"I trust him".

[Pat]

No: HPFGUIDX 116738


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "kmcbears1" 
<karen.e.mcconnell at l...> wrote:
> 
> <snip>

> kmc adds:
> The failure of the Occlumency is due to a trust issue but Harry is 
> the guilty party here not Snape?
> 
> Harry knows what the Pensive is used for and knows that Snape is 
> putting memories in it that he does not want Harry to see.   
> When Snape is called away from his office, Snape trusts Harry not 
to 
> invade his privacy.  Harry betrayed that trust.  
> 
> JKR has only shown us one of the memories that Snape put in the 
> Pensive.  What if it had been something different than a childhood 
> memory of Snape's?  What if Snape had put memories of what the 
order 
> is doing to combat Voldemort in the Pensive?  Snape knows that 
Harry 
> has not been practicing.  Snape is actually quite friendly to 
Harry 
> during the lessons.  He does not use the knowledge gained through 
the 
> lessons when he is ridiculing Harry during potions.  Snape even 
gives 
> Harry some instruction on what to do to learn Occlumency.

[snipping]

> In addition to Harry, I think Sirius planted the seed for the 
> failure.  Sirius plants the seed of mistrust in the kitchen at 
> Grimmauld Place.  If Sirius had taken a positive stance on the 
> lessons, such as, telling Harry that Professor Snape needs to be 
> really good at Occlumency because of his work for the Order... but 
> that what's makes the books so good is that JKR has created 
> believable characters and realistic storyline.  It allows us to 
> discuss the results of choices because we can discuss the what-ifs.
> 
> kmc

Pat now:

kmc, I wouldn't exactly call Snape friendly toward Harry during the 
Occlumency lessons, but you are right that he at least is trying to 
help Harry learn.  And you make a good point that he doesn't use 
what he has learned of Harry's childhood against him in class.  One 
can only hope that he really was touched by that on some level, just 
as Harry was when he snooped into Snape's memories--and yes, Harry 
was the one to break that trust.  Though I have to wonder if Snape 
really trusted him to not peek or if he was just so distracted that 
he forgot that he was leaving his memories where Harry could see 
them.

And I also agree that Sirius could have handled the whole thing 
better, thereby setting Harry up for success rather than failure.  
But our dear Sirius was just as full of resentment and hatred as 
Snape.  They are alike in more ways than either would care to 
acknowledge.

It's interesting that Harry is still blaming Snape for things going 
so wrong at the MoM, even after DD points out to him that Snape 
couldn't respond to his cryptic message because of Umbridge. Harry 
needs to get through his grief over Sirius before he can ever see 
anything positive in Snape--and I'm afraid that's going to be a 
while.

Pat