In Defense of Snape (long)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 123139


Carol earlier:
> > <snipped> But you also conceded that Snape's remark about the
stinging hex ("Well, that was not as bad as it might have been") was
praise coming from Snape, and that wasn't the only instance in which
Snape praised Harry. <snip> and surely, for Snape, that illustrates
remarkable control.<
>  
> Arynn replied:
> Yes, he does praise Harry, but that has nothing to do with his anger
problems (apples and oranges). A person with his anger under control
would't throw a jar at a teenager's head just for acting like all
teenagers do, (nosey and rebelious). Plus I seem to remember him
pushing Harry hard enough that Harry fell over. Not to mention his
constant "putting down" of Harry, even his "compliments" are ill-natured.

Carol responds:
True, the praise has nothing to do with anger--except that it came at
a time when we'd expect Snape to be angry and he wasn't. But I was
talking about Alla's concessions, not about anger per se.

Also, we don't actually know that Snape threw the jar of cockroaches.
That's Harry's after-the-fact perception. I think it may have exploded
through accidental magic much like Harry's own when he's angry
("blowing up" Aunt Marge--no doubt he wishes she'd blown up in the
other sense). And note that Snape threw Harry *from* him and told him
to get out of his office, probably because he knew that he was too
angry to control his anger if Harry stayed. At no other time does
Snape express his anger through physical action (unless you count
hitting James with a slashing hex after James has repeatedly hexed
him). I still think that Snape did a remarkable job of controlling his
anger during the Occlumency lessons themselves. (I've already cited
numerous examples.) Compare Crouch!Moody, who turns Draco into a
ferret and bounces him. Draco may have deserved it, but it must have
hurt him physically as well as emotionally and that's child abuse in
my book--or Filch, who wants to torture the students to make up for
his own magical incompetence. For a Slytherin and a former DE, Snape
manages pretty well in controlling both his anger (*almost* always
expressed through words or nonphysical punishments) and his natural
antipathies.

Carol