"The Art of War" " Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."

[vmonte]

No: HPFGUIDX 94893

Neri wrote:
No reasonable person will consider 'get down and give me fifty' a
humiliation for long if he/she learns that all trainees are equally
likely to do it. He will, however, consider almost *any* task a
humiliation if he learns that it is invariably inflicted on people
with a certain skin color or a certain foreign sound to their surname
or from a certain house. Snape blew up even his drill sergeant
credibility when he has discriminated against Gryffindors and favored
incapable students such as Crabbe and Goyle. Snape may be a superb
secret agent, but none of his "trainees" will follow him as a
commander under fire.

vmonte responds:
I agree with Neri. All this military talk reminds me of a book
called "The Art of War," a military book that is over 1000 years old
(I think).
Well anyway, this book has a very famous quote which says: "Keep your
friends close, but keep your enemies closer (not sure of exact
quote). If DD is a strategist, then perhaps he has Snape at the
school for a different reason altogether. Perhaps it's so that he can
keep an eye on Snape. DD may also want Snape at the school so that
the children learn about him, and people like him. The more the kids
are around Snape the more they are going to learn about his
weaknesses (just like Voldy). Perhaps DD is teaching the kids how to
fight the DE's -- how to use the DEs weaknesses against them.

I'm starting to think that Occulmency lessons were not so much to
teach Harry how to close his mind, but how to read Snape's mind. I
wonder if DD meant Harry to see what was in the penseive as well.

vmonte