OoP: I'll do it: In defense of James (spoiler)

[Gabriel]

No: HPFGUIDX 62530

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Scott Peterson" 
<sfpeterso at y...> wrote:
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> What I am suggesting is maybe those faults aren't as pronounced as 
> the memory make it appear.
> 
> Scott

Um, no.  They held him completely immobile.  They suspended him in the 
air upside down so that his briefs were showing (and it seems that 
Snape doesn't come from a very well-to-do family, all his memories 
give kind of a shabby impression, at least to me) which is pretty much 
the end-all, sterotypical teenaged nightmare.  In a school where 
athletics/Quidditch are worshipped, his scrawnyness is held up for 
general mockery, including showing him off to girls.  And then they 
choke him (have you have had something forced into your mouth and fill 
it?  You choke, trust me) flip him around a little more, and then 
dangle him some more.

James even offered to *take his pants off* and whether or not that 
threat is fulfilled we will never know, but it wouldn't surprise me if 
it had been.  The threat alone is vicious, however.

There's no way that perception could alter the simple physical facts 
of that memory, I'm sorry.  Sirius and James were exactly what they 
appeared to be - bullying handsome jocks.  And I think quite a few of 
us went to school with lads just like them.

--Gabriel