[HPforGrownups] Re: Question for Snape Bashers

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 102359

On 22 Jun 2004 at 2:01, dumbledore11214 wrote:

> Alla:
> 
> And when Neville is afraid of Snape more than anything else in the 
> world, it means something too.

But does it really?

Not all our fears are rational. I was an abused child, I 
experienced very significant abuse - but do you know what scares me 
more than anything else on this planet?

Car mufflers.

I am *not* kidding. The things absolutely *terrify* me. It's 
totally irrational (and I know where it comes from, and it's still 
irrational) but it's real.

I was an altar boy and I used to have to serve sometimes for our 
local Bishop. Being around this man made me feel really frightened. 
He scared the living daylights out of me. Being near him made me 
incompetent to do routine things I did every week with the local 
priest.

Yet, at all times I was around him, he was always charming, polite, 
gentle, and he seemed to try and go out of his way to make me as 
comfortable as possible. He's now a Cardinal and he's in the  news 
a lot - I still get the same feelings when I see him on TV.

It's not at all rational.

Now Neville does have some reason to fear Snape - so it's not 
totally irrational that he does. But the fact that Snape is *his* 
worst fear, may well contain an element of irrationality building 
on top of something rational.

Also - even a person with no serious fears in their life, is still 
going to have one that is worse.

The fact that Snape (or any other fear) is top of Neville's list 
doesn't necessarily mean much. Rather than being a sign that 
Neville finds Snape unusually scary - it could be a sign that 
Neville is not that scared by other things.


Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately | www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       | drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200 
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one
thing in common. They don't alter their views to fit the 
facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be 
uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that 
need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who: The Face of Evil
Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia