It's Snape's fault!!!

[Maria Ribera]

No: HPFGUIDX 66771

In response to my message about Snape provoking Harry's curiosity by 
removing  his memories into the pensieve right in front of him, 
Victoria said:

<<<<I thought that by doing this Snape was really wanting Harry to look,
but giving himself the option of being cross with him for looking 
too.>>>

Well, i think that's very childish, and makes him almost as guilty as 
Harry. And i am not trying to make Harry look innocent, as i said 
before he did something very wrong, but Snape is not the innocent 
victim here.

Then Snuffles said:

<<<However, I think there was a motive to what Snape did. He KNEW Harry 
would look into the Penseive. He knew Harry would see a moment of his 
father acting as the ass. He also knew that this might just taint 
Harry's perception of James as a Saint-like figure. Also, this moment 
perpetuates Snape's ideas of Harry being 'above the rules' and 
untrustworthly.>>>

To which I (Maria) respond:

But, if he did it on purpose to "encourage" Harry to look and find out 
about his father, then he should have been satisfied that he had found 
out, not that outraged about Harry invading his privacy. If you were 
right, and Snape's point was actually that Harry learned about the 
truth, then i don't see why he would stop with the Occlumancy lessons.

greatlit2003 also had a go:

<<<Harry is not a child. He is fifteen years old, and has gone through
more than most people that age. Even if he was a normal person, he
would still not have any excuse for that behavior at his age. This
doesn't mean that I believe Harry should be held to adult standards,
but we should not be so quick to blame Snape either. I personally
wouldn't want to teach someone that had no respect for my privacy,
and made no effort to learn what I was teaching.
Not all teenagers allow their curiosity to get the better of them.
For all of his strengths, one of Harry's biggest problems is his
nosiness. No teacher should have to worry that their fifteen year
student will go snooping around their office. >>>

While I agree, that Harry shouldn't have done it in the first place, I 
still think it was very stupid of Snape to do it in front of Harry, and 
that he was looking for trouble by doing that. Personally, if i have a 
secret, i don't go around yelling that i have a secret, or if i want 
people not to see something, i don't tell them where i hide it. Do you?

Then Pickle Jimmy brought a very good point:

<< What evidence do we have that Snape knew that Harry knew what a
pensieve was or how it worked? >>

Excellent point! I agree to some extent. Again, we are limited by the 
fact that we see everything from Harry's point of view, and he is 
someone who did not grow up in the wizarding world. We don't know if 
the general witch or wizard knows what pensieves are, we only know that 
Harry didn't learn until the scene in GoF in Dumbledore's office. But 
even in the case that pensieves were super rare and very very limited 
witches or wizards know what the are and how to operate them, still i 
find it unwise to remove his thoughts in front of Harry and leaving the 
pensieve at reach. Let's go back for a moment to the scene in GoF: 
Dumbledore put the pensieve away but let the door open, and Harry, not 
knowing what it was and how it worked, got closer to it and fell 
inside. If this had not happened in GoF, and let's say Harry had no 
idea of what a pensieve was, i am sure that the same (perhaps more 
innocent) curiosity would have made him get closer, not knowing that he 
would fall inside and learn about Snape's memories. If i was Snape, is 
it a risk i would be willing to take? I mean, just in case, i would put 
it away....

Reading on the thread i found that Tanya agrees with me, thanks :) (I 
won't repost her email here, as i already said it above).

So, that's it... back to the 100+ diggests

Maria