bullies? twins, padfoot and prongs

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 118455


Kim wrote:
> <snip> What I saw in the scene by the lake where Sirius and James
bully Snape was that two teenage boys (Sirius and James) were picking
on another teenage boy (Snape) at that particular time for a
particular reason, and that that reason, as Catkind suggests, is not
completely clear.  Nevertheless in that instance I think Sirius and
James were very definitely in the wrong.  Why?  Because Snape was
apparently minding his own business at the time and the two Marauders
were bored (Sirius) and interested in impressing a girl (James wanting
to impress Lily).  And there's no good excuse for that.

Carol responds:
This part I agree with completely.
> 
Kim wrote:
> But what's missing by way of explanation in the text is the reason 
> they'd ever chosen to bully Snape at all.  I mean, Snape was the
butt of their bullying long before the scene by the lake took place. 
My sense is that years before that they had taken an immediate dislike 
> to Snape due to his odd ways, his greasy hair, long nose, etc.  And 
> so in that first instance of dislike and their decision to act on
it, they were also in the wrong.  OK, maybe Snape was understandably
hard to like, but in that case they should have just left him alone. 
On the other hand, Snape's bullying behavior may have begun at first
as retaliation for the nasty way Sirius and James had treated him for 
> being ugly, odd, greasy, etc.  And so years went by and it just 
> escalated every time they were in each other's vicinity.  And Snape 
> appears to have no crowd of his own to hang out with and support his 
> side of the conflict.  In any case, I've always objected to 
> explaining away cruel behavior as "boys just being boys," which 
> people often do.  It seems like a pretty lame excuse to me.  

Carol responds:
Since we have almost no background for this time in their lives, we're
all speculating at this point. I think that Sirius, for
example,associated Severus with what he hated about his own home and
family, which (for me) explains his vindictiveness. He may even have
projected that hatred of the Dark Arts onto James as an explanation of
why he disliked Severus. But James seems to be entertaining himself
(and Sirius) by bullying Severus in the Pensieve scene. He dislikes
him, certainly, but he doesn't seem to share Sirius's virulent hatred. 

At any rate, as I've noted in other posts, Severus is not the typical
weak victim any more than James, however arrogant he may be, is a
typical bully. He (Severus) could do some serious damage with his wand
in a fair fight, and James undoubtedly knows that. In fact, it may be
one reason he stopped hexing other people (those who merely annoyed
him but couldn't fight back) but couldn't resist a fight with Severus,
who in other circumstances might have been more a rival than an enemy.
(If only he'd wash his hair and smile once in awhile and stop burying
his nose in a book. . . .)

Also, Severus *did* have his own gang of Slytherins, or rather he was
part of a gang. The problem is, most of them, including Bellatrix
Black and presumably Rodolphus Lestrange, seem to have been older than
he was. If any of them remained at Hogwarts at the end of Severus's
fifth year, they weren't much use as friends. Either they were afraid
of James or they didn't want to publicly side with greasy, studious
Severus against athlete James and handsome Sirius.

I think, though, that Severus would have been reluctant to join the
DEs later if any of his Slytherin gang (most if not all of whom became
DEs) had betrayed or deserted him on this occasion. It makes more
sense (to me) that they were all older and therefore absent when the
Pensieve episode occurred. (FWIW, I think that Lucius (six years older
than Severus) was the original leader of the Slytherin gang, followed
by Bellatrix (three years older than Severus), and that the others
were closer to their ages than to Severus's. The ages come from a news
article in GoF and the "Noble and Ancient House of Black" chapter of
OoP, respectively, if anyone is curious.)

Carol, at a loss for a sign-off for this post