Understanding Snape

[Hitomi]

No: HPFGUIDX 91058

Hey.  I'm just going to step right in the middle of this discussion 
between Jim and Kneasy.  I really liked Naama's thoughts, because 
they explain some of my opinion.  There seems to be a general 
consensus of either Snape is selfish and cruel, or simply the 
innocent victim, who is the ways he is because of his childhood.  I 
personally thing both opinions are wrong, not completely, but too 
subjective.

I try to look back on how I viewed Snape before Book 4 - GOF being 
when we begin to realize more than ever that DD trusts Snape for a 
reason.  Besides the fact that Snape saved Harry's life, which as 
Naama said, was more out of duty and a sense of vain honor than out 
of any affinity for Harry, Snape was cruel (and still is).  We know 
he hated Harry's father, but he can't seem to separate the father 
and son.  From the moment Harry stepped across the threshold of 
Hogwarts, Snape has pretty much made it one of his life goals to 
make Harry as miserable as is in his power to do.  The man is over 
35 years old (referencing a JKR interview), a teacher for heaven's 
sake, and he can't get over what happened between him and a dead man 
over twenty years ago.  I'm sorry, but that's just... sad (in a 
pathetic, pitiful sense).  And he takes it out an eleven year-old-
boy, who just happens to have the misfortune of being James Potter's 
son, and looking just like his paternal parent.

That's why I always find the Harry/Snape animosity arguments 
slightly surreal.  Snape is the adult, and though I can't relate to 
that, I hope by the time I'm in my thirties I will have the sense of 
maturity not to take my hang-ups out on my students (since I want to 
be a teacher).  I feel for Snape, and what he went through as a 
fifteen-year-old boy, but he's grown, he's supposed to set the 
example to follow, and yet he's been attacking Harry just because 
Harry reminds him forcefully of his father.  If he can't get past 
that, he should at least be a big enough person to avoid interacting 
with Harry.  I completely relate with Harry on his feelings towards 
Snape.  How can you not hate (or at least, extremely dislike) a man 
who has been attacking you, unprovoked, just because you exist?  
Isn't that why Snape hated James?  And at least James was still an 
immature teenager, and not a fully grown man.  Yes, Harry's 
unrelenting hatred towards Snape at the end of Book 5 is 
unreasonable, but that was the only time I ever thought, "Harry, you 
shouldn't feel that way about him."  And Harry is incredibly 
depressed at that point, so I couldn't blame him for his feelings, 
especially when Harry must have known that Snape doesn't give a damn 
whether Sirius is alive or not.

If you were Harry, would you honestly trust Snape just because DD 
does?  No.  Hermione works on reason, Harry more on emotion, and 
Harry greatly values loyalty.  Trust is something that is earned.  
And Hermione doesn't trust Snape, she trusts DD, so she believes his 
opinion of Snape must be, at the very least, slightly accurate.  
Snape saved Harry's life, yes, but for his own reasons.  Every other 
moment he is belittling Harry, trying to fail him purposely, and 
trying to get him expelled (especially before Book 4).  I wouldn't 
trust Snape, either, especially considering he was once a DE - he 
once stood beside those who would have watched Harry die, a fourteen-
year-old child.  And for the record, I don't trust Snape.

However, before all the Snape sympathizers jump on my case, I do 
empathize with Severus Snape.  He did change sides, and DD must 
trust him for some reason.  And, no matter why he did it, he did 
save Harry's life, which would win points from me any day.  And 
after that memory in the Pensieve, I was completely with Harry.  
Never though I'd feel overly sorry for the man, but after that I 
verily did.  There is more to Snape, obviously, more than we've been 
told.  And I don't hate him as a character, I just think he needs to 
grow up, just as I thought Sirius needed to grow up to an extent, 
though Sirius' case was more understandable, considering he spent 
more than a third of his life in Azkaban.  

But I do think Snape is on his own side.  Not in the way Peter is 
(a.k.a. makes sure his own a** is covered first), but in that I 
think Snape always steps back and views his options, and how he may 
gain from one option to another.  Do I think Snape is an inherently 
cruel man?  No, but I do think he's selfish.  Just as I will never 
believe he's an inherently good man.  He loves the Dark Arts and 
joined Voldemort at one point - that should stand for something.  
But I don't think he's evil, just perhaps too human (implying 
original sin and inherent flaws).

Snape will probably never be on my fave character list, though I'm 
willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  But he hasn't earned 
my trust, yet.

And if the vampire rumors turn out to be true, though I doubt it, 
then in the words of Lavendar Brown (commenting on the Blast-Ended 
Screwts)... ergh.

~ Hitomi, who is wasting time by posting from her study lab because 
she's bored, and finds this more interesting ;)