Snape and Harry again.

[Nora Renka]

No: HPFGUIDX 113247

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Magda Grantwich 
<mgrantwich at y...> wrote:

> "Excrutiatingly difficult"?  Looks pretty clear-cut to me.
> 
> I have some questions for those who feel that there are reasons
> behind why James and Sirius do to Snape what we saw in the Pensieve:
> 
> Why does Lily ask "What has he ever done to you?"?
> 
> Why does Lupin ask "Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?"?
> 
> Why does Sirius answer "Well you made us feel guilty sometimes" and
> "...arrogant little berks, you mean"?
> 
> Do those lines sound like there was some kind of feud-between-equals
> going on or that there were extenuating circumstances?
> 
> Magda (who would enjoy reading some good discussion of this issue
> from the archives if she could get the damn yahoo search function to
> work properly)

I seem to have been unclear--I meant there simply that the scene was 
difficult for ME to read.  It's very unpleasant--but I should hope my 
comments have never lead anyone to be in doubt that such was the case 
for myself.

Perhaps one feels there are reasons because there are usually reasons 
for things, and one is loathe to be reductionist...yet.  If we're 
giving one set of characters possible expansions for motivation 
beyond simply being nasty, we should give other characters the same, 
to be methodologically even-handed.  And there's my personal reading 
of something like "It's because he exists" as having something to say 
ontologically.

Should this all turn out to be idle speculation, I will be the first 
to bow to reality and admit that things *are* as simple as they 
appear.  I have the sneaking suspicion that we're being set up for a 
reversal, but I could be completely wrong.  That'll learn me to 
speculate.

-Nora spends a Friday afternoon in the library, pleasantly cold