Apologizing to Snape? (was: Harry's story, not Snape's)

[msbeadsley]

No: HPFGUIDX 139174

lady.indigo:
<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*.>

I have been trying (for hours) to respond to this thread coolly, with
point by point rebuttals, but what it boils down to is that your
sympathy, for whatever reason, is with Snape. I can argue and
illustrate and quote canon until I'm blue in the face and it isn't
going to make any difference; you're going to believe what you
believe, regardless of how --adjectives deleted-- unrealistic, let us
say, I might find certain arguments in support of the notion that
Harry is or ever has in any sense been in arrears with regards to
Snape.

The one thing I do agree with you about, and the reason I am, after
all, replying, is the idea that Harry will have to let go of his
hatred, and that the reasons are indeed somewhat like the reasons Luke
Skywalker had to resist the quite human impulse to let fury and
revenge drive him. (Although I do not see Harry's position on that
slippery slope as nearly as imperiled as you apparently do.)

Harry needs to do it for Harry's own good, and for the good of the
mission; it has nothing to do with Snape per se, or with any abstract
moral imperative (because I think Harry is about where I'd expect him
to be on the good/evil spectrum, or maybe even better, all things
considered, and I trust that he will figure it out). I also think that
Snape is a lost cause; for him to get a fraction of what he seems to
need, everyone would have to stop worrying about stopping Voldemort
and rally 'round poor, wounded Severus for as long as it took. (Of
course, that's considering that poor, wounded, "stunted" Snape is even
an approximation of the man behind the multiple roles and layers.) The
question of Harry bridging the gap seems moot now, considering events
in HBP. I think Snape's a deader. I expect him to get a posthumous
Order of Merlin x Class for *something*, and I confess I feel very
sorry for him and where his choices have led him (regardless of which,
if any, side he's loyal to).

But whether the hostility came out of the role or the man, IMO Snape
has, from the beginning, created the relationship he has with Harry.
If Snape is truly so damaged and emotionally incapable, then that's
very sad--but it doesn't increase Harry's responsibility one whit,
IMO. IF they both lived long enough for Harry to grow fully into
adulthood and IF some space of time went by that Snape didn't have
Harry under his thumb and Harry wasn't suffering from adolescence,
post-traumatic stress, recent bereavement, Voldemort dropping in on
his psyche unexpectedly, calumny from the government and popular press
and his peers, stress due to being under a madman's eager death
warrant or some combination thereof, I might see it. But that ain't
gonna happen. IMO.

Sandy aka msbeadsley