JKR's description of Snape

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 70203

Melpomene: 


> IF I were writing a *stereotypical* "Deeply Horrible Sadistic Cruel 
> Power Abusing Person" as she INSISTS Snape is, I might give him a 
> silky voice, but I would not let him use a "soft" one. On the 
> contrary--he'd sound more like Peter most of the time and likely 
have a cackling laugh to go with it. He would NOT have rippling robes 
and glide silently around--sorry, that's very seductive and 
mysterious JK, and YOU KNOW IT!


Giving bad guys soft voices is hardly new in popular fiction. Ian 
Fleming gave this characteristic to more than one of the James Bond 
villains. 

Even Voldemort is described as having a "high and cold voice" which 
is hardly the stereotypical villain's voice. Umbridge is given a 
sweet, girlish voice. 

The fact that Snape's voice is not stereotypically evil in a Snidely 
Whiplash cackle or a Darth Vader voice of doom doesn't necessarily 
mean much.

>For a character she insists she HATES she has spent an awful lot of 
time, effort and talent on him. He's one of--if  not THE--the most 
fully drawn in the series and I'm including the  kids in this. 
Especially now we've glimpsed a bit of his backstory. Which makes him 
even MORE alluring.

I don't remember reading where she said, much less insisted, that she 
hates Snape. She might hate the model he is based on, but if she 
truly is fleshing him out in the ways Snape fans describe (and write 
in their own fanfics) then I'm not sure she does.

 
> She's done a good job in showing us he can be exceptionally 
> unpleasant. (Hears Darrin pulling his hair out-actually hears the 
> ripping sound!)

Uh-huh. Very droll. Actually, I agree entirely that Snape can be 
exceptionally unpleasant. Unlike others, however, I don't find this 
to be an admirable characteristic. Silly me.

> But how does he do it? Usually with a dry, caustic WIT. The man is 
>FUNNY. (No the 'victim' isn't going to think it's funny.) And face 
>it. We have yet to see him hurt a student. (See >the great post 
>earlier about good old fashioned British sarcasm.) All those whines 
>about "HE ATTACKED HARRY!" Well...you know what? SIRIUS attacked 
>Harry! With a WEAPON. 

Actually, he did attack Harry. No whining. Snape was angry at Harry, 
justifiably so. But he did physically assault a person half his age 
and nowhere near as well-trained magically. Add in that he's a 
teacher assaulting a student and it's even more wrong.

Call that whining if you will. I call it a statement of fact.

I'm looking over PoA right now, looking for Sirius attacking Harry 
with a weapon.

He gets himself into Gryffindor tower, but he's not attacking Harry. 
He's looking for Scabbers/Pettigrew. And the knife is nowhere near 
Harry.

Page 250, he puts his hand over Harry's throat during their scuffle, 
but knowing what we know now, do we think he was trying to strangle 
Harry? Or just get him off of him so he could kill Scabbers?

So, what am I missing? Where did Sirius attack Harry with a weapon? 

Darrin