[HPforGrownups] Changing the title because I'm tired of it, was "Some won't like it". The Scar Connection Implications.

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 130056

> You're kidding right? You cannot possibly mean that Severus Snape
> should serve as an example of emotional control and the triumph of
> reason over emotion. the same guy who hates a child he's never met
> based on looking like his high school bully father? the same guy who
> thinks that humiliating childern is jolly good fun? That guy?

I think Severus Snape controls a great deal of emotion. He's usually quite
controlled. That's the main reason that it stands out so when his control
slips. Yes, if Harry would ever see Snape as Snape, I think there are many
skills there he could benefit from. I don't think Snape likes Harry, but I
don't believe Snape ever set himself up as Harry's enemy. For God's sake,
Snape is a grown man with better things to do with his time. When Harry
crosses his path, Snape feels no obligation to be pleasant, but I doubt
Harry is in Snape's mind with anything like the frequency or venom that
Snape is in Harry's.

~Amanda

Sherry now:

Ok.  Now I have to say, oh come on!  We have been told that Snape hates
Harry because of James.  Are you calling that a "grown man"? It's one of the
most incredibly immature and ridiculous things I've ever heard of!  (I mean
that attitude in Snape is ridiculous, not you, Amanda.)  To hate a child
because of that child's parents, to have preconceived ideas about that child
that you are not willing to release, that is not the example of a
reasonable, emotionally controlled or mature individual.  Occlumency was
doomed to fail, because there is absolutely no reason for Harry to trust
Snape.  I'm thinking from Harry's point of view, not from ours as objective
adult readers.  It isn't good enough to say that Dumbledore trusts him, so
Harry should.  It's not good enough that Dumbledore asked him to do these
lessons, considering Dumbledore hasn't even looked him in the eye all year.
I tend to think the failure of the lessons was the fault of both Harry and
Snape, because those two cannot work together.  Dumbledore even admits that
he should have known this couldn't work.  And again I wonder, why so many
people insist that Harry should act with a maturity and understanding beyond
his years and yet excuse Snape for his childish and unreasonable attitudes
and behavior.  Putting aside the fact that perhaps English boarding schools
have different ideas about discipline and all that as has been discussed
repeatedly here.  i go back again to my utter astonishment that a man who
can hate a child because of his parents can be considered to be mature and
reasonable.

I had a teacher in high school that literally drove me into having an ulcer
at age 15.  if someone had told me I had to learn a valuable, possibly life
saving technique from that man, I'd have had a reaction similar to Harry's.
I'd have had no more reason to believe or trust him than Harry feels he has
to believe or trust Snape.

Sherry