[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape--Abusive?

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 115144

Siriusly Snapey Susan Said

> I don't want to get into a "But he's justified..." argument about
> either Snape OR Harry here, because that's not the point I'm trying
> to make.  (Both have been at fault, imo, especially if we bring
> Occlumency into things.)  But Snape is a bright guy, no?  Snape is an
> insider, no?  Snape is also someone who can clearly picture what
> Voldy's capable of, no?  Then he should comprehend the importance of
> Harry learning.  Yes, he gets angry understandably when Harry doesn't
> try hard enough, but his sarcasm and humiliating remarks and unfair
> punishments DON'T do anything to alleviate Harry's attitude; they
> only exacerbate it and keep the cycle going.

Again, it may be that he *has* to take this tack, and part of his
frustration (coming out as sarcasm and sniping) is that he must. Voldemort
knows his position and would be suspicious if he found no memories of
teaching Harry or Harry's friends in Snape's mind--but he would also be
suspicious if he found Snape being a very effective teacher, arming
Voldemort's enemy against him.

There is a great need for Harry to survive and be equipped against
Voldemort; but there is also a great need for a spy in the enemy's camp,
which I think Snape is. Until some final confrontation, Harry is just one of
the ways "our side" is resisting Voldemort, and Snape is a key and dangerous
part of that. His role as a teacher pales beside it. And so, how he teaches
may well have needed to be a part of how he does his Order work, rather than
the other way around.

Snape may have no choice, and *have* to be coding the memories he is, of the
way he teaches Harry. This may be another failure of Dumbledore's to
explain. If my theories are even partly correct, Snape surely can't clarify,
and no one else is likely to know that particular reason for his behavior.

~Amanda