Why Hermoine trusts Snape

oh have faith rshuson80 at yahoo.com
Sun Jul 13 00:57:30 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 69789

Dreadnaught says:

> Firstly, we have no indication whatsoever that Snape has any type 
of 
> insight into Hermione's character. Is it possible? Anything is 
possible 
> - but it'd be an assumption based on virtually no evidence, IMHO.
> 
> Secondly, even if Snape did have a reasonable insight into 
Hermione, 
> somehow, we then have to assume, he considered that insight, and 
then 
> deliberately decided to risk hurting her - at best, his insight 
could 
> tell him that she was unlikely to be harmed - not that she 
certainly 
> wouldn't be. He'd be taking a calculated risk with her state of 
mind - 
> and I don't think that's something he should be gambling with, 
without a 
> *very* good reason.
>

I say:

Well, no, I concede that there's no reason to think Snape has any 
blinding insights into the real Hermione – and of course he doesn't 
know her personally at all.  But he has been her teacher for nearly 
four years in GoF, and so he has been able to observe her 
interaction with her fellow pupils for that length of time, and so 
he must have formed some kind of opinion.  If we accept a large 
amount of his behaviour is for the benefit of his Slytherins, then 
there's no reason to assume it's a negative one (although it does 
seem likely, based on the empirical evidence that Snape likes 
nobody!).  

As for having a good reason, well I think he might argue –somewhat 
defensively- that maintaining his cover is a very good reason. He 
does have to continue to keep it up, he can't let it slip – 
possibly, it's become habit.  And I suspect Snape underestimates the 
stakes when he's gambling with other people's states of mind.  He 
has no sympathy for mental weakness, as he tells us in OOP, or for 
those who let emotions rule them; "Fools who wear their hearts 
proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who 
wallow in side memories and allow themselves to be provoked so 
easily – weak people, in other words- they stand no chance against 
his [Voldemort's] powers!" (Occlumency – p473 in my ed)  Putting 
aside for the moment that if you looked up "pot calling the kettle 
black" in Brewers, you'd find this quote, this is not a man who 
considers anyone's mental state to be of particular importance – 
including his own. Provided they're still breathing, they're good, 
in his book.  "Hexes and curses etc etc but words will never hurt 
me!"  I suspect he's taken some hefty knocks for the cause too, and 
I'm sure he's one of those who'd bluster "Well, it never did me any 
harm." That it did do him harm is obvious to all of us, but possibly 
not to him – to know yourself is the hardest thing, because you're 
hardly an unbiased observer.

Once again, no excuse.  You may have guessed Snape is my favourite 
character, but I'm not trying to excuse him – I like him 
particularly because he is so flawed, he's absolutely fascinating.  
I'm not necessarily convinced by all my own arguments, either, and I 
certainly don't deny it was a crass and unpleasant thing to do, but 
I'm playing around looking for motives other than pure malice.  (And 
yeah, I may be a teeny tiny bit of a Snape/Herm shipper!) 

^_^ Faith's Girl
 





 






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