Why Occlumency lessons failed?

[kgpopp]

No: HPFGUIDX 116448


> Pip!Squeak:
> > Harry does not respect Snape. Harry would have respected 
> > Dumbledore. 
> > 
> > Except - since when does a fifteen year old student get to select 
> > the school teachers himself? Dumbledore selected Snape as the 
> > teacher for reasons that seemed good to him; *Harry* did not 
> > respect Dumbledore's decision there. 
> 
> 
> Alla:
> Was anybody suggesting that Harry woud select teacher himself? No, 
> just that Dumbledore should have done a better job of doing it.


"kgpopp":
Devil's advocate only,
1) Snape told Harry not be so open with his emotions and that for the 
occlumency to work he had to clear his head.  Maybe Snape made Harry 
mad to test his ability not just to torture him  (I'm not say Snape 
didn't enjoy getting in a few jabs).   But if Harry could endure 
taunts from Snape, wouldn't he be more likely to ignore taunts from 
Voldemort?   Yes Snape is a jerk, but Voldemort killed Harry's 
parents, and framed Hagrid and tried to kill him.  I think Voldemort 
would be apt to invoke much stronger feelings of hate from Harry.    Not 
saying this was tough love but maybe more the boot camp approach of 
tough knocks.

2) In terms of Snape's his ability to get over hating James. DD 
thought they could make it work, but let's put the failure in 
context.  Snape takes the time to hide some personal memories from 
Harry in the Pensieve.  (Not really fair as he can open up Harry 
memories but again Snape's a Jerk.)  Then Harry being ever curious 
invades his privacy and see James taunting Snape and getting the 
better of him.   I don't think DD expected Snape to have to deal with 
Harry being on equal footing in terms of knowing the history.   The 
ironic part is that neither DD or Snape seem to realize that Harry is 
ashamed by his dad's behavior. 

3) As DD says at the end he thought it would be dangerous to open 
Harry's mind to Voldemort in his presence so 
 I'm not sure DD can 
give the lessons.   Not sure who else is a candidate.