James the Berk?

[kyntor70]

No: HPFGUIDX 105586

Katie wrote:

"Where, precisely, is it established that *at the time of the
Pensieve scene* Snape had the least thing to do with racial
prejudice? His remark to Lily confirms it, but there's nothing in
the scene before it that does. And I don't think Lily would have
defended him so confidently if he were going around Draco-ing
everyone. All we're going on is hearsay, and I think that if Sirius
or James had any more legit reason (than "he exists") to torture and
humiliate Snape, they'd have played it up to appeal to the crowd
even more. Furthermore, were it even established that Snape at this
point was a bigoted Dark Arts-practicing bastard, calling
someone "Snivellus" and threatening to take off his underwear is not
an argument.

Obviously I like Sirius. If given a few more positive scenes with
him, I might even like James. But what they do in this scene is, I
think, reprehensible. I think the most loathsome qualities of adult
Snape, interestingly enough, are displayed by Sirius and James in
this scene: that is, bullying someone weaker than yourself for no
real reason, and using it to your own advantage.

... You know, I was going to write more, but I decided it'd be
smarter to stop here, and let you all argue about that last
statement, if you like."


Kyntor replies:

I don't really see how you can judge a person based on twenty minutes 
of pensieve.  Especailly considering that we don't really have any 
information on Snapes and James relationship the rest of the seven 
years in school.  There are several things that I think you should 
consider.

1.  Snape did use a racial slur against Lily.  You can speculate that 
it was the first time he ever used one, but it is speculation.

2.  Lily did change her opinion of James (they were married) so he 
must have grown up and stopped being a brat.

3.  It was mentioned in PoA that Snape followed the maurauders around 
trying to get them expelled.  I can't remember who said it.  It was 
either Lupin or Sirius.  It is a lot more believable if it was Lupin.

4.  During the pensieve scene James was using spells that would 
humiliate Snape.  When Snape got the opportunity to retaliate, he did 
not respond in kind.  Instead of trying to humilate James, he shoots 
a spell at James that physically injured him (a cutting spell).  The 
spell cut James cheek.  After that James got really nasty; however, 
he still did not try to physically injure Snape.

5.  After school James joined the Order of the Phoenix.  After school 
Snape became a death eater.  Of course, we now know that Snape 
switched sides and became a spy for Dumbledore, but JKR has strongly 
hinted that Snape was a real death eater at least at first.

Judging James by that one pensieve scene is about as crazy as judging 
Snape solely on the fact that he became a death eater.  Both leaves 
us with incomplete pictures of the characters involved.  As far as 
who started the rivalry between Snape and James, I would guess that 
both party's hands were dirty.

Kyntor