The bucking broomstick (Was: Snape's house)

[dorapye]

No: HPFGUIDX 94704

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "arrowsmithbt" 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
>>>  
> Besides, it makes for a nicely rounded set of replays; Snape bucks 
James
> off, James suspends Snape in an embaraasing position. Snap.

snip!
dorapye:
Okay, always enjoy the challenge of viewing things differently, in a 
Kneasy-stylee, but having considered this one, I'm inclined to side 
with the view that it is the young Snape on the broom, and so I'll 
explain my reasoning:

We know in canon how much alike Harry and James are; so much alike, 
in fact, that practically everyone who used to know James feels the 
need to comment on it (doesn't DD say he looks 'extraordinarily like 
his father'?). And we also know that this extends to their physical 
build too (OotP, Pensieve scene, when Harry says that looking at his 
15 year old father, he could tell that if James stood up, James and 
he would be within a inch of each other in height).

So, the 'scrawny boy' on the broomstick?  I can't recall that Harry 
has *ever* been described as 'scrawny' in the entire series - small 
for his age, skinny, but never 'scrawny', which is hardly a 
flattering observation to make of someone.

Harry would, surely, despite being deprived of his father, or of 
even seeing his father's image, for most of his life, instinctively 
recognise his father as a youngster (as in fact he does, in the 
Pensieve scene) and the memory would be v quickly interpreted by 
Harry as showing James, if indeed it did.

Snape as an adolescent, however, would be quite difficult for Harry 
to immediately recognise, as he would no doubt struggle to imagine 
his fearsome Potions Master as a vulnerable teenager.

> 
> Also there is the nature  of memories - don't know about you but 
most
> of mine are from an observers point of view, like watching a 
video. So 
> there is a chance that very few of Snape's actually feature Snape 
as the
> central character. 
> 
> I love being devious.
> 
Actually, I posted on this before, ages ago, about how psychologists 
have it down as fact that when we recall memories of incidents in 
which we played a part, we replay the memories in our minds like we 
are watching a movie in which we are the star - our viewpiont of the 
events is somewhere outside of our bodies and we see ourselves 
physically represented in the frame, as though the camera is on us.

This effect has been used to explain Out of Body or Near Death 
experiences. (perhaps deja vu as well? had a freaky one this 
afternoon!)

How we recall things we merely witness though, i.e. someone else's 
car crash, a school science experiment which produced something 
interesting (I can live in hope - science teacher, here), well, this 
is more likely to be recalled as if you are playing a videotape 
recorded by your eyes.

But that argument you had with a colleague last week, that 
presentation you had to do before a roomful of peers, that trip to 
the zoo with your best mate last weekend, or whatever, these are 
replayed as if viewed from a position o/s of the body.

This is why the Pensieve viewpoint never bothered me.  It actually 
makes perfect sense to me; as does Snape's memories of Snape 
himself, on a bucking broomstick.  

And yes, whoever previously posted on the sexual slur the bucking 
broomstick seems to cast on teenage Sanpe, in front of a laughing 
female, yeah, I believe we are meant to infer this - this was a 
jinxed broom, another humiliating prank, most probably perpretrated 
by MWPP.IMHO, anyway.

dorapye