Punishment for Snape, evil Slytherins, and the crux of Harry's perception

[Miles]

No: HPFGUIDX 143840

I'm quite sure that most of the list members know about the problem I want
to bring up. But while reading several posts concerning Snape's actions and
why they or not deserve punishment, and concerning the role of Slytherin in
Hogwarts and the wizards' world, I somewhat have the impression that we all
tend to forget about it.

So, the easy enough truth is, nearly all we learn about the Potterverse, we
learn through the eyes of Harry Potter. And although he is truthful and
fair-minded, his impressions are quite often wrong, superficial or at least
inaccurate.

Have a look on the lessons with Snape. Snape dislikes Harry and vice versa -
we can take this for granted. Gryffindors are bound to dislike Slytherins
and vice versa. So, what do we see? The House teacher of Slytherin and
Harry. And we see Snape being unfair, insulting, sometimes abusive with
Harry and his friends. But we should not take *this* for granted. If there
is any situation we should expect selective perception from Harry, than this
is it.
We have no hidden camera in Snape's dungeon. If we had, I'm sure we would
see Snape much less unfair, insulting and abusive than he is in the
perception of Harry. By all means, we should not judge Snape alone on what
Harry thinks he is acting.

The same with Slytherin. Yes, all Slytherins, with exception of Slughorn,
are presented as more or less 'evil', better say unkind, some nasty folk.
But again, this is the perception of Harry, the Gryffindor, Harry, who hates
Snape. I'm quite sure, that in 'reality' not all Slytherins were in
Umbridge's IS, and there would have been trustful Slytherins that would have
joined the DA, if only someone would have asked them.

I just wanted to recall this to all of us, because it is quite normal to
forget about it when we read the books.

Miles