Harry, Neville, and Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90408

Kneasy wrote:
Maybe it's me. Perhaps I imagine things and I haven't written what I
think I've written. But, please, please, please, could someone explain
to me why when I say that I believe Snape's behaviour towards Harry
and Neville is an act, everybody ignores that part of my post.
<snip>
> It's a sad day when a self-centred little snot like Harry can't be
firmly put in his place. And Snape's the man to do it, even if it is
part of his cover. Snape is the necessary corrective in Harry's school
world. The one person who will make DD's pet look over his shoulder
before he tries one of those stunts that end as an epic cock-up. Who
else will act as a brake on Harry?  
<snip>
> The one staff member on the spot is invariably Snape. Why is this?
Because it's his job. He's been appointed as Harry's guardian angel at
 Hogwarts - by DD. He's the one to warn Harry off, to keep him out of
trouble and to save his skin when necessary. And what better way to 
keep an eye on him than to loudly proclaim that Harry is trouble and 
that he (Snape) will dog his footsteps until he catches him out. 
Harry being Harry is entirely predictable in his attitudes and
behaviour and  makes Snape's job so much easier and his announced
intention very believable.
<snip> 
All his actions towards Harry are calculated. Only once has
he ever physically threatened Harry, despite all the provocation
thrown at him, at that was when Harry delved into the Pensieve. And
there, I strongly suspect, his reaction was not because of what Harry
saw, but what he *might* have seen. Harry seeing Snape embarassed is
one thing, Harry seeing something critical, secret, or dangerous about
Snape and Voldy would be something else again. (Nobody ever asks about
the other memories Snape put in the Pensieve.)
<snip>

Carol:
With the exception of your characterization of Harry, I agree
wholeheartedly with your post, especially the parts I've retained her.
But "I agree" posts are forbidden, which is why I haven't responded
earlier. Maybe others are in the same boat. I think that many of us
probably see Snape as DD's righthand man, playing the important role
of "bad cop" to DD's "good cop"; keeping an eye on Harry and steering
him away from trouble whenever possible. (And not just Harry, but Ron
as well.) 

I think, for example, that it was necessary for Snape to punch a hole
in the balloon of "our new celebrity" on the first day of class to
show both him and his fellow students that Harry was no different in
most respects from anyone else in the class and just how profound his
ignorance of potions (and the WW in general) really was. Snape's
motive was the same as DD's in having Harry raised by Muggles (setting
aside protective charms related to Harry's blood)--to keep him from
being a spoiled little god to his fellow students. But also I think
that lesson must be etched in Harry's memory, and when the time comes
when he needs a bezoar, he'll remember it.

I could give other examples but I want to get to your point about the
Pensieve, which I was actually thinking about before I read your post.
Harry thinks--and DD wants him to think--that Snape stopped giving the
occlumency lessons because Harry witnessed Snape's worst memory in the
Pensieve. But as you say, what were those other two memories that
Snape had put in the Pensieve *specifically to prevent them from being
seen by Harry*? What if they were not memories of his own personal
humiliation but something he didn't want Voldemort, via Harry, to see?
I suggest that one of them was Snape's arrangement with Dumbledore to
teach Potions at Hogwarts, bound by some promise of loyalty that
Dumbledore trusts implicitly. The other might have been his revelation
to Dumbledore that Harry's parents were in danger. Whatever they were,
it was essential that they not be seen by either Harry or Voldemort.

I imagine Snape rushing to the Pensieve expecting the worst, then
forcing himself to control his anger and remove Harry from the
objectifid memory, throwing Harry *from* him, as someone (maybe you,
Kneasy) pointed out, so he won't hurt him and then sending him away.
Then Snape would have calmed himself down, put his thoughts back into
his head, and gone to Dumbledore with the empty Pensieve, saying that
Harry can't be trusted not to look into the Pensieve and it's too
great a risk to continue the lessons. If DD had thought that they
should have continued, he would have ordered Snape to do so despite
the humiliation he had suffered. But he saw the need to stop them and
accepted the humiliation as a believable excuse for doing so. (In any
case, as Harry himself admits, it was his own fault that the lessons
weren't accomplishing their objective. He hated Snape too much to
listen to what he had to say or to block his emotions from his mind.)

One more bit of evidence that I think backs up Kneasy and that is DD's
continued insistence that Harry call Snape "Professor Snape" and his
detailed explanation at the end of OoP of Snape's role in getting the
members of the Order to the MoM. If it weren't for Snape contacting
the Order members, Harry and his friends would be dead. He even tried
to prevent Sirius from going there, and if Sirius had heeded him, he
also would be alive. And DD points out to Harry that Snape *had* to
play a role, pretending he hadn't received Harry's cryptic message. He
*had* to conceal from Umbridge that he not only understood it but
intended to act on it. But Harry is too absorbed in his agony over
Sirius's death to hear. It's too convenient to hate Snape and blame
everything on him.

In other words, yes, Snape is "the necessary corrective in Harry's
world." Yes, he is Harry's "guardian angel." And, yes, he must conceal
his role. Fortunately for him and for Dumbledore, he has just the
personality to pull it off without suspicion--from Harry or from the
Slytherin students whose fathers happen to be Death Eaters. Snape is
in mortal danger as a spy (or whatever he's doing for the Order). He
is also in mortal danger if his role as Harry's protector is
discovered. Harry, in contrast, is in no real danger from Snape's
sarcasm. It will cause him no permanent harm, as we've already seen.
But falling from a broom, being bitten by a werewolf, being AK'd by
Death Eaters in the DoM? Those are the kinds of dangers from which
Snape is trying to protect Harry without being detected, to keep him
alive for Dumbledore and for the ultimate battle against Lord Voldemort.

Carol, who apologizes to the List Elves for being prolific but had to
answer one last post before getting back to work