Why has DD never suggested Harry thank Snape?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 117343


Lupinlore wrote:
> I have been wondering about this for a while.  Snape has saved 
> Harry's life, or tried to protect it, on at least three occassions 
we 
> know of (SS/PS, PoA, OOTP).  Yet Dumbledore has never once 
suggested 
> to Harry that he should thank Snape for doing so.  In fact, his 
> explanation in  SS/PS, that Snape was discharging a duty to 
Harry's 
> father, pretty much guarantees that Harry won't see Snape is 
> needing/deserving thanks.
> <snip>
> Now, why would Dumbledore do this?  I can think of two main 
reasons 
> off the top of my head, and they aren't mutually exclusive.  Note 
> that I am discounting the possibility of an evil or overtly 
> manipulative Dumbledore:
> 
> 1)  Dumbledore tolerates Snape in part because he thinks that 
> students should learn to deal with difficult people.  However, the 
> flip side of that is that he feels no obligation to shield Snape 
from 
> the inevitable backlash and difficulties his attitudes engender.  
<snip>
> 2)  The message he is sending Harry is simply fact.  Snape really 
is 
> a selfish/hateful individual who opposes Voldemort for his own 
> reasons and helps Harry only because he is obligated to do so.  
<snip>

Hannah: Apologies for the lateness of the reply, but this is one of 
my favourite topics and I couldn't resist responding to such a good 
post on it.  DD not only didn't prompt Harry to thank Snape, but 
virtually guaranteed he wouldn't do so of his own accord.  Why, why, 
why, why, why???  I agree completely with Lupinlore that DD subtly 
reinforces Harry's negative opinion of Snape.  While saying that he 
is trustworthy and on the same side, and ought to be referred to 
as 'professor,' he never makes any real attempt to alter Harry's 
view of Snape.

In that final scene of PS/SS, I always wonder what DD is covering 
up.  When Harry asks about Snape and his relationship with James, DD 
gives him the story about how James saved Snape's life, adding 
the 'I rather think that's why he's worked so hard to protect you' 
line that seems to give Harry licence to dismiss all of that hard 
work without a word of gratitude.

But how true is the line about Snape saving Harry to pay James back, 
so he could 'hate his memory in peace?'  It's never seemed a very 
satisfactory explanation of Snape's behaviour to me.  Especially as 
Snape continues to protect but openly dislike Harry in future 
books.  No evidence of having discharged a duty and moved on.  
Snape's feelings about James are far to complicated to be explained 
away by a 'he was embarrassed when James saved him, but now he's 
saved James' son so it's all ok.'

I think DD uses this to cover up something else, something he 
doesn't want Harry to know.  He is very careful not to expand on 
James and Snape's school days (and we now know this may not have 
shown James in a very flattering light), but instead tells Harry 
about James saving Snape.  Harry is interested to know this and, 
being not the most inquisitve of children, happily accepts 
the 'paying James back' theory.  DD has thus diverted his attention 
away from any deeper and more unpleasant underlying issue.  And we 
already know of a few things that complicate the story.

So this all brings us back to Snape's motivations with regard to 
Harry.  The way I see it is that he has two sets of conflicting 
feelings about the boy.  Snape has never been interested in Harry as 
a real person.  For him, I think, Harry is symbolic.  He'd made up 
his mind about Harry long before he met him, and even when presented 
with evidence to the contrary, is unwavering in his opinion of him 
(eg, persistently stating Harry is arrogant when humility is one of 
Harry's best qualities).

Snape hates (or strongly dislikes) Harry because of James.  Harry 
looks like, and reminds him in other ways (whether justly so or not) 
of James.  Snape cannot get over the bitterness and hatred he feels 
towards James, so he takes it out on Harry by being horrible to him.
This is all pretty evident.  But Snape goes out of his way to save 
Harry, and to save him personally.  Can this really be explained 
just by saying he felt obliged to by the boy's dead father?  Given 
Snape's feelings about the man, and that Snape believed James was 
partly responsible for the incident anyway so may never have felt 
obliged to him anyway, I find it unlikely.

No, Snape may hate Harry because of James, but he saves him for some 
other reason, and DD does not want Harry to know it.  And maybe he 
even thinks it is better for Snape and Harry not to get any 
friendlier, at least at that stage, just so Harry doesn't find it 
out.  I reckon Lily comes into this somewhere.  Not necessarily as 
the past object of Snape's affection, unrequited or otherwise, but 
I'm sure she has some kind of link with the man.  Either that or it 
ties in to the mysterious reasons for Snape's defection from the 
DEs.  Either way, we don't get the full story here by a long way.

So why does DD tolerate Snape?  Both of Lupinlore's theories are 
plausible.  I'd prefer 1) to be the truth, but 2) is also quite 
possible.  One thing I pick up on in the way DD (and MM) treat 
Snape, is a certain level of amusement, almost indulgence.  They 
both knew Snape when he was Harry's age, and given their ages, that 
probably doesn't seem that long ago to them.  I think DD sees Snape 
as a kind of protegy, who, one day, will come right, once he's 
learnt to master his feelings.  Given JKR's comments, he's probably 
mistaken in this beleif.  I don't think DD's attitude to Snape is 
that described in 2), but maybe he'd be correct if it was.

Hannah, who suspects she stopped making sense a long time ago...

Fanfic at www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Hannah_Marder/