What if other teachers behaved like Snape?

[Walter Gruver]

No: HPFGUIDX 101436

Snape's dislike for Harry seems to come from two (2) avenues:
 
1- His extreme dislike of James has haunted him into adulthood.
 
I'm not trying to suggest that James is actually "haunting" Severus, but Serverus' dislike of James is complicated by the fact that James and Lily were murdered by someone that we are led to believe that Serverus believes is evil.  This creates a certain sense of pity in Serverus' mind for the way in which James and Lily lost their lives, but in no way detracts from Serverus' utter contempt for the person that James once was as teenager.  I would be surprised if Serverus and James had much interaction in the original OoTP.
 
2- Snape believes that Harry is so much like his father that Harry has the predispostion to let the inherent popularity of his "defeat" of Voldemort go to his head.
 
Snape has been way off the mark on this one since day one.  It was Snape that gave Harry the "new celebrity" monologue in the first Potions lesson of PS/SS.  I don't think that Serverus has ever given much consideration to the life that Harry has lived in the care (if you can call it that) of the Dursley's.  If you consider that Snape seemed a bit taken back by Harry's memories of Marge's dog chasing Harry up a tree at the Dursley's during Occulmency lessons, it appears that Serverus was just beginning to get a glimpse of how "celebrated" Harry's life had been up to that point.  Harry has never really tried to use his "celebrity" status in the WW to get anything.  He has worked his way through an unfamiliar world trying to catch up on the things he was never privy to while living with the Dursleys (though if he read like Herminone he would not have this learning curve problem).  If Harry had not ventured into the Pensive to see Serverus' memories it is quite possible that the
 constant exposure to each others thoughts and memories might have mellowed this relationship to a certain extent.  At this point we have to wait and see how JKR plays out Harry's knowledge of how things between Serverus and James really were and that reflects on what Harry finds out about his father in books 6 and 7.

Walter