[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP: Expelled?

[Kelly Grosskreutz]

No: HPFGUIDX 60447

L wrote:

> I thought this was a really interesting post. Forgive me if this
> one's been aired before, but it's given focus to an idea about Snape
> that's been kind of brewing.
>
> We've all wondered why it's been tolerated that he's so unfair to
> Harry, and how the good and bad sides of his personality can be
> reconciled.
>
> It's becoming clear that a backlash against Harry is a very credible
> way for the plot to move forward. Dumbledore is quite acute enough to
> have spotted the likelihood that Harry would one day have to face
> this.
>
> So we return to the idea that Snape's unfairness to Harry has been a
> means to toughen him up for the inevitable unfairness of life that he
> must face. We know Harry can have trouble controlling his temper in
> the face of it.
>
> Perhaps Snape's actions have been a necessary 'lesson in life' that
> the potions master didn't find too hard to administer due to his
> hatred of James Potter.

I do find this theory intriguing, but then this thought comes to my mind.
Why would Dumbledore and co. feel it necessary to drum this lesson into
Harry's head via spending four years in a classroom with a teacher that
appears to have it in for him and delights in making his life a living hell?
Hasn't he already had ten years worth of this lesson before ever even
hearing of Hogwarts?  Doesn't he go back to this lesson at the end of every
school year?  If living with the Dursleys and enduring their treatment isn't
enough to teach Harry that life is unfair, then what is?  I don't see how
having Snape play the "bad guy" at school is going to teach him something
one would think he already knows.

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