Snape as father figure

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 130970



> Amanda: 
> I don't think Dumbledore's wrong at all. I don't think Snape can 
> overcome his feelings about James. Dumbledore didn't say "Snape 
> can't overcome his feelings about *you* because you're James' son"--
> he said "about your father."
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Wait, wait a second. Dumbledore says that in direct response to 
> Harry's accusations that Snape did not teach him Occlumency 
> effectively, so yes I read this quote  as "Snape could not overcome 
> his feelings about James,  and THAT IS WHY he could not teach you 
> Occlumency effectively"
> 

Julie says:
  
I think you might both be working on the same interpretation here ;-)
Snape can't overcome his feelings about James, which is WHY he
reacted so badly when he caught Harry delving into his pensieve
memories--those memories bring back the humiliation he felt, as
well as his hatred of James for putting him in that position--thus
it is also WHY he could not teach Harry Occlumency effectively. 

Truly though, we can't know the exact meaning of Dumbledore's
comment, because, like so many other hotly disputed scenes,
we don't get all the facts. We don't know what reason Snape
gave Dumbledore for discontinuing the lessons, whether Snape
revealed everything that happened, or if kept the more humiliating
bits (like Harry's venture into the pensieve) to himself. 

One slightly suspicious thing to me is that Dumbledore brings
up Snape's mistake in not being able to overcome his feelings 
about James, but he doesn't so much as mention Harry's
invasion of Snape's privacy. (And while Dumbledore might
dismiss Harry's first pensieve venture as natural "curiosity,"
it's hard to see him dismissing this incident as the same.)
It really makes me wonder if Dumbledore knows the whole 
story. 

Julie 


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