Who is the adult (Was: Who's to blame for Occlumency?)

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 101078

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, SnapesSlytherin at a... wrote:
> 
> Why does everyone underestimate teenagers?  Why does the fact that 
Harry's 15 give him the right to act like a little berk?  (Wow...I 
just used berk in a sentence...)  Severus is most definitely a giant 
git.  (Wow...git...)  And everyone jumps down his throad when he does 
something wrong.  But for some reason, every time Harry does 
something bad, it's "Harry is 15!  Severus isn't 15!"  What does age 
have to do with it?  Age is no excuse AT ALL.  Especially when you 
know what Harry knows.  Severus knows too, but isn't Harry our hero?  
(That be sarcasm...I'm not a big Harry fan at all...)
> 
> It's well established that Severus cannot grow up.  He needs a 
psychiatrist and some therapy.  Look at his situation, he was 
tormented by people in his youth and he can't get over it -- happens 
to lots of people.  I graduated high school last week, and I still 
hate peoplel who pulled their own prank on me in fifth grade.  The 
weak cannot take things like that.  When Severus went on his rant 
about people who wear their hearts on their sleeves, IMO, that was 
about him.  Actually, I believe we have yet to meet a real adult in 
the HP series.
> 

Severus does wrong, therefore he needs psychiatric help; Harry does 
wrong, and he is therefore to blame. This, you say, because Severus 
has had a difficult emotional past. Hmmm. And Harry, of course, has 
had a loving, warm and cuddly childhood, so he should know better?! 
Have to love your logic here. 

Regarding age. Allow me a moment of patronage here. You say you have 
graduated last week - you are eighteen years old, or thereabouts, 
then. What can you possibly know about the difference between being 
fifteen and thirty five years old? From someone who's been in both 
these places, believe me, there is a *huge* difference - in how you 
understand the world, how you understand yourself, your ability for 
compassion and empathy, your self control, complexity of thought. 
Fifteen and thirty five are two very different modes of being, in my 
experience, at least. So, yes. Harry certainly carries less 
responsibility than Snape simply due to the difference in their ages. 

(There are other reasons why, in that specific situation, Snape was 
more responsible than Harry to the outcome: he was the one with 
authority, and he was the one with knowledge, including knowing how 
much Harry didn't know.)


Naama, sucked into the blame game