[HPforGrownups] Psychology, Blood and a Theory

[Kelly Grosskreutz]

No: HPFGUIDX 68058

Kneasy wrote an awful lot, but I snipped all but the little part I wanted to
address:

> The pensieve scenes weren't really about Snape. They were about James
> and his gang, giving an insight to true character. The really important
> bit are the flashes that  Harry gets from Snapes memory direct:-
>
> The shivering child, the adults shouting, the teenager, the youth. In
> none of them is Snape positively identified. The text states that Harry
> is 'sure that he has broken into  Snape's memories, that  he had just
> seen scenes from Snape's childhood......'  But Harry has been wrong
> before. Nowhere does Harry (or JKR) positively identify any of the
> persons as Snape,  even though Harry does so in the pensieve passage.
>
> I recall that in an interview, JKR  was asked if any of the Hogwarts
> staff were married. She said yes, but that would come out later.
>
> I think that in those memories, Snape was not the shivering child, but
> the shouting man. I think we've just seen Snape's family and that
> something happened to them to make Snape hate Voldie more  than
> anything else in the whole wide world. It is a motivation I can believe
> in.

When I first read the scene, I wondered if Snape could by chance be the man
and not the child.  But then I noticed that Harry did identify the child as
Snape.  As you remind us, this memory is taken directly from inside Snape's
head, not from a Pensieve.  To the best of my knowledge, memories do not
exist in a vacuum, but are usually attached to some emotion.  I believe that
is why the Pensieve was created; so that a person can look at any given
memory objectively, without the associated emotion.  It would be somewhat
akin to watching a movie.  On the other hand, when I look back upon
something, I don't just remember the event or occurrence; I also remember
how I felt at the time.  We don't have this necessarily stated in canon, but
I would think a person breaking into your memories would also get an idea of
how you were feeling at the time.

Harry has to have some way of being able to identify who was who.  After
all, the man is decribed as being hook-nosed.  The child is dark-haired.
Neither is described as being greasy-haired.  I believe the child was not
Snape for two reasons.  The first is that if the man were Snape, Harry would
have recognized him, clean hair or no.  He has spent five years being his
pupil and hating him.  If he saw Snape treating others the way he has been
treated, you think he would've recognized that.  Second, if, as I argue
above, memories come with attached emotion, I think the remembered emotions
would be different if Snape were the child than if he were the man.  Again,
I realize the book does not say that Harry felt fear or helpless when
observing the memory, but I think he might have picked a little of the
emotions associated with those memories up, and that would definitely deter
him away from thinking Snape was the man.

In summary:  Snape was not the man because Harry would have recognized an
adult Snape and because any emotions he picked up from that memory would
have been closer to what the child was feeling than the man.

Kelly Grosskreutz
http://www.idcnet.com/~ivanova