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

[catimini15]

No: HPFGUIDX 118819


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman"
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:

(snip)
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.

Nadine : 

Your example taken from GoF illustrates your point very well, Susan,
and I agree with you. Harry's perceptions are deceiving sometimes but
in the OotP scene (Chapter 26 - Seen and Unforeseen) the narrator says
: «Harry did not speak; he felt that to say anything might be
dangerous. He was sure he had just broken into Snape's memories, that
he had just seen scenes from Snape's childhood. It was unnerving to
think that the little boy who had been crying as he watched his
parents shouting was actually standing in front of him with such
loathing in his eyes». Apparently, Harry just «identified» little
Snape and his shouting parents... Truth or deception ?

Nadine