The worst is yet to come

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 80865

Thanks, Kneasy, for making a comprehensive list of Snape's memories--
it's like having a Pensieve at my disposal. Swirling around, first 
this memory, then that one, what do they all mean?!?

Well, I don't believe the memory Harry sees is Snape's worst one. We 
see Snape "removing, as usual, certain of his thoughts and placing 
them carefully in Dumbledore's Pensieve."  I'm betting on one of 
those.  

Why's the chapter called that, then? It could be a red herring, or 
Harry's assumption. I think that memory is primarily for Harry, as a 
device to learn more information about his parent's past--not to tell 
us more about Snape (although we're being led to believe this scene 
is a motive for Snape's hatred of James--I'm undecided on that 
aspect).


Kneasy:

Fly zapper
> Apparently innocuous, mundane even. Until  proved otherwise it 
seems  
> to be a random, meaningless memory.


Jen:
JKR seems to believe in the principle of "no energy is wasted" so I 
do think the aptly-named "Fly Zapper" scene has meaning. Here's a 
couple of possibilities:

1)  Is this Snape as a teenager practicing his curses? Is it 
considered unusal in the WW to practice killing things, even flies, 
or is this merely a bored teen?

2) We assume he's bored, but what if this is a snippet from a full 
memory. Snape is angry about something prior to this scene and is 
taking it out on the flies?

Most of the memories Snape elicits from Harry are emotionally charged 
ones.  It should be the same when Harry reverses the spell on Snape.


Kneasy:
> Unless it's all a mistake.
> Note that Harry does not bring the memory into the open as  DD did 
with 
> Bertha. Harry immerses himself in the pensieve. Can Snape tell, 
from 
> outside, which memory Harry is seeing? Does he think Harry sees 
> something else? His reaction is a bit extreme for memories of 
> school-boy feuds and their resulting embarrassments. 


Jen:  Snape does know immediately what memory Harry sees:  "Amusing 
man, your father, wasn't he?"  Even if several of the scenes in the 
Pensieve involve James, Snape knows generally what Harry got a 
glimpse of.  

Trying to sort out why Snape reacts the way he does--uh, that would 
be a difficult task for even the most talented psychiatrist. His 
reaction is extreme, but not totally out of character for Snape. His 
privacy was violated--to Harry it's merely curiousity, to Snape it 
could be his life.