The bucking broomstick (Was: Snape's house)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 94539

> JLV wrote:
> I know I am arguing against myself here, but it seems that Snape 
> wasn't very good at Quidditch anyway so his hopes of getting on the 
> team cannot have been great, if we take Snape's memories to be any 
> guide:
> "suddenly Harry's mind was teeming with memories that were not his:
a hook-nosed man was shouting at a cowering woman, while a small dark-
> haired boy cried in a corner
 a greasy-haired teenager sat alone in
a dark bedroom, pointing his wand at the ceiling, shooting down flies
 
> a girl was laughing as a scrawny boy tried to mount a bucking 
> broomstick" OotP
> This passage always makes me feel very sorry for Snape though.  I 
> wonder why JKR chose these particular scenes?  It does show us that 
> Snape was very lonely, however, and would perhaps jump at the chance 
> to join an exclusive gang of Slytherins who hated the rest of the 
> world as much as he did.

Carol:
Although I also feel sorry for young Severus in this scene, I don't
think it can be taken as an indication of his Quidditch-playing
abilities. At least as an adult he has no trouble controlling his
broom when he referees the Quidditch game in SS/PS. As we know from
Harry's remarks, a good broom won't throw off its rider, so either
this is not a good broom or it has a hex or jinx on it. We also see in
the flying lesson in SS/PS that a rider who's afraid of a broom can't
control it (Neville), but I don't see any indication of fear in this
scene--the boy (Severus) is *trying to mount* a bucking broom. IMO
it's not fear of flying or incompetence but stubborn unwillingness to
let the (jinxed or faulty) broom control him (which the girl in the
memory finds funny). We can't assume from this scene that Severus was
bad at Quidditch or that he was jealous of James's skill at Quidditch.
As I said in another post, the jealousy is someone else's assumption,
not a fact.

Carol, who wishes she knew who the girl was