Understanding Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 91061

> > Kneasy:
<snip>
> The way I see it is that Snape hated James and the others before the 
> prank. The scene we see in the pensieve *is* his worst memory, at 
> least of the humiliated-in-school genre, and clinched his hatred of 
> the group, and James in particular. The prank happened because Snape 
> was obsessed by his desire for revenge. The fact that James saved his 
> life - the person he  hated most of all - put him in an unbearable 
> emotional bind. It could tear a person to pieces, to be obligated to 
> someone he loathes so much. When Harry came along, it revived that 
> emotional dissonance for him - which explains his hatred of Harry, 
> his protectiveness towards him, and the intensity of both. 

Carol:
Exactly. IMO, James' death was a blow to Snape because it left him in
 a bind, owing James a life debt, which he's now trying to repay by
protecting/saving Harry.  BTW, does anyone have any theories about
what happens when a life debt is not paid?

Naama: 
><snip> There was a lot of discussion here about the subjectivity or 
> otherwise of the pensieve. My opinion is that the pensieve is 
> subjective, i.e., if you enter a memory, you can only sense what the 
> subject of the memory sensed. If so, Snape, for all he seemed so 
> engrossed with checking his test, was actually in a position to hear 
> what MWPP were saying. <snip>

Carol:
Harry has to hurry away from Severus to hear what MWPP are saying.
Severus is immersed in his test, apparently not paying attention to
where he's going. When he realizes they're present (James greets him
nastily with "All right, Snivellus?"), Severus goes for his wand, but
not quickly enough. If he'd been listening to their conversation, he'd
have been more alert. He also would have known that Remus was a
werewolf, a fact he didn't learn until the Prank the next year. If the
memory were subjective, Harry would be limited to Snape's POV, reading
the exam sheet and Severus's answers. As it is, he can move about
inside the memory, just as if he were present (but invisible). He is
not inside Snape's mind and does not know his thoughts or sense his
feelings. He observes Severus and MWPP from the outside, or rather
from his own perspective, just as he observes the trials from his own
perspective rather than Dumbledore's in the earlier Pensieve scenes.
(He doesn't know who the four people are in the Lestrange/Crouch
trial. Had it been from Dumbledore's POV, he would have known exactly
who they were.)

Carol, who reminds Kneasy that someone does agree with him about those
other memories in Snape's pensieve. See my post #90408.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/90408