[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP : Snape's worst memory (as far as we know)

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 62003

 
Tamara wrote-
 
I felt dead sorry for Snape reading that chapter about what happened 
to him, but it all fades when I see how he still treats Harry and 
most everyother student outside Slytherin. I mean, there's holding a 
grudge, but what he is doing is just ridiculous. I can see him 
having to be nice to Malfoy and the other children of DEs, but he 
doesn't have to be so horrible to Harry in private. He needs to 
loose the bratty, wounded attitude and get over it!
 
Now me -

Good grief you guys are prolific - I go to bed for 8 hours and when I get up
I have 230 messages in my inbox, so excuse me if someone said this but I
didn't read all the posts.

Those are almost exactly the words I used about Snape. Not about the way he
treats the students in general because if he's a spy for Dumbledore then he
needs to make himself look like a loyal, Slytherin, pure-blood DE, but about
the lessons with Harry. Now don't get me wrong the only people who should be
blamed for the death (sob) of Sirius are Lestrange and Voldemort but several
people made mistakes that helped to cause the situation - Harry certainly,
although we can't blame him for being rash when he wasn't really in a
position to make any kind of informed decision, everyone told him how
important Occulomancy was but no one bothered to tell him *why*; Albus made
the biggest mistakes, keeping everything from Harry, helping to isolate the
boy, making Snape teach him in the first place, and lastly Sev. I feel very
sorry for Sev, having learnt what we did about his childhood, even without
the Shack incident I could understand his attitude to Sirius just because of
the bullying, I would be feeling the need to hug the poor man, if it wasn't
for the fact that I want to shake him till his teeth rattle over the lessons
 Yes I believe Harry was being a lazy little brat over the lessons (although
again why should he consider them important if no one will tell him why,
just do as I say is a great attitude for dealing with a young child but not
for dealing with a teenager), yes I believe that he should have been
severely punished in some way for invading Snape's privacy like that, but he
s still a 15 year old boy, Severus is  grown man with responsibilities. He
*knew* how important the lessons were, he *knew* why they were needed and
yet he let Harry treat them as unimportant and then gave Harry a way to give
them up entirely just because he lost his temper. I mean *honestly* I do
feel great sympathy for him but he is an adult with responsibilities and he
needs to stop acting like a child and lashing out at everyone around him,
grit his teeth and just get over himself.

Sorry about the rant, but while I have *never* considered Severus to be a 
nice' person I always considered him to be a basically 'good' one at heart,
the sort of person who did what he considered necessary, but there was no
need to give up on the lessons and be so darn petty about it. I will add
though that while he may be very good at Occulomancy is someone with the
sort of memories Severus is likely to have really a good selection to teach
the subject? Especially to someone he neither lies nor respects,.

K