Snape & Potter = Hatfields & McCoys?

[AnitaKH]

No: HPFGUIDX 80156

All right, all you brainy people out there.  I've been cogitating on this one, perhaps because I'm unwilling to believe James Potter is as big a jerk as he comes across in the Pensieve scene.  
 
Given that we're told James Potter hated the Dark Arts and that Snape appeared at school knowing more about them than most seventh years, and that the pureblood world is small and shrinking, I began to wonder if the bad blood (no pun intended) between James Potter and Severus Snape goes back beyond their years at Hogwarts.  The Potters may have not been on good terms with the Snapes, and the two boys' experience at school amplifies the difference, and James, being a kid and not a mature adult, brings his prejudice to school and taunts the hated Snape.  SS, at the same time, would be reluctant to let the folks at home know he's not getting the best of one of those pesky Potters, so he keeps quiet about his humiliation.  
 
"The fact that he exists" would be sufficient excuse for James to dislike and pick on Severus; Sirius, determined to reject his Dark Arts heritage, would perhaps be inclined to join in with James and be perhaps even more virulent. (As I imagine many of us have observed, former smokers can be much harder on smokers than we non-smokers.)
 
This notion is still in the formative stage, so any support/criticism is most welcome.
 
akh
 


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