[HPforGrownups] Re: Occlumency and aiki-waza (LONG!)

[Magda Grantwich]

No: HPFGUIDX 126980

> Pippin:

> Of course Snape was making things difficult, but the root cause
> of that is the one Dumbledore pointed towards, IMO  -- Snape's
> grudge against James makes it gratifying for Snape when Harry 
> fails, because it gives Snape an excuse for righteous anger. That 
> makes Harry's passive aggressive behavior particularly
> counterproductive. 


I think Snape is a more complicated character than that.  In fact one
of the ways that Harry shows how young he still is is his habit of
ascribing to adult characters the same reactions and feelings that he
has as a teen.  

It wasn't gratifying for Snape when Harry failed; he was white faced
and furious when he realized the dreams were continuing and
intensifying.  Snape, unlike Harry, knows what's going to happen if
Voldemort comes to power; his own life is probably forfeit very
shortly thereafter.  So I really don't see any sign that Snape is
gratified by Harry's lack of progress in occlumency.

What I do see is that Snape's feelings about James are still pretty
raw and close to the surface, and that he wasn't able to control his
anger when Harry got a firsthand look at his memories.  Snape is
still in a lot of pain from things that happened over 20 years
earlier.  Dumbledore acknowledges this when he tells Harry that some
wounds are too deep for healing.  It's not a matter of Snape wilfully
refusing to stop hurting and lashing out; Dumbledore uses medical
terminology to indicate the situation so that he's not making value
judgements about blame.

Magda

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