Unfinished Business (was: did Lupin kill Sirius)

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 83029

> Kneasy:
> We agree, I think, that Snape has suffered unquantifiable damage in 
the past and he  needs to act to ease his suffering. What he (or any 
> gravely injured party) seeks is catharsis. This will provide 
release and closure (horrible word); it is repression that poisons. I 
contend that he has a target, he just can't get at it.

Laura:

At the risk of sounding foolish (and not for the first time), do you 
think that Snape feels that he's suffering?   We said several posts 
back that Snape *is* his anger.  He has long ago chosen to make rage, 
contempt, cruelty and disregard his emotional vocabulary.  Other 
people in the WW suffered exactly what you suggest he did, and yet 
they can continue to form relationships and take pleasure in the good 
things of this world. 

Yes, I agree that Snape seeks catharsis.  I wonder, though, what will 
change about him if and when he gets it.  What I'm trying to get at 
is that I think Snape likes being angry.  I'm not sure he perceives 
it as suffering at all, although we readers do.  

I don't agree that he's repressing his anger-come on, when does he 
ever do that?  Even if he doesn't verbalize it all, everyone in his 
vicinity knows when he's about to erupt.  What he's suffering from  
isn't repression but delayed gratification-in other words, 
frustration.  That's understandable.  What isn't is his belief that 
it's appropriate to take it out on the entire world.

<snip> 
> Kneasy:
> I've come up  with the reason he's angry; it might not be correct, 
but it would be compelling motivation for Snape's actions to date.
<snip>  

Laura:

I don't think we've scratched the surface when it comes to 
understanding where Snape's anger comes from.  Here's what we do 
know: he arrives at school already well versed in the dark arts and 
quickly proceeds to demonstrate his poor social skills by impressing 
a number of students with his general unpleasantness.  And he's 
sorted into Slytherin, never a good sign.  

Why would Snape have taken such an early interest in the dark arts?  
It could be for any number of reasons: a response to fear and/or 
feelings of being in danger(if that pensieve scene with the crying 
little boy is in fact from Snapes' childhood), family proclivity, 
boredom, desire to explore the forbidden-it could be one or a 
combination of these, or something else entirely. We don't know if 
Snape was angry when he got to school, but we do know that if he was 
he had the tools at hand to express it.  And we know that he very 
quickly developed a lot of anger toward 4 students in particular.
<snip>

> Kneasy:

> On top of the mutual instinctive loathing between Snape and James 
comes the 'Prank". Old Snapey would be feeling very hard done by with 
the lack of repercussions from this. He himself had done nothing 
wrong, but Sirius had placed him in very real danger. Was Sirius 
punished? No. It was all hushed up. To add insult to injury, those in 
the know regarded James as a hero! Just for trying to cover up 
Sirius' stupidity! Snape would be absolutely steaming. Justice 
denied. He probably suspects that James and Sirius were in collusion; 
he's  the injured party, DD tells him to forget it and James  ends up 
looking good. Insufferable!

Laura:

Let's take another look at this prank and Snape's reaction to it.  
We've seen a couple of instances in which James got the better of 
Sevvie.  But what makes us think that the reverse never happened?  I 
think it had to have been pretty equal provocation on both sides.  
For one thing, we know that Snape is a very bright and talented 
wizard.  Already at school he had expertise in the dark arts, and we 
can assume from remarks made about him in canon that he had a lot of 
talent in other magical areas as well. So he wouldn't have to take 
James's hexes lying down.  Moreover, my assessment of James and 
Sirius is that if Snape couldn't stand up to them, they wouldn't have 
expended so much time and energy trying to knock him down.  It was 
the challenge as well as the emotion involved that drove all of 
them.  If Snape hadn't been able to give as much as he got, the 
Marauders would have regarded him as a minor inconvenience at best 
and a joke at worst. 

So we have a very hostile relationship in which James and Snape take 
every opportunity to harass each other. (See note below about 
Sirius's role in this relationship.) We also know that Snape followed 
MWPP around trying to find out things that were in no way, shape or 
form his business.  Now we come to the night of the prank.  Snape, 
who is already crossing privacy boundaries, decides to follow the 
advice of the last person in the world to whom he should have given 
any credence.  Snape isn't stupid.  He deliberately decides to follow 
Sirius's suggestion.  He leaves the dormitory after hours and follows 
Remus and a staff member clearly engaged in private activity.  And 
when he gets caught and has to be ignominiously rescued, he decides 
that *he's* the victim?! If he'd minded his own business in the first 
place and used a millimeter of common sense he wouldn't have found 
himself in that tunnel.  Who did something against school rules?  
Remus?  No, of course not.  James?  No, of course not.  Sirius?  No-
he did something unkind but what school rules did he break?  It was 
Severus and only Severus who was out of line that night.  He was 
lucky DD didn't punish *him*.

>  >
<snip> Kneasy:
> It's for the recipient to judge if there has been any real injury.
> We all have differing personal standards as to what is acceptable 
and unimportant and what is not. A minor put-down to one may be a 
festering insult to another. One thing about Snape, he's proud. Never 
slight a man in his pride; the reaction may not be immediate but it 
is ineluctable and may be devastating.
> 
Laura:  
Yes, the perception of injury lies with the injured person-but only 
to an extent.  The reasonable person principle has to kick in 
somewhere.  Snape is so angry and insecure that he takes everything 
as an insult except craven obedience-his reaction to Lily in Pensieve 
2 is an example.  If every interaction you try is met with hostility, 
the attempts will soon cease-as witness Lily. 
Yet no one did anything to Snape that he wasn't willing and able to 
do to them first.  What makes him think that he's the only proud 
person around?  He seems to regard everyone else on the planet with 
feelings ranging from indifference-if he really likes you-to savage 
cruelty.  Injury isn't a one-way event.  If Snape can't see that he 
hurts people, those people are not likely to be overly concerned 
about his sensitivities. 
 
 Kneasy:

> I like Snape. He's  not a nice person but he is satisfying as a 
> character with depth and credibility. I bet he'd go along with 'an 
eye for an eye' - without anaesthetic.
> 
Laura:

Love him or hate him, you can't help but be fascinated by our 
Professor Snape.  And I definitely love *and* hate him. 
 
Laura:
Note:
What about Sirius?  That's an interesting question.  We get the idea 
that Snape hates him because of the prank in particular.  During the 
Pensieve 2 scene Sirius is the catalyst and throws in a bit of wand 
work, but James is the primary actor against Snape.  Even after Snape 
knows how Harry feels about Sirius, if he wants to infuriate Harry, 
he insults James.  So my guess is that Sirius was not the one who did 
most of the Snape-cursing.  He may have played the part of James's 
second.  When Sirius talks about Snape, his tone always sounds 
dismissive to me, so I imagine that Sirius wouldn't have bothered 
about Snape if James hadn't been in the picture.  That's my take on 
it anyhow.

> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]