JKR and Occlumency lessons (was Re: Snape and Occlumency)

[barbara_mbowen]

No: HPFGUIDX 121809


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com
Marmelade Mom snipping here, snipping there:

> Reed wrote:
>  
> > Of course, the need for drama should not ruin the plausibily of
the 
> > story, but I personally didn't feel that it did in this case. It
was
> > clearly wrong of Dumbledore to appoint Snape as Harry's 
> > Occlumency teacher, and JKR is well aware of this, as she lets 
> > him admit thishimself. 
> > For me, it's not so hard to accept that, though Dumbledore knew 
> that 
> > Harry and Snape didn't get along well, he misjudged how deep
their 
> > resentments (especially Snape's) were. He simply hoped they would
> > sort out their issues when faced with this common task. 
> > In this book, JKR goes to great pains to establish that Dumbledore
> > is neither omniscient nor infallible and the occlumency lessons
are
> > one example of this - so they serve the story in yet another way.
> 
> Alla:
> 
>SNIP!
> 
> What IS incredibly hard to accept FOR ME is the the fact that 
> Dumbledore could be so NOT INTELLIGENT and misjudge the extent of 
> Snape' hatred for James and Harry and Harry's hatred for Snape that 
> badly.

>  
> Reed:
> 
> You can argue whether we needed this additional bit of drama of
> course, but IMO it worked well enough - and as I mentioned in 
> my earlier post, I also believe that it was a way to put focus on
the 
> relationship between Harry and Snape which I'm expecting to be
> important in the following books.

Now Marmelade Mom:  Yes, Reed, I think you're right.  This is an
interesting 
thread, and one that goes with my own sense that something is very
much up 
with Harry and Snape in Book Six.  I think both Dumbledore (and JKR)
used 
Occlumency lessons to give Snape and Harry a chance to understand
each 
other:  for Snape to learn that Harry is not the "pampered prince" he
thinks 
James' son must be, and for Harry to see Snape as something more than 
Hogwart's version of Vernon Dursley, out to crush his spirit from
sheer 
malice.  To be fair to both DD and JKR, it nearly happens.  And I
admire how 
artfully she did it, because Snape learns from repeated incursions
into Harry's 
memories just how abused and horrible a childhood he had.  Here is
Snape's 
chance to understand and form a new opinion of Harry.  I think
(though I 
have no canon yet to prove it) that the reason the members of the
Order talk 
to the Dursleys at the end of OOP is because Snape said something to
DD to 
the effect of:  "Did you have any idea how badly the Dursleys have
abused 
Harry?  Including starving him?"  

But how to have Harry learn enough about Snape for this to go both
ways?  
He can break through once, but not enough to get the full picture;
he's the 
pupil, not the master.  So JKR has Snape leave memories in a
penseive, and 
Harry breaks  into them.  A nice turn, this, because Harry's opinion
of Snape 
is almost totally overthrown.  "I never thought I'd feel sorry for
Snape" he 
says, and he demands an accounting from his father's friends.  To
Harry's 
credit, he sees just how wrong James and Sirius were, he sympathizes
with 
SNape--but the very act of finding out about Snape has angered and 
alienated Snape.  Failure on one side. Then the debacle at the MoM,
and 
Sirius' death.  Harry's new understanding of Snape is destroyed by
his 
bitterness over Sirius' death.  We are left with each of them hating
the other 
all the more.  Which, to me, is very tragic, because both were *so*
close to 
understanding/sympathizing with each other.

And it's a very powerful lead up to what has got to be happening in
the next 
book(s):  a big, explosive confrontation between Harry and Snape in
the 
context of the war against Voldemort.  In the last scene between the
two of 
them in OoP, Harry is openly defiant for the first time; he does
*not* put his 
wand away when Snape tells him to.  Only McGonagle's appearance  
defuses the confrontation and only when she tells him to, does Harry
put 
away his wand. 

I'm dying to see what will go on in Potions in Book six!

Marmelade Mom