OoP: I'll do it: In defense of James

[mochajava13]

No: HPFGUIDX 62683

OK, I'm going to have to defend James here.

First off, Snape WAS a death eater.  We know this through 
Dumbledore's penseive.  At some point before Harry's death, he 
turned traitor.  Now, Harry was born when his parents were around 
21/22.  They were only out of Hogwarts for, what, 5 years.  When did 
Snape become a death eater?  After Lily defended Snape, he didn't 
even acknowledge her help.  He addressed James, and said "I don't 
need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" (pg. 648, US ed.)  
That's the equivalent of the N word.  And this was during 
Voldemort's reign of terror.  Snape was in Slytherin, and had the 
very Slytherin attitude towards muggle-born wizards.  During V's 
reign of terror, this is definitely telling behavior.  Snape was 
evil at one point; there is NO denying that.  

The other thing, despite his faults as a youth, Sirius did 
acknowledge that what he did to Snape was wrong in OoP.  Lupin and 
Sirius both are trying to explain that one memory of Snape's is not 
indicative of who James was.   I think that whatever he said about 
Snape during their time at Hogwarts was probably true.  Lupin and 
Sirius both have the same views of Snape while they were at 
Hogwarts: he hung out with a lot of death eaters, he hated James 
since first year, and he was extremely interested in the dark arts.  
In PoA, Lupin tries to be civil with Snape.  Snape doesn't do the 
same; he even wants Lupin to go to Azkaban (PoA, pg. 359 US ed).   
That's not actions of a great guy.  Also, we have NO idea what 
happened before this one incident, as bad as it seems.  Lupin and 
Sirius both defend James by telling Harry that Snape still tried to 
hex/curse James at any opportunity.  Snape still sounds like Draco 
to me.  

Now, we also have other's views of the Marauders during their time 
at Hogwarts.  Rosemarta, in PoA, finds it hard to believe that 
Sirius could be evil.   The teachers had fond memories of both James 
and Sirius.  Dumbledore does, too.  Keep in mind that Dumbledore 
trusts Snape, despite the fact he used to be a death eater.  In my 
opinion, how others viewed the Marauders is extremely important on 
what they were really like.  Combined with how Sirius, Lupin, and 
Snape act NOW, I think we have an insight into how they behaved at 
Hogwarts.

Lupin - It didn't seem like he ever participated in humiliating 
Snape.  From that memory, he didn't actively help, nor did he stop 
it.  He tried to pretend that it wasn't happening.  Now, as an 
adult, he has tried to be civil with Snape, despite Snape's 
prejudices against him for being a werewolf.  He seems to be the 
most mature of the group, and the only one who let his thoughts 
guide his actions, instead of his emotions.  

James - He utterly hates the dark arts; he fought against Voldemort 
and eventually gave his life to protect his wife and son.  At 
Hogwarts, he probably hated them, too.  (I bet his parents raised 
him to hate the dark arts.)  Yes, he liked attention, but so does 
Ron.  Yes, he humiliated Snape.  But Harry and Ron humiliate Draco 
all the time, because Draco obviously is a follower of Voldemort.  
(The ferret scence?  Ron and Harry loved it!)  Whatever they did to 
humiliate Snape, they didn't physically attack him.  During V's 
reign, who knows what type of people would annoy someone who 
actively fights against the dark arts?  We have no idea who he hexes 
in hallways; Lily only says he hexes people who annoy him.  Well, 
Harry and Ron hex people who annoy them, too.  Hey, the twins hex 
anyone!  All their practical jokes, they hex a LOT of people to get 
a laugh.  They put poisons in some of their Snackboxes so people can 
make themselves sick. We don't know if this is what Lily is talking 
about or not.  We DO know that James was a trouble maker who made 
people laugh.  We have no idea how he treats other people aside from 
Snape.  And let's face it, at this time, Snape was well onto his way 
to becoming a death eater.  

Sirius - He strikes me as a spoiled rich kid who has no idea about 
the consequences of his actions.  No excuse for him.  But he has 
grown up, and did tell Harry that what he did to Snape was wrong.

Snape - We don't know much about his early childhood.  We saw his 
overbearing father yell at his mother while Snape cried in a 
corner.  Suggests an abusive father, but all we really know is that 
his mother cowered before his shouting father.  Hermione has cowered 
before Harry when Harry started yelling.  Snape alone in a dark 
bedroom shooting down flies: he likes to pick of insects when he's 
bored.  A gilr laughing at Snape trying to mount a bucking 
broomstick: if you didn't like Snape, it'd be funny.  If Harry 
watched Malfoy trying to mount a bucking broomstick, the trio would 
laugh long and hard.  He was the object of humiliation at the hands 
of Sirius and James.  As soon as James addresses Snape, in a pretty 
mean way, Snape goes for his wand ASAP.  James takes away his wand 
and prevents Snape from getting it by using the impedimenta spell. 
Snape "let out a stream of mixed swearwords and hexes" in response.  
(Proof that Snape DOES no quite a few hexes and curses while at 
Hogwarts.  Evidence that Sirius might be telling the truth that 
Snape knew more hexes and curses when he entered than even seventh 
years knew.)  Then James proceeds to humiliate Snape.  But, Snape 
tried to physically attack James in response: "there was a flash of 
light and a gash appeared on the side of James's face, spattering 
his robes with blood."  (pg. 647) Snape gets humiliated, and he goes 
for blood while his opponents back was turned.   Personally, I think 
that was an inappropriate response.  Why didn't he just try and get 
James's wand?    

Now look at how he responded to Lily's help: he won't even talk to 
her, but tells James that she's a filty Mudblood.  Not the signs of 
a very nice person.  And during V's reign of terror, this is 
definitely a possible sign of sympathy to V's cause.  Since Snape 
did become a death eater very soon after this scence (within two 
years), this very well could be a sign that he agrees with Voldemort 
and his tactics.  V had already been in power for about 6 years 
before Snape graduated from Hogwarts; he HAD to have known what 
being a death eater meant: killing and torturing others.

Back to the present: Snape has physically abused Harry.  (Pg. 649-
650, OoP)  After he caught Harry in his memory, he held Harry's arm 
so tightly that Harry had a bruise on that arm.  Snape shakes Harry 
so hard that Harry's glasses slide down his nose.  And he throws 
Harry across the room with all his might, causing Harry to fall hard 
onto the floor.  He refuses to let Harry get a word in edgewise, or 
allow Harry to tell Snape that Harry didn't enjoy watching his 
father.  Snape bans Harry from his office and throws things at Harry 
as Harry leaves.  And he refuses to continue teaching Harry 
occlumency, even though he knows Dumbledore wants him to do it, 
knowing that this could be the only way to prevent Voldemort from 
possessing Harry.  (Dumbledore knows this possiblility; Snape knows 
V very well and would probably know he could possess Harry).  I'm 
sorry, but there is NO excuse for abusing a student.  Not one. 

I think that looking at the Marauders characters and Snapes 
character/reactions, I think we could guess what Snape's 
relationship with the Marauders was: exactly what Dumbledore said it 
was.  Very similar to the Harry/Draco relationship: from day 1, they 
have a blatant hatred of the other, and are always trying to 
humiliate the other (even better if the humiliation is in front of a 
crowd of people who hate the other).  Neither is the victim, and 
neither is the innocent.  It works both ways.  Harry finally 
sympathizes with Snape, because he feels that Snape might have had a 
similar childhood that he had.  But Snape loses this sympathy almost 
as soon as he gained it by abusing Harry and worsening his 
malevolent actions towards him.

I used to think Snape was a misunderstood character, a reformed bad 
guy who got lead into a path of evil.  Now, after he's physically 
abused Harry, I can't stand him.  No sympathy.  I think he 
overreacts, and is violent.  He joined the death eaters about half-
way through Voldemort's reign, knowing what Voldemort and the death 
eaters were capable of.  And if he was a death eater, chances are he 
used an Unforgivable curse a few times.  Now we know that to 
successfully use an Unforgivable curse, one has to enjoy the effects 
that it has.  Snape's probably used the crucio curse.  In order to 
use the crucio curse, one has to like causing pain.  

Just my views on the subject.  

Sarah