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

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 118862


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
>> 
> 
> SSSusan:
> Nadine, I think they're actually similar(?).  I'm away from GoF 
right 
> now, but I believe it was the same kind of set-up.  Harry wasn't 
> speaking in the Yule Ball scene either; it was the narrator 
reporting 
> that Harry saw Krum and a girl he didn't know.  Just as the 
narrator 
> here [and thanks for the quote!] says Harry was unnerved that this 
> was the little boy he'd seen now standing there.  It seems to read 
> the same way to me.  
> 
> Hmmmm.  Then again, "It was unnerving to *think* that the little 
boy 
> he had just seen...was actually standing in front of him" [emphasis 
> added] actually makes it look a little MORE suspect than I'd 
> imagined....  This sends up a red flag kinda like "assume" and "as 
> if" in JKR's world.  Or am I missing something obvious?  Is there a 
> clear difference between the presentation of the two bits of 
> narration from GoF and OotP?  Somebody please let me know if so!
> 

Nah. Go with your intuition here, SSSusan. 
The ball scene and its prologues was structured towards that (rather 
cliche) surprise of pretty!Hermione. The Occlumens lessons are 
structured to reveal a subtle symmetry between Snape and Harry. Snape 
glimpses harsh childhood memories of Harry; Harry glimpses harsh 
childhood memories of Snape's. Harry was humiliated, Snape was 
humiliated. So, when we see a little boy crying in Snape's memory, 
after we'd seen Harry chased by a dog and stranded on a tree, it's 
Snape who is the little boy.


Naama