Narcissistic!Snape (was: Whither Snape?) [long!]

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 127402


> Pippin:
 > Why do you say Snape was in complete control? He wasn't -- he got
 > knocked out!

Nora:
 He wouldn't have gotten knocked out if he had shut up and listened
 and not pushed it. :)

 [It's only after he really starts *raving* that HRH knock him out,
 after all. Is it interesting that his raving is of the "You idiot
 you should be thanking *me* variety? I find it to be so.]

Pippin:
The point is, if Harry, Ron and Hermione were being controlled, they
could have attacked Snape and overpowered him at any time. And Snape
had no way of knowing whether they were or not. One of them might
even have been possessed.

Nora:
 No, really. Maybe I'm just being forgetful, but I don't remember any
 broad presentation of DEs doing scary things sans wands, although I
 haven't re-read the battle scene in OotP in a while. Snape is able
 to control the cords he summons without a wand, but wandless magic is
 more of a fanon creation than a known quantity.

Pippin:
It's not fanon that Quirrell "raised his hand to perform a deadly
curse" in  PS/SS. He also orders Harry about and Harry obeys without
question at least at first.

Nora: 
The narcissism aspect does speak to some of the
 insecurities and behavioral peculiarities that he seems to evince.

Pippin:
But there are many conditions that make for peculiar people. I was
reading today about Asperger's Syndrome (a form of autism). 'They 
tend not to understand facial expressions, body language and other
non-verbalcommunications, and thus take statements literally, 
missing implied meanings and subtexts. They often lack empathy, 
blurting out truthful but unvarnished statements. Once set in a
course of action, they are slow to process new information that 
suggests they should change what they are doing. And they typically 
fixate on very specific interests."

Some of that sounds eerily like Snape and some of it doesn't. 
I  don't think Snape was created with one hand on the keyboard and
the other in an abnormal psychology text book. I  think he's a
composite of several "difficult" people that JKR has known or
observed in real life.  IMO, he's there so that Harry can learn how to
deal with difficult people, just as JKR (Dumbledore) implied,
IMO,  Harry needs to learn about going the extra mile, and he also
needs to learn that not everyone who's easy to get along with 
means well.  


Pippin