[HPforGrownups] a lurker speaks - Snape's bias

[boredbatty at comcast.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 82992


  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alison Williams 
 
  I've just finished re-re-reading OoP and some things struck me this time
  (as either sad or funny or significant) that didn't before.  

<snip> 

  Knowing how JKR likes to note significant things in a casual mention
  that you overlook, until it hits you on a later reading, I tend to study
  this sort of passage with suspicion.  Snape woundn't have known that the
  Sorting Hat seriously considered putting Harry in Slytherin.  Harry has
  very deliberately never told anyone except Dumbledore, and I can't see
  Dumbledore betraying such a confidence.  How might this effect Snape's
  attitude to him?  Given his outrageous bias towards the members of
  Slytherin House might it draw out - eventually - some grudging respect
  to know that the Hat was of the opinion that Harry 'would have done well
  in Slytherin'?



Hi everyone. :) I'm new to the list, and this is my first post. 

I've thought often about the Potter/Snape relationship, and I adore Snape's character. I feel that Snape, in the end, will wind up one of Harry's true allies. Snape has a love of the boy, whether he wants to or not. I think, perhaps, Harry's choice to be in a house _other_ than Slytherin will have a larger impact on Snape: Slytherin would have made Harry's life too easy--there would have been no fight to it. And I think, even if begrudgingly, Snape can respect that. It shows a true bravery in Harry. If he had chosen Slytherin, he would have allied quickly to the dark forces, and shown true weakness in himself. As the story goes, he's a bit of a Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz--if Glenda had told Dorothy from the start all she had to do was *really* want to go home, and click her heels three times...Dorothy wouldn't have believed her. And so it goes with Young Master Potter- he must really believe in himself and those around him to do what he must do, and in my opionion, Snape just might be one of the people who tells Harry to click his heels. 

I'll have to think on this more. 
--erin