Who does Snape really hate?

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 144051

Radasgat:

> For a bit of dramatic irony.. who does Snape "appear" to love?  
> Draco. What is Draco? The only son of an older couple who has been 
> doted on his whole life and given his every wish and 
> desire...similiar so James?
> .. or am I seeing Draco from Harry's POV?  Maybe Draco isn't as
> spoiled as I think he is.  Maybe Draco has some redeeming quality. 
> Afterall, he couldn't bring himself to AK Dumbledore...
> 
> Thoughts?

Valky: 
Sorry I snipped so many of your excellent points, Radasgat (Others
please look upthread for them.) 

Just on this particular topic I'd like to put forward a theoretical
basis for this apparent double standard of Snape's. While by no means
am I trying to wiggle Snape off the hook for his hypocrisy, I think
there is something in his point of view that could explain this.
Father figures.

It wouldn't be much of a reach to imagine that Snape has needed a
Father figure for all his life. As I see the backdrop of Snape's life
he, unlike Tom Riddle, probably had a very good and nurturing
relationship with his mother. There are a lot of pointers that way and
I do think the name Half-Blood Prince is one of them because -

a. Prince is *Eileen's* Pureblood? Maiden Name, and not actually
Snape's name.

b. In the midst of the blood prejudices of the WW it would make sense
that knowing you are Half-Blooded (ie from a 'pure' line rather than a
'blood traitor' line) would be the kind of comfort a mother might
offer her insecure child.

c. Half-Blood Prince seems a childish name for an intelligent young
teenager to give himself, hence I am more inclined to believe that it
could be a pet name given to him by his mother.

Draco, too, is loved dearly by his mother, Narcissa. She is protective
of him and nurturing toward him. In this way Snape and Draco have
similar homelife. 

Now in the foreground of these two stories is another striking
similarity. Neither seem to be treated well or loved by their father.

Lucius is cold and indifferent to Draco, he probably loves Draco with
every sense of that emotion he is capable of, but there is no comfort
or joy in the kind of love he shows for his child. Draco hence grows
and matures with the feeling of something missing in his life that
takes the shape of his absent, cold and indifferent father figure. 

It's no stretch to imagine that Snape could be very similar to Draco
here.  We come into Snape's life at the other end of the road, what we
find out is that he has followed two great mentors in his life.
Voldemort and Dumbledore and both of them are very fatherly in their
relationship with their followers. Indeed Bella loves him like a
father and even Draco gravitates towards Voldemort when his own father
is put in prison and he is left without the all important father
figure. Also we have the snippet of memory which shows that Snape's
father was probably abusive to his wife and cold to his son.

With all of that in mind, I think, and again just qualifying that I
don't mean Snape gets off the hook for being wrong and prejudicial
toward Harry, Snape probably sees a lot of himself in Draco and
empathises more readily with him, so in contrast Harry is a spoiled
celebrity brat because from Snape's POV he will always have a fathers
love.

Just some thoughts. Thanks, Radasgat for the opportunity to discuss them.

Valky

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