Snape's childhood

[iana_abadi]

No: HPFGUIDX 67755

Did anyone else notice the references to Snape's childhood? (OOP, US 
ed. pg. 592)  They seem pretty miserable - a man I can only assume is 
his father shouting at what must be his mother, a lonely wizarding 
equivalent of fly-wing-puller-offer, being laughed at for his 
horrible flying ability . . . not things I would enjoy having in my 
arsenal of memories.  I am not a classic Snape apologist, but I must 
say that his childhood probably sucked at least as much as Harry's - 
at least Harry enjoys Hogwarts, as Snape obviously did not, thanks to 
Sirius and James.  This does not excuse Snape's nastiness in the 
least - on the contrary, it is a tribute to Harry that he is still 
such a good kid.  Probably genetic, so James couldn't have been such 
a bad egg.  It is worth pondering however, that perhaps Snape is so 
horrible to Harry, because his father was horrible to him.  He knows 
no other way to act to children. (Rebuttal: Dumbledore doesn't act 
thus, and Snape saw him all through school, but still.)  I hope 
something happens in the 7th book (I really don't think we'll solve 
the Snape mystery in book 6) to make us like Snape, I really do, 
because he is the character that we want to love, but hate so much 
for how he treats our man Harry.  If only . . .

Jordan, who thinks Snape is "just a mean old man, without a mommy" 
(Hook)