Snape and Harry WAS Re: Pensieves objectivity AND: Dumbledore's integrity

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 79633

 
> Laura:
<Snip>
> And if there were any doubt, Snape's 
> gratuitous interference with Harry's attempt to find DD in GoF 
> (when Crouch Sr was in the Forest) should be conclusive.  

No, no, no, no. This is a classic example of the reader falling 
under the spell of Harry's POV.

Ahem.

Read the scene in GoF Ch.28 again.

The sequence of events is:

*****************************************************************
Harry screams invented passwords at the gargoyle. They don't work.

Harry decides that Dumbledore is just possibly in the staff room. 

Harry starts running as fast as he can *away* from Dumbledore's 
office, to the staff room. 

Snape emerges from Dumbledore's office, sees Harry running at high 
speed *away* from the office, and *calls him back*.

Snape then spends about 20 seconds teasing (OK, being verbally 
sadistic to) Harry before Dumbledore walks out of the door behind 
him.

**************************************************************

And what does Harry remember this sequence as? 'If Snape hadn't held 
me up, we might have got there in time.' [Ch. 29]

And that's what we, the reader, remember, because we're locked into 
Harry's POV. Snape didn't delay Harry at all. Snape calling Harry 
back (to find out what he was doing in front of Dumbledore's office) 
probably saved a lot of time. Certainly a lot more than the 20 
seconds he 'wasted'.

>From our POV, we cannot actually see if Snape was 'gratuitously 
interfering'. It's entirely within Snape's revealed characterisation 
for him to enjoy the spectacle of Harry hopping up and down, whilst 
knowing that Dumbledore is coming down the stairs right now. 

Laura: 
> Maybe,if DD had worked with Snape a bit, the latter would have 
> been able to teach Harry.  But under the circumstances the attempt 
> was doomed to failure before it even started.

It may have been, but it's partly Harry's problem as well as 
Snape's. Harry has a rather strong dose of 'people who don't like me 
must be bad people' syndrome. In his case, it's probably a survival 
technique; his foster parents the Dursley's have never liked him. In 
that situation children often choose between 'they don't like me 
because I *am* bad' and 'they don't like me because *they're* bad'.

He's beginning to grow out of it a bit; he acknowledges honestly 
that while Petunia doesn't like him, she said he had to stay. [After 
she was reminded that chucking him out would almost certainly lead 
to his death.] Like Quirrel's description of Snape in PS/SS, she may 
not like Harry, but she doesn't want him *dead*.

But 'he doesn't like me, so he's *bad*' is in full flight with 
Snape. Despite consistent evidence in PS/SS, CoS, PoA, GoF and OOP 
that Snape cares so deeply for *all* the Hogwarts students that he 
will fight trolls for them, fight werewolves and (he thinks) escaped 
murderers for them, charge into the office of a powerful DE for 
them, and face a Forbidden Forest full of angry centaurs for them. 

Even when its the students he likes least.

And there's all the little protective-of-students side comments, as 
well. 'Crabbe,loosen your hold a little...' 'We'll be carrying 
what's left of Finch-Fletchley to the Hospital Wing in a 
matchbox' 'Snape gripped the back of a chair very hard' [when Ginny 
has been kidnapped in CoS.]

But no. This is less important to Harry than the fact that Snape is 
*nasty* to him. He gives him detentions. He makes *sarcastic 
comments*. He marks him unfairly. He's *horrible* to him!

And it culminates in Sirius's death. If Harry had remembered that 
Snape was an Order member, Snape could have contacted Sirius for 
him, safely. Harry subconciously discounts Snape because 'he's nasty 
to me. I don't trust nasty people.' [not a quote]

Snape, when he finds out what's going on, tells everyone he should, 
gives the advice he ought to give [if Voldemort is using just a 
vision of Sirius to trap Harry, the last thing needed was for Sirius 
to go out and make himself a target. Just imagine Voldemort's 
bargaining power if the DE's had captured the real Sirius in the 
fight!] and does what he can practically do [propose searching the 
Forbidden Forest in case Harry and Co are still there].

Snape is a nasty son-of-a-sorceror, and he and Harry don't like each 
other one little bit. But when the order comes through that Snape 
and Harry have to work together, it's Snape who makes-sarcastic-
comments-and-soldiers. Harry is the one who obstructs the lessons as 
much as he can by the passive method of I-haven't-done-my-homework-
Sir and the active method of breaking into the pensieve.

It is Snape who tries as much as he can to be adult about the 
Occlumency lessons. It is Harry who behaves like the 15 year old he 
is, shuffling his feet, doing as little as he can, and finally 
breaking the rules so badly that Snape chucks him out. But Harry's 
reaction to this is 'I don't care'. When he's asked to talk to Snape 
and ask to be taken back, he doesn't.

And when Sirius dies, he blames Snape for stopping the lessons ...

As I said above, it's a consistent Harry pattern. People who don't 
like him are bad. If they do things he doesn't like, it's their 
fault. The idea that he might be contributing to their dislike by 
his actions doesn't really make much headway; the idea that an 
apology might do wonders is never considered.

His childhood of 'Harry v. the Dursleys' has been translated 
into 'Harry v. anyone who doesn't like me.'

The trouble is, that he's now in the middle of a war. And he really 
has to get it into his head that people who are nice to him (fake!
Moody, anyone?) are not necessarily on his side; and conversely, 
those who are nasty to him might be doing their best to keep him 
alive (Petunia, anyone?)

Harry's dislike of Snape has just killed the person he most loved. 
But that's OK. 

You can bet it will be all Snape's fault [grin].

Pip!Squeak