise and reaction out of Harry.  I imagine Harry *might* 
feel some pity for Snape ¡V a man¡¦s whose intense jealousy of Harry¡¦s 
father has shaped his very being.

Sorry for the novel-length post.  ļ

Diana