Imperius Resistance and Occlumency was Harry's anger (was Re: Draco's anger.)

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 122843

<snip most of Amanda's excellent recount of Occlumency lessons>

> My point here, is that Eggplant's statement "Things went downhill 
> from the very first lesson" is only correct in terms of Snape/Harry 
> interpersonal relations. I think it is demonstrable from canon that 
> the Occlumency lessons *were* producing results. But they were doing 
> so very very slowly, possibly because Voldemort was resisting by 
> manipulating Harry's emotions. Added to this, Harry has never been 
> very good at acquiring skills gradually--the things he is good at, he 
> is immediately good at (and I include the Patronus charm, for he 
> mastered it very quickly, both we and Harry are told).
> 
> Probably Harry had no chance all along, if Voldemort was blocking his 
> desire to learn Occlumency. But I disagree strongly that the lessons 
> were of no good, or "went downhill" from the first one.
> 
> ~Amanda

Julie says: 
 I agree. When I first read OotP I saw two things happening as the
Occlumency lessons progressed. One was that Snape was acting
almost decent toward Harry, i.e., he was actually softening up a 
bit (albeit a small bit). He praised Harry (very mildly perhaps, but
a far cry from his usual denigration of Harry's efforts), he accepted
Harry's invasions into his mind as part of the lessons, etc. As I
read this I actually thought "Wait! Is Snape and Harry's relationship
actually starting to improve?!" And I think it was, at least on Snape's
side.

Then there was happening number two. Harry was making virtually
no effort in the lessons. And it wasn't because he has little trust
or respect for Snape. Or, to put it accurately, that was the smaller
part of the equation. The larger part of Harry's inability to learn
Occlumency was that he didn't WANT to learn it. He wanted the
dreams to continue. Snape might not have been the best teacher,
Dumbledore might have been mistaken not to give Harry more 
information, but mostly it was Harry's desire to get behind that
door in the MoM that was his downfall. I suspect in his heart
Harry realizes that, though he isn't ready to accept it yet (and
how it plays into the death of Sirius). 

During the Occlumency scenes I was definitely more irritated with 
Harry than with Snape. Harry refused to try, berated his friends
when they tried to help him, and ignored what he *had* been 
told (that Voldemort was in his mind and would try to make him
do things). I felt sympathy for Harry, knowing he was a teenager,
under great pressure, and used to keeping inside his own head
rather than accepting help from others. But I was still irritated
with him. And nevermore than when he delved into the Pensieve,
which was simply wrong. 

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying Snape is nice, or even good.
I'm not excusing his past behavior, or his choices (such as
discontinuing the lessons). And I'm not saying I dislike Harry, or
that Harry didn't have understandable reasons for behaving as
he did. But understandable doesn't make it right, and Harry blew
it more than Snape did, IMO. And the possible beginning of a 
thaw in their relationship was one of the casualties. (Though
Snape seems already over it, more or less, while Harry of course
is not.)

Just to add a bit of fuel to the fire, I was also a bit disappointed 
that Dumbledore castigated Snape for not being able to overcome
his past (which is true) but did not even reprimand Harry for prying
into Snape's pensieve. I wish he had, if only to make clear that
Harry was wrong, though I understand that Harry was already 
suffering enough over Sirius's death.


As with all matters HP, this has been only my opinion ;-)

Julie 


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