The bucking broomstick (Was: Snape's house)

[severelysigune]

No: HPFGUIDX 94646

I'd like to combine two posts here:

Kneasy wrote:
<<I've long suspected that that this memory is not as straight-
forward as it appears. It's Snape's memory but is it a memory *of* 
Snape? Given that the feud between Sevvy and the Marauders was of long
standing, this could be something else.

James is the Quidditch hero, the broomstick supremo. What better way
for Snape to humiliate him in public than to curse his broomstick?

IMO the scrawny boy is James, the laughing girl Lily.>>


Sigune here:
I find this point of view mighty interesting - like your suggestion 
that the hook-nosed man in the other memory is Snape himself rather 
than his father. Both are perfectly possible, and it is a wholly 
different way of looking at the evidence.
However, I interpreted the scrawny boy to be Snape because of the 
violence of his reaction to Harry. If I remember correctly (I haven't 
got my book with me), Snape doesn't say "That will do, Potter", 
or "Yes Potter, you can stop that now" - he shouted "ENOUGH!". If the 
boy on the broomstick is James, struggling because of a jinx cast by 
Snape, then the memory should be one of triumph and there is no need 
to react so violently.
Undermining my own argument, I am ready to concede that maybe he 
begins to shout for fear of Harry seeing the memory that comes next. 
But still.


Katherine McK suggested:
<<I always interpreted the bucking broomstick scene as symbolic of  
Snape's lack of success with girls. Is this the result of an English 
Lit. degree (sex interpretations = high marks) or am I just dirty-
minded? There's just something about him being laughed at during that 
unsuccessful ride...>>

Now Sigune:
Hm. We had different English Lit. professors :).
As a Snape non-shipper I cannot help wondering what the relevance is 
of the laughing person being of the female sex. For some reason or 
other I cannot see Snape being remotely interested in any girl for 
the reason of her being a girl. Or do I display a disconcerting lack 
of a dirty mind :)? I may be entirely wrong. Or the girl might have 
quite another meaning than as a love interest. Maybe she's his sister 
who always did better at school and with whom he was always compared, 
much to his frustration. Or maybe it's just worse for a boy to be 
laughed at by a girl than by another boy.
Ah well. No canon support at all to make sense of all this, so I'll 
just shut up and get back to work.

Yours severely,

Sigune