Snape and Harry again.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 113938

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:
> 
> Dumbledore says "You were not a pampered little prince, but 
as  normal a boy as I could have hoped under 
circumstances."-OOP, p.837,
> Have you ever read this quote as a support that Dumbledore 
was  afraid that Harry would grow up a pampered little prince?
> 
> 
> Because I always read it as Dumbledore regret' that Harry did 
NOT  grew up a pampered little prince, but at least was as 
normal as  possible under bad circumstances.<


Wow! I certainly did read that as Dumbledore's relief that Harry, 
although "neither as happy nor as well-nourished" as 
Dumbledore would have liked, had not become, through 
over-pampering,  a self-satisfied, over-privileged monster like 
Dudley or Draco or young James. We can see from the way that 
Mrs. Weasley treated Harry in CoS, not being cross with him for 
using the car, and cutting up his bread and buttering it for him, 
that it could have happened.

 I disagree that Snape has no reason for trying to slap Harry 
down. Harry did raise his eyebrows during that first class, he 
was in Hogsmeade without permission, etc. Snape goes too far 
in our eyes when  he segues from righteous anger to venting--in 
our eyes children are a protected class and should be shielded 
from adult tempers--but the wizarding world doesn't see it that 
way. Snape was probably raised to think that what we now call 
'verbal abuse' wasn't supposed to hurt you, and if it did, you were 
a weakling. Probably he isn't trying to damage Harry  or Neville -- 
he's trying to change them.

I think that what Snape is looking for, besides an outlet for his 
anger, is some indication of guilt on Harry's part, and what he 
doesn't understand is that Harry's conscience is wired differently 
than his. 

To judge by the way he treats Harry, Snape's conscience speaks 
to him as the fear of punishment. He can't grasp that Harry, like 
Dobby, has been punished unjustly so many times that there's 
no connection anymore. Harry is only afraid of letting people 
down, something that means very little to Snape. So  Snape 
can say that nothing he says is making any impression on Harry 
because none of it changes Harry's behavior at all. 

Then there's the additional problem that Snape often expects 
Harry to understand what he's done wrong without being told. 
Perhaps Snape is unconsciously expecting Harry to be a 
legilmens?

Of course Harry doesn't make the connection between his raised 
eyebrows and Snape's wrath, nor does he think that Snape 
might have misunderstood the pained glance that Harry gave 
him the night before. Snape was looking right at Harry when 
Harry winced and put his hand to his forehead, so what Snape 
saw in his class was Harry making faces at him for the second 
time. 

Pippin