[HPforGrownups] Favorite Snape Scenes - He's such a lovely professor, no really.

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 122181

vmonte responds:
[entire outstanding post snipped -- wonderful illustrations directly from
canon of just how horrible Snape has been to Harry and the other
Gryffindors]

Vivamus:
Most of the theories about Severus really do seem to leave out his behavior,
don't they?

The only justification I can see for his behavior towards the Gryffindors is
that he is acting as a spy again, pretending to be a loyal DE, and so must
be consistently nasty towards them where the Slytherins will see it.  It's
hard to see him doing that, with DD publicly testifying that he was a spy,
but I suppose LV could think him a double, since he DIDN'T successfully warn
the Potters, and he could be a double-double, but that seems weird, too.
Who would trust someone like that?  LV is no fool.

OTOH, it really doesn't fit with his being evil, does it?  If he were evil,
he would try to hide it by treating Potter and the Gryffindors better,
wouldn't he -- just as Crouch!Moody did, right up until the end.  

The real thing that sticks in my craw about Severus is that he *still*
treats Harry horribly when they are alone, even when he *knows* Harry truly
IS a hero, and when he knows Harry is smart enough not to go blabbing to
others that SS is really a good guy.  I think that adds up to SS being mean,
petty, vindictive, and unforgiving, but also to his being broken from
something that happened a long time ago that he cannot forget or let go.
He's a small person, not a big one (and all those vampire references have to
mean SOMETHING,) but his contribution will have more to do with his personal
pain than his intentionally acting in a larger sense.

The best theory on what caused his pain that I have heard is that SS loved
Lily Evans -- probably not that she ever loved him back, but that she was
the only one with enough compassion to care for him as a person.  I also
love the add-on that he tried to warn James not to trust Sirius, and Lily
was killed as a result of James' refusal to listen to old "Snivellus".  The
truly bitter irony, of course, is that James might have switched SKs at the
last minute *because* of Severus' warning.  If that's the case, I don't
think SS knows it yet -- and what a nasty shock for him it will be when he
learns it.

Finally, if SS dies to save Harry/stop LV/rescue the WW/etc., it will be
because that is what finally makes him, in his own eyes, worthy of Lily, not
because it is the best thing to do.  Even if he realizes Lily died because
of *his* mistake, not James', and he realizes that all his hatred of Harry
has been completely undeserved, I do not expect him to forgive Harry or let
go of his own grief.

Truly, SS is a sad, unpleasant character.

Vivamus