Acceptable Abuses?

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 95757

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, squeakinby <squeakinby at t...> 
wrote:
> In many respects, Snape is always right about Harry.  He sees when 
Harry 
> is behaving like James and Snape knows any cavalier attitude 
exhibited 
> with Voldemort will result in Harry's death.
> 
> Umbridges' blood quill did make me rather sick, tho.
> 
> Jem


I disagree. Snape is sometimes correct in figuring Harry's actions 
(he a spy for reason ;o)), he is almost always wrong  when he tries 
to guess Harry's motivations of those actions or when he is trying to 
assess Harry's character.


Let's start with infamous first lesson scene. 

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new - celebrity" 
(PS/SS. p.136)

So, Harry is a celebrity indeed, through no fault of his own though 
and in addition he hates being celebrity.

"Prisoner of Azkaban"
'Malfoy is not having hallucinations," snarled Snape, and he bent 
down, a hand on each arm of Harry's chair, so that their faces were a 
foot apart. "If your head was in Hogsmeade, so was the rest of you."
PoA, p.283.

So far, so good. Although that was Malfoy who told Snape that Harry 
was indeed there. What does Snape say on the next page?

"How extraordinarily like your father you are, Potter," Snape said 
suddenly, his eyes glinting, "He too was exceedingly arrogant. A smal 
amount of talent on the Quidditch filed made him think he was a cut 
above the rest of us too" PoA, p.284.- Again, it does not seem to me 
that Harry thinks that being a talented Quidditch player makes him 
better than everybody else.


Shrieking Shack. PoA, p.361 "Like father, like son, Potter! I have 
just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on the bended knee! 
You would have been well served if he'd killed you! You'd have died 
like your father, too arrogant to believe 
you might be mistaken in Black - now get out of the way, or I will 
make you"

Well, no need to say that. - Contrary to Snape's words, Harry was 
actually correct to believe in Black.

I felt sorry for Snape, when he said that. He must have been trying 
to save James really hard. Most of my sympathy went out of the window 
after OoP though, since I happened to believe that he was the one who 
overheard the prophecy and was the reason why Voldie was looking for 
Potters in the first place. But I am drifting OT. Where was I? Oh, 
yes:

Whether Snape is always correct about Harry?


I can give more examples, but I will finish with my favourite one 
from OoP.

"So," said Snape, gripping Harry's arm so tightly Harry's hand was 
starting to feel numb. "So... been enjoying yourself, Potter?" OoP, 
p.649

As Harry tells the readers, this guess was very far from what he 
really felt.

"What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being 
shouted at or having jars thrown at him - it was that he knew how it 
felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew 
exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that 
judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as 
arrogant as Snape had always told him." OoP, p.650.


So, no, Snape is not always right about Harry.

Alla