Conspiracies and re-assessments

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 112323

> Nope, you definitely shouldn't like him too much.  It's rather like
"poor
> Snape, look how hard his life was" as an excuse for how he later
turned out
> to be a DE, and now supposedly is reformed? While I love the
complexity of
> Snape's character, I am not fooled by him:  he's in it all for himself,
> unless he does something noble to convince me otherwise. As is Peter
> Pettigrew.
> 
> The whole argument about James being entranced by the "dark arts" 
and or
> being a putz because of a single Pensieve memory, is "reaching," IMO.
> Everybody does things when they are young which they regret, and that
> doesn't make them evil. I might remind people who might think
otherwise that
> there are specific items in that memory that you have to wonder how
Snape
> knew, like the L.E. James drew, the Marauder's conversation, and several
> other intriguing details which should make you go, "HUH?  How did
SNAPE know
> THAT?"  Let's face it, Snapey Poo sure looks like the nosey cur
Sirius said
> he was if you look at it from that perspective.
> 
> Charme

Carol responds:
I don't want to repeat earlier arguments, but if you go back to
earlier discussions of the Pensieve, you'll see that most of the
evidence indicates that the memories it presents are objective--what
really happened--beyond the perspective of the person whose memory is
being presented. That's why Dumbledore takes his memories out of his
head and puts them in the Pensieve, removing them from their
subjective context so he can study them objectively. Snape may or may
not have known the nicknames of the Marauders but he didn't listen in
on their conversation or see the initials James scribbled on his test.
Both before and after the exam, he was immersed in the test questions
that he answered in such detail--until James distracted him. Harry is
not seeing from his perspective. He's walking around inside the
memory, not seeing through Snape's eyes or from his perspective.

Carol, who probably *does* like Snape too much but hopes that her
response is clear and logical nonetheless