Lupin's resentment : An inside to Snape's resentment

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 94032

Silverthorne wrote:

<snip>You see him [Snape] interacting with Sirius and Harry--but JUST 
Sirius and Harry. Basing his whole atttiude on the interaction with 
just a few people he comes into contact with is a mis service.<snip> 
These three don't get along--so it's no surpise we see Snape at his 
worst. But we have yet to see him at his best, so it's still an 
unfair comparison. remember, JKR let's us see only through Harry's
eyes--and Harry is not exactly impartial, nor is he all-knowing.<snip>

Berit replies:

I hope you're right; that we have yet to see Snape at his best. But 
fortunately, we have already seen him interact with other characters 
apart from Harry and Sirius. Up till the Shrieking Shack incident, he 
behaved impeccably towards Lupin (at least in public), even though he 
had big personal issues with the man. And compare his behaviour 
towards Umbridge with McGonagall's; it is clear (at least to me) that 
Snape did not much appreciate Umbridge and her interferences at 
Hogwarts, but he stays remarkably calm and composed; as passive and 
neutral as possible as not to provoke her unnecessarily, while 
McGonagall is openly fuming and on the verge of exploding (doing the 
exact opposite thing she warned Harry not to :-)! Of course; you 
might say self-control has nothing to do with love. But it has to do 
with strength of character, which I feel is a virtue related 
to 'love' (which also happens to be a principle/state of mind, not 
just a *feeling*).

Then there's Snape's relationship with Dumbledore and McGonagall. 
Here I think we can definitely say he does show 'love', even though 
it's not the extrovert, warm fuzzy type :-) Let me use McGonagall as 
an example: The way he interacts with her, he clearly respects her 
and even appreciates her company, despite them being fierce head of 
house rivals. Just look at the way he greets her when she returns to 
Hogwarts at the end of OotP... He's happy (or should I say at least 
not unhappy :-) to have her back, and doesn't protest (only very 
feebly) when she insists on giving Gryffindor an additional 250 
points... :-))

Also, Snape has shown himself to be very quick to defend Dumbledore 
(GoF: When Karkaroff claims DD has tampered with the Goblet of Fire). 
Of course, it could be argued that he only did it to put the blame on 
Harry instead :-) But just the way DD speaks of Snape as well, 
suggests not a boss/employee hierarchy, but a friendly, even intimate 
relationship; 'That's a matter between Snape and me'. Why, the man 
has actually trusted Dumbledore with his secrets! 

And as other listees have already posted, the few glimpses we see of 
Snape interacting with the other teachers (most notably the one in 
the staff room in CoS where they give Lockhart his due), show a 
mutual respect and understanding between the Hogwarts teachers 
(excluding Lockhart and Umbridge), and Snape is included as 'one of 
them'; he's not an outsider.

So yes; I can see Snape being capable of 'loving' :-)

Berit
http://home.no.net/berjakob/snape.html