Weaving the threads Snape spins (Was: Trelawney's Prediction/How like your fathe

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 139239

Potioncat wrote:
<snip> Kneasy [once] suggested that Snape has long been aware of the
bit of Voldy that resides in Harry. A bit that made him [Snape?] very
uncomfortable. Snape may have arranged the Serpensortia spell <snip>
to test Harry's Parseltongue ability; or at any rate, his [Harry's]
speech [in Parseltongue] confirmed Snape's suspicions. Snape would be
justified in his concern that Potter would have some evil potential.
<snip>
> And back to Snape's comment to Bella in "Spinner's End": "
rumors
that he himself was a great Dark wizard, which was how he had survived
the Dark Lord's attack. Indeed, many of the Dark Lord's old followers
thought Potter might be a standard around which we could all rally
once more
"
> <snip> Back in PS/SS Snape would know the truth, but he would also
know that his students believed this story. He would also know that
Harry was a celebrity. I think his first class demonstrated to the
Slytherins that Harry was not a powerful Dark wizard. (At least not
yet.) And it makes a good point now with the Black sisters. After all,
Lucius had probably suggested Draco cozy up to Harry for this very
reason. Not a bad idea, to be friends with the  future Dark Lord.
Narcissa would know it, even if Bella didn't. So  his comments about
it in Spinner's End would ring true. 


Carol:
Good one, Potioncat! I love the idea that Snape in SS/PS isn't just
making Harry look like a less-than-mediocre wizard to instill some
un-Jameslike humility in him, that he's actually doing the Slytherin
students and Harry a service by revealing that Harry isn't a junior
Dark Lord capable (even in infancy) of defeating Voldemort through
innate Dark Magic. That first Potions class is also the point at which
Snape introduces the bezoar, which he must have guessed would later
come in handy for Harry, to whom he specifically asks the question.
That class gives us our first glimpse of Snape at work, and it's
central to our interpretation of him (at least until Book 7).

As you point out, the DEs' initial suspicion that Harry was a Dark
Wizard, aside from providing Snape with a motive for not killing Harry
that Bellatrix will accept, ties in neatly with Snape's using
Serpensortia as a test of Harry's ability to speak Parseltongue. IOW,
Snape was may still have been testing Harry to see whether he was
indeed mediocre or whether, despite appearances, he had Dark powers of
his own. (Was he the Heir of Slytherin after all?) Snape undoubtedly
reported the Parseltongue incident to Dumbledore, which could have led
to DD's alternate explanation (to Snape and, later, to Harry) of some
of LV's powers entering Harry at Godric's Hollow. (Parseltongue,
Legilimency, and possession?)

Despite the popularity of the Harry as Horcrux theory just now, I
don't for a moment believe that any of LV's *soul* got into Harry.
Snape, however, could believe (and fear) it despite his insistence on
Harry's "mediocrity." Maybe that's what he was looking for in the
Occlumency lessons and that's why he was so disturbed to find "that
man and that room," not to mention the corridor in the MoM, in Harry's
head. 

Nice weaving together of the threads that our ex-Potions master has
spun, Potioncat!

Carol, who accidentally typed "the Heri (Harry) of Slytherin"!