[HPforGrownups] Re: Severus and the DADA exam.

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 123962

> SirEggplant wrote:
> ius's prank could have happened before the pensive memory.
> 
> vmonte responds:
> I don't think so. Harry actually mentions during "Snape's 
> Worst Memory" that Lupin was looking strange and he wondered 
> whether the full moon was approaching. I think the prank 
> happened that night after finals.


Vivamus:

Oh ho!  I think you might have hit on it!  Harry never got to the "worst
memory."  He only got as far as the taunting scene, but the adult SS
interrupted him before he got any farther.  The pensieve "worst memory"
sequence actually goes on through that evening, with Sirius suckering SS
into chasing a werewolf, and SS realizing he was about to be eaten, and
rescued -- heroically -- by the boy he most despised in the whole world,
leaving him forever in the debt of the man he most hated.

When Harry asked DD about SS's feelings towards James, DD did tell him that
James did something SS could never forgive -- he saved his life.  

In your other very interesting comment, vmonte, you said

<snip>
> I find it hard to believe that this is Snape's worst memory 
> (watching or participating in the torture of other people is 
> not his worst memories though).  JKR also lets us see other 
> humiliating childhood memories of Snape, but Snape doesn't 
> even react to Harry seeing these, That's bizzare.)
</snip>

I think it could indeed be his worst memory, to be hung upside-down in front
of a bunch of girls and have his pants pulled off by his worst enemy.

The other thing that would make this his worst memory is if he were in fact
in love with Lily Evans.  Then it could be either (1) being hung up in the
air with his pants pulled down in front of *her*, or (2) his calling her a
mudblood, or (3) her calling him Snivellus, or (4) this is the point at
which he finally realizes he has lost all chance with her forever.  Any one
of those could have stayed with him and haunted him.

As to SS planting the memory in the pensieve, I don't think it fits the
context.  This was the only Occlumency lesson in which they were interrupted
and SS had to go out and leave Harry alone.  It was because they had found
Montague, and DU wanted SS's help, so it wasn't something contrived.  SS
also seems to be filled with rage.  Here is the scene:

There was another flash of light, and Snape was once again hanging
upside-down in the air.
'Who wants to see me take off Snivelly's pants?'
But whether James really did take off Snapes pants, Harry never found out. A
hand had closed tight over his upper arm, closed with a pincer-like grip.
Wincing, Harry looked round to see who had hold of him, and saw, with a
thrill of horror, a fully grown, adult-sized Snape standing right beside
him, white with rage.
'Having fun?'
Harry felt himself rising into the air; the summer's day evaporated around
him; he was floating upwards through icy blackness, Snape's hand still tight
upon his upper arm. Then, with a swooping feeling as though he had turned
head-over-heels in midair, his feet hit the stone floor of Snape's dungeon
and he was standing again beside the Pensieve on Snape's desk in the
shadowy, present-day Potion masters study.
'So,' said Snape, gripping Harry's arm so tightly Harry's hand was starting
to feel numb. 'So. been enjoying yourself, Potter?'
'N-no,' said Harry, trying to free his arm.
It was scary: Snape's lips were shaking, his face was white, his teeth were
bared.
'Amusing man, your father, wasn't he?' said Snape, shaking Harry so hard his
glasses slipped down his nose.
'I - didn't -'
Snape threw Harry from him with all his might. Harry fell hard on to the
dungeon floor. 
'You will not repeat what you saw to anybody!' Snape bellowed.
'No,' said Harry, getting to his feet as far from Snape as he could. 'No, of
course I w-'
'Get out, get out, I don't want to see you in this office ever again!'


I don't think SS was acting; I think he did not want Harry to see that
memory.  But MAYBE it was the later part of it -- with the Prank -- that
made it the worst memory.

Vivamus