Harry's story , NOT Snape's (was Re: "An old man's mistakes")

[lagattalucianese]

No: HPFGUIDX 139187

> 
> Pippin:
> But this is Harry's story, not Snape's.
> It's Harry who has to become a mature and capable adult, which
> means learning to accept that there are adults who may not be as 
> mature and capable as he is, but are not deserving of the word
> 'evil', which as Hermione says is awfully strong. Is that really
> the word we want to use for nasty school teachers?
> 
I read Snape as one of those unfortunates so scarred by experiences 
in early life that he keeps people at arm's length not only because 
he dislikes them (though he certainly does) but because he is scared 
to death of them. Everything about him is of a piece with this--his 
nasty personality, his unwholesome and unsavory appearance, his 
aloofness (as far as we can see) with his colleagues, his hatred and 
resentment (as well, I suspect, as his envy) for more successful boys 
like James and Serius. Dumbledore is the only person, perhaps aside 
from Eileen, that has managed to break through this shell; hence his 
jealousy of Dumbledore's interactions with others, particularly the 
Marauders, and his protective love of Harry. He keeps women in 
particular at a distance; if he does have a crush on Lily, his 
churlish rejection of her attempt to rescue him from the Marauders is 
typical.

This sort of personality, of course, is ideal for a secret agent. The 
fellow doesn't have to be likable (in fact, it probably helps if he 
isn't), just good at what he does.

In re Snape and his relations with women: I don't actually know how 
Snape feels about women, but judging from some of the fanfic out 
there, a lot of women feel quite strongly about him. Of course a lot 
of this may be due to the Rickman interpretation of Snape; the 
canonical Snape is much less attractive.