Conspiracies and re-assessments

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 112625

> Hannah:
> > I think the name 'Snivellus' is significant in the whole
> marauders/Snape feud. The name implies 'snivelling' - crying,
> whining, being weak. It's the sort of name a bully might give a
> pathetic, greasy haired kid with a rather dodgy background, who
> cries when he gets teased by the handsome, popular bully (not 
> naming any names, but you get the picture...) during his first 
> years. It's not the sort of name that you give someone you 
> > suspect to be evil.
> 
> > The way they use the name is also interesting. They emphasise 
> it, using it as a deliberate taunt - maybe harking back to some 
> time they made Snape cry (snivel). Taunting someone with a name, 
> IMO, is the behaviour of a bully picking on a weaker victim, not 
> a brave Gryffindor challenging a suspected Junior Dark Wizard.

Valky now:
> You are both right indeed that the name Snivellus is a puerile
> inference of their superiority that hearkens an actual instance 
when Young Snape actually *did* cry. There is almost no doubt of 
this. However, I do not see the shallow pool of the bully rhetoric 
Hannah suggests reflecting fifteen year old James at all.  Nor 
Sirius for that matter. 
> 
> Let's investigate their sense of superiority in Sirius own words.
> In POA we are told that James and Sirius befriend a WW outcast 
> discovering his inner greatness and redeeming a wrongly condemned
> child from his tragic existence into the arms of unselfish, bigotry
> free brotherhood. 
> The defense for Snape in the pensieve is that he was minding his 
> own business. Hmm... was he also minding his own business while 
> others disdained First Year Remus arriving from his transformations 
> deprived of sleep and looking haggard and unkempt? 
> Indeed I think he was.  Was it Snape who made to give lonesome 
> tragic Remus a kindness he had never known and was unfairly denied.
> No it was James and Sirius. 


Hannah again now: So Snape deserved to be condemned on the fact he 
didn't befriend Remus Lupin? Why should he? Lupin was in a different 
house, and we've already seen that close friendships between members 
of different houses are fairly unusual, especially in the first 
years.  Snape probably only saw Lupin occasionally, in one or two 
joint lessons, whereas James and Sirius would have had all classes 
with him, sat at dinner with him, and presumably shared a dormitory 
with him.

Lupin wasn't a known outcast when James and Sirius befriended him - 
they had been friends for some time when they found out he was a 
werewolf, by which time they knew him.  Of course, I agree it was a 
very fine thing that these young boys were able to put aside the 
prejudices of the rest of the WW when they found out, but there's 
nothing to say Remus was overtly lonesome or tragic in the first 
place.

 Valky:
<snipped part where Valky makes excellent analogy of Snape/James 
situation with Third Reich, Snape being anti-semitic and James not>

> Valky continues:
> In GOF and OOtP we are furnished that Snape was a young boy who 
> liked,  probably practiced (fly killer),and was reputed to be knee 
> deep in Dark Arts. This is as much as saying Snape is that boy, 
> wether or not he supported Voldemort/Hitler, he was entrenched in 
> the Warlords fundamental principles. 
> And hence my analogy sticks like a crazy glue.
> 
> So James and Sirius thought they were superior to Snape, they even 
> made him cry.  
> Is that *really* such a bad thing given the context of the story? 
> I am still not saying that their actions were right. But are they 
> entitled to their delusion of superiority, after all?


Hannah once more: Well, it really depends on whether their delusion 
of superiority *was* based on the fact Snape was into dark arts, or 
whether they felt they were better than him because he was greasy, 
studious, and bad at sport, while they were handsome, popular and 
good at quidditch.  My argument is that it was the latter reason 
that made them feel superior, and the dark arts stuff came into the 
feud later on.  Since James wasn't adverse to hexing people for fun 
himself, how much moral highground could he really claim?
Hannah