Harry's revenge on Snape?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 90508

Clio wrote:
<snip> In the MoM, after Bellatrix Lestrange has killed Sirius, Harry
duels with her. 
<snipped quote>
> 
It is a bit reassuring here that Harry, although he wants to cast an 
Unforgivable, is unable to do so efficiently, because he doesn't feel 
enough hate in him. He doesn't enjoy the pain of it victim enough.
> 
Now, I was wondering what would happen if the target of Harrys spell 
was a different person, one he really hates. Snape.
 
In Dumbledore's office, Harry blames Snape for Sirius death. And 
here, for the first time, we see Harry connecting joy and hate.
> 
"Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, 
it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted 
to hear Dumbledore agree with him."
 
Some scenes later, Harrys newfound hatred of Snape is reinforced. It 
is not the 'rightous anger' Bellatrix says Harry uses in his meek 
Crucio.
 
"Snape had emerged from the staircase leading to his office and at 
the sight of him Harry felt a great rush of hatred beyond anything he 
felt towards Malfoy ... whatever Dumbledore said, he would never 
forgive Snape ... never ..."

I wonder what would happen if Harry met Snape alone, if Snape 
provoked him, maybe. Would he really try to harm him physically? In 
book 4 this seems to be foreshadowed. Harry more than once fantasizes 
of hurting Snape. 

<several thought-provoking quotes snipped>

Well, I think this is a bit startling. Would Harry really, now that 
he knows the Crucio curse and has in his mind a good reason to hate 
Snape, go so far as to hurt him? And enjoy it? <snip> In those
examples from GoF Snape has only insulted Harry with words and it
triggers such violent fantasies in him. What will happen now, that
Harry thinks Snape is responsible for Sirius death? There is no
denying that he is a bit unhinged. Would Harry expose Snape as a spy
or challenge him to a duel maybe? Any thoughts?
> 
> Clio, 
> who thinks AngryTeenager!Harry and curses might prove to be a 
> explosive combination

Carol:
I've left large portions of this excellent post unsnipped because it
provides important background for my own response.

First, I'm not sure that Harry's hatred for Snape is as deep as it
appears. Much of it is a child's or teenager's resentment of an overly
strict authority figure. Snape is a convenient scapegoat, a target for
all the anger bottled up in Harry which can't be directed at the real
enemy, Voldemort. Smashing beetles that he imagines as having Snape's
face is a convenient and relatively harmless way of letting off steam.
Also Harry knows that he owes a few debts to Snape and that Dumbledore
trusts Snape implicitly. I don't think that Harry, now that he's come
to terms with Dumbledore after resenting him through a whole 700-page
book, will continue to blame a man he knows to be Dumbledore's ally
and agent for killing Sirius. As one of your quotations indicates,
Harry's "savage pleasure" in blaming Snape is really a way of
lessening his own feelings of guilt, at least for that moment.

As you say, his failure to cast an effective Cruciatus curse is
reassuring. So, to me, is the change in him at the end of OoP. He was
feeling friendless and alone--no one could understand his misery over
Sirius's death or share the burden of having to kill LV or be killed
by him , etc., etc.--but once he sees how many people are really
behind him and that he's not alone after all, his attitude changes. As
someone else pointed out in another thread, he actually leads Uncle
Vernon to the car, not the other way around--surely a hopeful sign
that he's on his way to recovery.

I think (hope) that we'll see less adolescent angst and rebellion in
Book 6, with Harry trusting his friends and DD more and understanding
that some of the anger he feels may not be his own. If so, though he
probably won't admit to himself that he's blamed Snape unfairly, he'll
probably arrive at a more realistic perspective of the events leading
to Sirius's death. Even if he won't admit that he owes his life to
Snape, he should surely acknowledge that it was Snape who sent the
Order to rescue him and that Snape tried to prevent Sirius from going
to the MoM. Maybe he'll redirect his anger toward Bellatrix, or at
least tone down his resentment of Snape, understanding the difference
between whispered sarcasm in Potions class and Unforgiveable Curses
hurled at him and his friends in the MoM. I'm pretty sure that "he
would never forgive Snape. Never!" is yet another example of narration
from Harry's POV that will turn out not to be true. IMO, it
illustrates the kind of intense but short-lived anger that everyone,
and particularly a teenager under a lot of stress, sometimes feels.

I also hope that the momentary understanding of Snape's perspective
that Harry felt after witnessing Snape's humiliation in the Pensieve
will return to him at some point. I think *that* Harry was much closer
to the essential Harry than the angry, resentful prisoner of his
emotions that we saw throughout most of OoP. He couldn't bring himself
to kill the "murderin' traitor" Sirius (to quote Hagrid) or allow
Sirius and Remus to kill Peter in PoA; he couldn't cast an effective
Cruciatus on Bellatrix in OoP, yet he had much stronger grounds for
hating those people (or thought he did) than he has for hating Snape.
And Snape is anything but defenseless; I don't think Harry could catch
him unawares even if he dared to try. Not to mention that Harry
himself knows the consequences of  casting a spell on a teacher. (If
Snape had really wanted to have him expelled, he could have done so
after HRH stunned him in the Shrieking Shack.) Harry's not going to go
to Azkaban for Crucioing Snape, or even allow himself to be expelled
for hexing him with a jelly legs curse.

I do wonder how Harry is going to destroy Voldemort without resorting
to murder (his only alternative from his current perspective), but I
don't think he's going to ready himself for the final battle by
practicing Unforgiveable Curses on his least favorite teacher.

Carol