How should Harry deal with Snape?

[Sandra]

No: HPFGUIDX 107886

all the other excellent posts snipped

pippin wrote last:

> SNIP

> But JKR has said that Harry is going to learn in Book Six that he 
needs to control his anger. He'd have to grow up a lot, but isn't 
that what we're expecting him to do? 
> SNIP

> 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. 

SNIP

> He's never going to win that one. 
 
> SNIP
 
> 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.


now Sandra - not as a direct answer to pippin though:
This is a great thread - thanks neri for starting it. It is a 
question that has kept me wondering and hoping and even more so after 
the pensieve scene in OoP.

I did actually read PS again just the other day to find the start of 
their bad relationship.
For me it is one of the most interesting relationships in the book, 
because both characters are so complex, and especially in Snapes case 
might have so many hidden aspects still to discover.

And in RL you do come across people you just don't like (or vice 
versa) and still need to get along with.

I just wonder, would if have made any change if the coincidence with 
the Scar hurting (from QuirrelMort) and the look from Snape did not 
happen, or Harry did not have the bad luck of potions with the 
Slytherins.
OTOH JKR might have 'used' these to take the Harry-Snape relationship 
quickly to an extreme, to a point of no return maybe *sigh*.

But then again for Snape it was almost compulsory to at least dislike 
Harry, because of his relationship to James. And here again I wonder, 
would it have made any difference, if someone (DD?) had told Harry 
how much James and Snape hated each other and why. Although we do not 
really know the why, do we? Maybe Snape was really bad as a teenager 
and James just stood up to him - but no, I do not see the pensieve 
scene justifiable this easy. 

I guess just as in RL there will never be an objective way to tell 
who started it, while truly having a different option (circumstances 
accounted for). 



But that was not the question of this thread! 


I do not think 'name-and-shame' is an option. An excuse from both 
could help as someone has suggested, or the experience of working 
together. 
But as with Sirius and Snape (without the excuse) that just seems to 
have made the matter worse. In RL mediators are used in such cases, 
but I am not sure Lupin is the right one, as I am not sure Snape does 
respect him, and then with all that Lupin has been through, as 
mentioned in other threads, I doubt it.
DD would be the obvious choice but he seems very reluctant to help in 
this case.

For Harry, I agree with some of the posts, a low-profile strategy, 
taking Snape with a pinch of salt, could be an option. But our hero 
just does not seem to be the person to do this, although he did have 
a lot of experience with Umbridge now. He is or at least was not the 
one to step back or follow rules, if he does not understand why and 
has a very high sensibility for justice, at the very least when it 
concerns his friends and himself, and that is one of the ingredients 
for a 'regular' hero.

What could Snape do to improve matters? He is the 'adult' and should 
have tried to de-escalate this situation long ago. The occlumency 
lessons were such a good opportunity, with no Malfoy to please, and 
he just messed it up!

I just hope there will be this 'big bang', where either they are 
truly in this TOGETHER, depending on each other, and put their 
differences behind the bigger issue of vanquishing LV or that Snape 
turns out to be ESE!Snape and Harry has been right about him all the 
time (and some HPfGU members).
I personally would much more prefer the first option and think the 
second one to be less likely (might just be wishful thinking).

I will keep my fingers crossed for favourable circumstance for peace 
in the order!

Sandra
who comes to terms with Tom Riddle = Lord Voldemort, without any 
hidden Salazar, and no more Dobby clues...