Knowing it was Snape (was: What has Snape seen)

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 118805


Justcarol: 
> BTW, we do know that the teenage boy stunning flies is Snape. Harry
> recognizes him, as he does not recognize the hook-nosed man in the
> scene with the angry father.


SSSusan:
I recognize that I'm piping up here as a LOON, but I think it's a 
point worth making.  I don't think we can know *either* whether the 
teenage boy or the hook-nosed man is Snape, no matter how likely 
these may seem to be, because what we "know" here is based upon 
Harry's *recognition* or *not-recognition*.  

I admit that I assumed the teenage boy to be Snape, but I know some 
have wondered whether that is true, as well as whether the hook-nosed 
man is Snape or perhaps Snape's father, with the cowering boy being 
Snape.  I would argue that we cannot be certain of any of it because 
it's all based upon Harry's perception, and we've been shown before 
that the narrator has "allowed" Harry's perception to be presented as 
fact previously, only to have it eventually be shown to be a 
misperception.  

For another example, just think of GoF, when Harry is preparing to 
enter the Yule Ball with the other champions & their dates.  The 
narrator says that Harry saw Viktor Krum with a pretty girl whom he 
did not know.  But of course he DID know her!  It was Hermione; Harry 
simply did not recognize her.  Yet the narrator says it was a girl 
Harry "did not know", not that Harry didn't think he knew her or that 
he didn't recognize her.  Surely this would be a case where 
Harry "should" have known one of his two best friends, but he did 
not.  

Likely or not in this case of the teenaged boy & the hook-nosed man, 
there is at least precedent for Harry's pronouncements of recognition 
to be faulty.

Siriusly Snapey Susan