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

[mochajava13]

No: HPFGUIDX 63043

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OK, now the rebuttal in favor of James:

I'm going to clarify what I think of the Snape and MWPP rivalry.  
First off, I think that one scene is not indicative of their entire 
relationship, especially one that took place in their fifth year.  
Look at Harry/Draco:  Harry has the upper hand against Draco and his 
buddies.  But, we know their history, that it was one of mutual 
animosity and a mutual desire to humiliate the other at all costs.  
In CoS, Ron tried to curse Draco, but ended up cursing himself 
because of his broken wand.  (The slug scene.)  The trio and the 
twins hexed Draco, Crabbe, and Goyle in GoF, and did a pretty good 
job of it.  At the end of OoP, the DA does the same thing, and turns 
DCG into something resembling large slugs.  

Also, I don't think James was a saint.  This scene definitely 
illustrates that.  But I also don't think he was a great bullying 
idiot either.  I think he was a normal teenager trying to impress a 
girl he liked the only way he knew how, and failed miserably, like a 
typical teenage boy.  Kind of like a guy asking a girl if she wants 
him to beat up some guy that's been calling her names.  The girl 
would proably walk off in a huff and call the guy a violent jerk.  
Then she would look back at all the times he's gotten into a fight, 
and tell him that he's a great bullying idiot even if he's not.  The 
guy wouldn't understand why the girl was ticked, and start a fight 
with the offending guy anyway.  Not nice, but typical teenage 
behavior.

Now bringing this back to the pensieve scene:
I didn't get the impression that James and Sirius were the great 
bullies of Hogwarts in their time.  First off, Dumbledore and the 
teachers probably knew what MWPP were up to (aside from the animagus 
stuff).  They know what's going on now, even if they don't see all 
of it.  Now, if this scene was Snape's worst memory, this has to be 
the worst humiliation that Snape faced at the hands of MWPP.  If 
this was a common occurance, why take out this one memory (and two 
more)?   If this is indeed Snape's worst memory, than this 
humiliation was uncommon, and an extreme example of MWPP actions.  
Sirius and Lupin recognized this at once, and even asked Harry if 
James was holding a snitch.  If they did stuff like this all the 
time, they wouldn't be able to recall this memory so quickly.  
They'd need more details, or just not recognize it at all.  Instead, 
they knew what Harry was talking about immediately.  

Now Snape's use of Mudblood: I think he meant it completely.  From 
CoS, and everyone's reaction to the use of this word, it's pretty 
obvious that not many people use it.  For Snape to say that, even if 
he is being humiliated, shows that he does call people Mudbloods.  
James won't even use the word when he talks to Lily.  

I just don't buy the idea that this turned Snape to the dark side.  
If that's all it took for Snape to turn evil, then he is one petty 
person.  He did know hexes and curses; he tried to use them on James 
even without a wand.  (They didn't work because he didn't have his 
wand, but he still tried.)  Yes, that's a normal reaction when 
someone's bullying you.  However, it does show that Snape knew a lot 
of hexes.  Snape was put in Slytherin, he had pretty Slytherin views 
of muggle born wizards, and he was at Hogwarts when Lucius was.  
Lucius is older than  Snape; I'd bet just about anything that Snape 
idolized Lucius while they were both at Hogwarts.

Just one more note:  I didn't get that Snape was poor from the 
graying underwear.  I got that he didn't wash his clothes 
frequently.   Old clothes don't grey; they get stretched out and 
full of holes.  Clothes that you don't wash (especially whites) turn 
gray from body oils.  

"Mochajava"