How should Harry deal with Snape?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 107872

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dzeytoun" 
<dzeytoun at c...> wrote:

> Sigh.  I'm afraid the time for this is long gone.  The fact is that 
> these two have come to *hate* one another.  Whoever is most 
at fault  (for my money it's undeniably Snape, but choose who 
you please), we're well past the "ignoring each other" stage.  
This might have  been a good option at anytime before book five.  
Now emotions have  reached such a nadir that I just don't see it 
as a possibility.  
> Remember, we aren't just talking about sarcastic comments 
anymore.   Harry feels that Snape is complicit in the death of the 
only parental  figure Harry has ever known.  You don't swallow 
that and go on.<

I'm not expecting Harry to swallow it. But JKR has said that Harry 
is going to learn in Book Six that he needs to control his anger. I 
expect as the grieving process continues, Harry will  start  to 
accept his loss and not need to blame anyone so much. That 
will make his own part in losing Sirius easier to accept. He'd 
have to grow up a lot, but isn't that what we're expecting him to 
do? 

Meanwhile, if his icy anger helps him to lose some of his fear of 
Snape,  it might actually help Harry see that he's been playing 
the "Let's humiliate Harry" game as much as Snape has. 

He's never going to win that one. Everyone has things they feel 
ashamed of--and Snape is never going to tire of pointing them 
out as long as Harry reacts in a way that validates Snape's 
opinion of James.

 That's really what Snape wants, IMO. He wants to hear James 
say, "Yes, I was a berk." Second best is to chivvy Harry into 
behavior that Snape sees as arrogant, because that too 
validates Snape's feelings toward James.

What Harry needs to do is change the way he reacts to the 
bullying, not because Snape is making him, but because Harry 
has that power and that choice. He, unlike Snape, is not in thrall 
to compulsive behavior. Harry can't change the rules: as long as 
Snape is a teacher and Harry a student, Snape will have ways to 
abuse his power, and as long as Harry is human, Snape will be 
able to find some weakness to exploit. But Harry can change 
the game.

Instead of playing, "Every time Snape humiliates me, he wins," 
he can change the game to "Every time I keep my temper and 
don't mouth off, I win." Then insults won't be a way of keeping 
score, he won't have to take them  seriously and he can 
concentrate on visualizing that vulture hat every time Snape 
starts in on him.

Who knows, Harry might eventually be able to say, quietly, "Yeah, 
dad and Sirius were berks, sometimes," and Snape would be so 
astounded he'd melt right through the floor like one of Neville's 
cauldrons.

Pippin