[HPforGrownups] Re: Apologizing to Snape? (was: Harry's story, not Snape's)

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 139074

lady.indigo at gmail.com wrote:
I'm not asking for a complete disintegration of self here, and definitely
not for Harry to forget the ills that were done to him. I'm saying that if
Harry found the maturity to pity him then he could have *possibly* seen the 
sense in making an overture of respect towards the fact that, at least
concerning Harry's father, *Snape was right*. <<<



Sherry now:

i am really desperately trying to stay out of Snape debates, because I think
he is a cold blooded murderer, and neither side shall convince the other.
However, on this i have to speak up.  Why should a 15-year-old boy act with
more maturity than an adult man, and a teacher?  Snape is the adult here.
Yes, Harry was wrong to look in the pensieve, but isn't there just a bit of
wondering if Snape meant him to do just that?  I've always wondered about
that, even when I wasn't really sure one way or the other about Snape.
Snape has bullied and belittled and abused Harry, verbally at every turn
from the beginning, but his actions seem to be excusable.  Why should we
expect Harry to act above all this, when he is really only a child still?
Not a man yet.  With years of maturing yet to do.  But Snape's cruelty is
ok, because he's an adult and he's supposedly on the side of good, even
though he is a total and complete jerk.  I don't buy it anymore.  i
struggled against my natural instincts for years, trying to believe in Snape
as still on the good side.  But that doesn't matter for now.  Snape wouldn't
have appreciated Harry's apology, unless it was in the nasty glee of having
the son of James humbling himself.  Why on earth should Harry submit himself
to that?  And why should he apologize for the actions of his father during
the time when his father was a *teenager*?  Do we really judge James on the
basis of one carefully placed memory of Snape's?  Poor James to be judged on
such evidence!  And poor Harry for if he is expected to act more wisely and
with much more maturity than his elders.  

Sherry