How should Harry deal with Snape?

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 107930

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "mnaper2001" <mnaperrone at a...> 
wrote:
> Dzeytoun:
> 
> > 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.
> 
> Ally:
> 
> I don't know.  Harry is the hero and I think he's on course to be 
> more emotionally mature and developed than Snape if for no other 
> reason than his name is on the book titles.  If the relationship 
> changes for the better, it will be because Harry changes his mind 
> about or his approach to Snape.  
> 
> I keep thinking we'll see more of Lily's personality in Harry as he 
> gets older.  I know he was very angry at Snape at the end of OOTP, 
> but I wouldn't be surprised if something else happens - like the 
> pensieve and seeing into Snape's head during occlumency - that 
gives 
> Harry a glimpse of Snape that softens his perspective somewhat.  Or 
> maybe just with the passage of time he'll realize that his anger at 
> Snape was really just his own misdirected sense of guilt.  
> 
> Snape is emotionally stunted and JKR obviously likes him that way.  
> I'd like to see him evolve somewhat, but that's not a priority for 
> her.  Aside from Harry, JKR seems content to let most her 
characters 
> remain as "types" rather than true "Characters" IMO - even Ron and 
> Hermione are basically cliches with good lines.  But she reserves a 
> special place for Harry, so you can bet that if she plans for he 
and 
> Snape to come to any kind of working agreement, it will be Harry 
who 
> instigates it.

Marianne:

All the responders on this thread have had interesting things to 
say.  I'm not going to repond to all of them, but I think Ally is 
right in the assumption that it will be Harry who will show the 
greater emotional maturity.  

There have been a number of people on the list who have huffed over 
Harry's angry blame of Snape for Sirius' death.  Well, of course 
Snape is not directly to blame, but Harry is too emotional, too close 
to that death to look at it dispassionately at this point in time.  I 
predict that at some point we will see Snape a nasty comment about 
Sirius' demise, and Harry will not let it get to him on an emotional 
level.  I think that Harry will go a long way towards showing his 
maturity when he admits to himself that his own actions played a part 
in Sirius' death, and that Sirius' own nature also entered into the 
equation.

Maybe it's not realistic to expect a 16- or 17-year-old kid to act at 
this level of maturity, but, since the series is about Harry (and not 
Snape) I fully expect that at some point Harry will show a greater 
level of emotional maturity than Snape.  I will not be at all 
surprised that when Snape makes a disparaging remark about Sirius' 
death (whether to goad Harry or to test Harry's strength in not 
crumbling in the face of it) he will be confronted with a response 
from Harry that is much more mature and dignified than Snape expects, 
or, indeed that Snape could ever hope to come close to expressing.

Marianne