[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape's worst memory

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 81172

On 19 Sep 2003 at 0:48, Tim Johnson Family wrote:

> Many of you have speculated that the "graying underpants" Pensieve memory
> cannot be Snape's worst memory. Wouldn't torturing Muggles or the other
> attrocities he must have committed under Voldemort be worst? I am inclined
> to take the chapter at face value: the graying underpants memory is indeed
> the number 1 worst memory.

I have to say I agree. I think many people underestimate the impact 
something like this can have on a person. I was bullied at school - and 
it hurt. It really did. And my worst memory by far, relates to one 
incident of bullying at 13. It far outweighs the death of my father who 
I loved deeply when I was 15. It took me two years to recover from that 
(as much as anyone ever does). It took ten to get over that one incident 
of bullying.

And it wasn't physical (which happened as well - and quite badly at 
times). It was an incident that was simply calculated to humiliate me. 
Basically - and this doesn't come close to describing the way it made me 
feel, or what it meant to me (to give you an idea - well, if I could 
have there and then, I would have killed myself) - three boys peed on me 
in a shower at school after sports. It probably doesn't sound that bad. 
Objectively it wasn't that bad. But it still the most horrifying, most 
traumatising experience I have. And I've seen people killed in front of 
me. And I've faced the death of a parent. And I've been beaten into 
unconciousness, and I suffered horrific abuse.

In an objective sense, things much worse have happened to me - but that 
doesn't make them my worst memory.

What makes a memory bad is complex - and I can easily believe being 
humiliated in front of your peers as a teen is the worst memory that 
Snape has. No matter what evil he has done, I can believe it.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia