[HPforGrownups] Re: OOP: A few Points on Snape and other things

[Taryn Kimel]

No: HPFGUIDX 62256

> wrote:
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 Tamara:
> I see Draco more like James than Snape.  Draco is a bully who 
bullies 
> for no reason.  He doesn't just treat Harry and co badly, he treats 
> everyone who isn't Slytherin badly.
> 
> Tamara

Peggy:
Remember Tamara!  This was Snape's memory!  We did not see what Snape 
did to them.  Just what they did to Snape.  We know that Snape was 
fluent in hexes and curses.  I'm sure Snape did not sit back all of 
the time and let the James gang do things to him.  
Yes, I do think James was a show off, and he was influenced by Black 
who seemes like the instigator.  Yes they were silly teens.  We have 
no idea what Snape used to do though!

Me:
A lot of people seem to be trying to say (and you're not really saying this, but I'm addressing it anyway) that since this is Snape's memory, it may not be the exact truth. But wouldn't that be the /point/ of the Pensieve? To be able to review your memories clearly and precisely, so you know you're not influencing them?

Also, it doesn't sound like Snape did a whole lot. Lily says, paraphrased, "What did he ever do to you?" (To which James didn't even have a decent answer.) Of course, Sirius said that Snape always tried to hex James as well. HOWEVER, it is not said that Snape tried to hex everyone in sight. It IS said that James did. (And you would think that Sirius would certainly mention it, as he hates the man so much.) James was not just a show off and a silly teen. What he and Sirius did was a horrible form of bullying to an unpopular, disliked student.

I'm of the opinion that it really seems that James started the feud. Yeah, they both hated each other at first sight. Fair enough, it happes. But it seems to me that it's much more likely that James started the bullying and hexing and that Snape responded. And I'm not even a Snape lover, but I think things have become much more clearer with this book. I had always thought that Snape misunderstood and exaggerated James' arrogance, kind of how he does Harry's, but now it seems that it was a startlingly accurate picture. The whole chapter made me cry. For Snape, because of his obviously abusive and horrible childhood, and for Harry having to go through the loss of his father's imagined perfection.

--Taryn

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