OoP - Occlumency - A case for Evil!Snape?

[frumenta]

No: HPFGUIDX 66788

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "darrin_burnett" 
<bard7696 at a...> wrote:
> First, full disclosure, I am very skeptical of Snape and his true 
> motives. I think it is entirely possible he is still a bad guy.
> 
> Just letting you know what kinds of grains of salt you might want 
> here.
> 
> But to plunge ahead, I wonder if Snape was truly teaching Harry 
> Occlumency the correct way.
> 
><snip> 
> Pg 629, UK. Harry went to bed with his head buzzing with complex 
> spell models and theories.
> 
> No bad dreams. No incursions by V-Mort. His head was full of facts 
> and figures and nothing happened.
> 
> OK, but facts and figures are not emotional, you say? And you're 
> right.
> 
> But then, pg 638, after McGonagall is attacked and Umbridge has 
run 
> Hagrid out. "He (Harry) fell asleep contemplating hideous revenges 
> and arose from bed three hours later feeling distinctly unrested."
> 
> It is possible he never really slipped into full sleep, and I 
grant 
> that, but he went to bed full of hate, and nothing happened.
> 
> In the other times where he had bad dreams, he actually tried to 
> empty his mind before sleeping, and he THOUGHT he failed, but what 
if 
> he had succeeded? Who truly knows whether one's mind is empty at 
the 
> moment you drop off to sleep? Maybe his subconscious DID do what 
it 
> was asked and emptied his mind?
> 
> And what if an empty mind, not a mind full of emotion, was really 
the 
> very thing V-Mort needed?

> 
> Now, pg 640, when the vision of Sirius being tortured hits Harry. 
He 
> is in the History of Magic OWL and he is trying to think of the 
> answer, but cannot. He is literally DRAWING A BLANK.
> 
> Bang! He gets the vision of Sirius.
> 
> Now, it is possible, to throw out a counter-argument, V-Mort held 
off 
> on visions to give Harry to illusion that he had spent time 
breaking 
> into Grimmauld Place, capturing Sirius and dragging him off to 
some 
> lair. 
> 
> Snape was alone with Harry in that office. 
> 
> And Harry had no access to Dumbledore and very limited access to 
> Sirius and Lupin. Snape could have taught anything he wanted in 
that 
> room and Harry had no way of knowing whether it was helping or 
> hurting him. If I recall correctly, he never told Sirius, Lupin, 
> McGonagall, or even Hermione, exactly what was going on in there, 
> just that he was "practicing" and "working hard."

You might be onto something there with the observation that Harry 
seemed to be more vulnerable to the Voldemort when his mind was 
blank. However, the mind is a very strange thing and from what we 
know, the usual rules do not apply to Harry. Meaning that Snape 
could have very well be teaching Harry Occlumency properly, as it 
would work for him and every normal person but since Harry isn't 
your everyday wizard, it worked in reverse for him.

Not to mention that if you're making a case for evil!Snape making 
things easier for his Lord, here, Snape wouldn't have stopped 
teaching Harry Occlumency, would he?

> 
> Now, on to Snape himself.
> 
> He has every single right to be furious with Harry for sneaking 
into 
> the Penseive. Absolutely, he does. (That is, if he didn't mean 
Harry 
> to do it in the first place, which I tend not to believe, but 
still 
> throw out as a counter-argument.)
> 
> But teaching Harry Occlumency is a direct order from D-Dore. Lupin 
> and Sirius both say they will go to D-Dore and demand Snape resume 
> teaching it.
> 
> Yet, Snape does not resume teaching it. Yes, it is possible he was 
> waiting for Harry to apologize, but this is not some tutoring 
session 
> where Snape is volunteering his time to better a student's grades.
> 
> This is what is best for the Order. Keep V-Mort out of Harry's 
head 
> is crucial, according to D-Dore.
> 
The fact that he didn't continue with the lessons can be conceived 
as childish and petty but how could he work with that boy? Harry is 
an extremely powerful wizard who forced Snape to be using a Pensieve 
to keep some of his privacy. That didn't work. After doing what he 
did, Harry didn't apologise. When Lupin told him to go to Snape and 
ask to resume the lessons, Harry didn't. For all we know, Lupin 
didn't either. 

Snape had to follow Dumbledore's orders, that's true.  Can we be 
sure what Dumbledore's orders were at that point,? They might well 
have been "Give up on Potter, we need you (relatively) sane. He's a 
lost cause and you're doing more harm than good anyway." Dumbledore 
*doesn't* blame Snape. The first person Harry blames for the failure 
of the Occlumency lessons isn't Snape either. Harry himself said 
that he never really made an effort because he didn't want the 
visions to end.


<snip> 
> But D-Dore trusts Snape. We've been told that in nearly every 
single 
> book now. Hermione ignores or mocks Ron's conspiracy theories 
about 
> Snape.
> 
> I have to wonder if that isn't the most obvious "hide-in-plain-
sight" 
> foreshadowing you've ever seen.
> 
> Darrin
> -- I love the 80s moment: "The best thing about the A-Team? They 
> couldn't hit the broad side of a barn."

Until we find out what it was that made Dumbledore trust Snape so 
blindly (and let's keep in mind that Dumbledore, although not 
infallible, is a legilimens), we have no choice but to trust him as 
well.

Mim