Rampant Ingratitude, was Re:Lusting After Snape

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 129539

Pippin:
> > Everyone knew that someone at Hogwarts had it in for Harry, 

Amiable Dorsai: 
> Everyone except Snape, apparently.
>  
> From Gobblet of Fire:
> 
>  "It's no one's fault but Potter's, Karkaroff," said Snape
> softly. His black eyes were alight with malice. "Don't go blaming
> Dumbledore for Potter's determination to break rules. He has been
> crossing lines ever since he arrived here -"

Pippin:
That was in  the fall, before the Dark Mark had made its unwelcome
reappearance on Snape's arm. We know he reported it to Dumbledore.
As Dumbledore said, you don't need a pensieve to make the connection
between that and  Harry Potter. 

Pippin: 
> > Dumbledore and his allies needed to know whether Harry had in fact
been the burglar, and they also needed to be sure that, if so, he
didn't do it again. Snape's threat to use veritaserum was probably
aimed at bringing the truth to the forefront of Harry's mind,
where it could be detected by legilimency. But it wouldn't hurt for
Harry to know that if he was stealing things from Snape's office, it 
 would be regarded seriously. 

Amiable Dorsai: 
> I'm sorry, but this is laughable. If Snape wanted to bring the
truth to the forefront of Harry's mind, a simple accusation would have
done just as well.

Pippin:

Read it again. It's too long a passage to quote here, but
Snape makes a simple accusation, which Harry denies,
truthfully enough, since he didn't break into the office.
But Harry thinks Snape is talking about the theft of the
Boomslang Skin two years before (note how deftly
Rowling drops the clue that someone is using polyjuice
*now*). So Harry says he doesn't know what Snape
is talking about and *thinks* he is lying. That has got
be a confusing situation for a legilimens.

It's then that Snape threatens him with veritaserum.
He seems to be satisfied with what he found out, since
he lets Harry turn away. Note that he doesn't 
question Harry about the goblet. He's
accepted that Harry didn't put his name in.

It's not a bad example for Harry. In the first place
Harry would never think anything was allowable
just because Snape thought he could get away with it,
and in the second place  Harry needed to be 
warned about what an unscrupulous wizard with 
veritaserum at his disposal might do. Snape is playing
bad cop, as usual to good effect. 


Pippin