DD's respect for Snape (Was: Unreliable narrator - The Snape Timeline

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 117610


Julie wrote:
> 
> In fact, it's hard to figure out what Dumbledore feels for many 
> teachers and students, beyond amused tolerance. The strongest
> sense I get about Dumbledore's feelings for Snape is that he 
> holds Snape to certain expectations, and gently admonishes
> Snape toward improvement when Snape is not meeting those 
> expectations. Dumbledore's clearly has something vested in 
> Snape's redemption, and I suspect some of that is emotional 
> investment--i.e. he's fond of the greasy git, or at least, of the 
> inner goodness he's certain dwells somewhere deep (perhaps 
> very deep!) within our ornery potion master's soul. 



Potioncat:
I've always wondered about this quote.  It's from PoA chp 21, and it 
takes place in the hospital wing after Black is captured,
Snape is talking, "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You 
haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill *me*?"

JKR did the italics...or the Scholastic editor did.  Not, he tried 
to *kill* me but he tried to kill *me*  It's as if Snape sees his 
relationship to DD as something special enough that being the target 
of murder should have been important.

But I will say, trying to look at this objectively, it is hard to 
place DD's feelings about anyone.  He doesn't even come across as 
disliking Lockhart.