Snape and Occlumency

[inkling108]

No: HPFGUIDX 121596


> Potioncat wrote:
> (snip)
I'll direct you to this link to the most recent post 
> convincing me of Snape's trustworthiness.  There were seveal 
others 
> as well if you go upthread.  Of course, I think they all had to do 
> with PoA.
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121545

> 
> Then Alla wrote:
> 
> I don't know, Potioncat. If I cannot really condemn Snape based on 
> PoA, I find it MUCH harder NOT to do so based on OOP. I completely 
> agree with Inkling that the fact that Harry felt worse after the 
> lessons MAY mean very unplesant things and so far I can find 
nothing 
> which would mitigate the said circumstance.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I HOPE that it means something different.
> 
 Now Inkling writes:

Thanks for the link, Potioncat.  I do think that, taken as a whole, 
Snape's actions in PoA are defensible.  For example, I was impressed 
that he didn't turn Black directly over to the Dementors when he had 
the chance (when Black was unconscious), even though he had 
threatened to do it earlier.

But I agree with Alla that OotP is a different story.  For one 
thing, there is the fact that Voldemort is back.  This changes the 
reality on the ground and may well change Snape's response. If he is 
working for LV, it doesn't necessarily mean that he has a totally 
black heart (after all, how could he ultimately be redeemed if he 
did?) He may be serving Voldemort out of fear.  No doubt as a death 
eater he saw what happened to those who were disloyal (Regulus 
Black?) and it wasn't pretty.  He may be subject to threats and 
blackmail that we know nothing of.  (I really, really don't want to 
believe he's doing it of his own volition!)

I just can't get past the fact that his so-called lessons contained 
no specific instructions and had the opposite result from what was 
(supposedly) intended.  JKR makes quite a point of this: "Before he 
had started studying occlumency, his scar had prickled 
occasionally...Nowadays, however, his scar hardly ever stopped 
prickling, and he often felt lurches of annoyance or cheerfulness 
that were unrelated to what was happening to him at the time, which 
were always accompanied by a particularly painful twinge from his 
scar.  He had the horrible impression that he was slowly turning 
into a kind of aerial that was tuned to tiny fluctuations in 
Voldemort's mood, and he was sure he could date this increased 
sensitivity firmly from his first occlumency lesson with Snape."  
(just in case the "sure" doesn't convince, she adds "firmly" :-)
Something as dramatic as this, IMHO, cannot be laid simply to 
Harry's lack of effort in occlumency.  His mind is, in fact, under 
assault, and it has something to do with what's going on in Snape's 
lessons.

Inkling