Which characters are dynamic?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 141854

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nrenka" <nrenka at y...> wrote:

> No perception exists in a vacuum, of course.  Do you treat someone 
> differently if you know, or at least suspect, that they know little 
> or nothing about their own status?  If Snape is Dumbledore's bad cop 
> who does everything for a reason, surely he would be that well-
> informed, or at least not going to take hasty pre-emptive 
> action...right?  I haven't run into the situation yet in my own 
> classroom, but there are famous people/children thereof enrolled as 
> undergraduates, and they generally really appreciate being treated as 
> other students and not being marked out for either acclaim or 
> opprobrium.  So there's not only information, there's what you do 
> with it.

Pippin:
There's absolutely no hope of getting Draco or the WW to treat Harry like an ordinary 
student, no matter what kind of example Snape sets, wouldn't you agree? They don't have 
the culture of protecting children from celebrity the way we do -- even the tabloids don't 
treat minors the way the Prophet treated Harry. Even normally level-headed people like 
Flitwick are falling off their chairs. 

Nobody knows yet that Harry has a pure soul and couldn't possibly be tempted to embrace 
the Dark Arts or Draco's Muggle-hating philosophy. It's just as well that Draco's contempt 
for Harry be encouraged. 

Nora:
> But isn't this a shift for you, Pippin, or am I mistaken in thinking 
> that you've generally argued that Snape was just acting in the Shack 
> (as Dumbledore's seekrit agent), and that it was all actually set up 
> by ESE!Lupin?  Not so good a parallel, then. :)
> 

Pippin:
You may be confusing ESE!Lupin with MAGIC DISHWASHER. DISHWASHER works better if 
you postulate ESE!Lupin, but ESE!Lupin doesn't need DISHWASHER to work. Snape and 
Dumbledore, in my version of events, do not know that Scabbers is Pettigrew and have 
every reason to believe that Sirius is guilty as charged. I think just about everything Snape 
does in the Shack is genuine, except for the suspicious quickness with which he loses his 
temper and his threat to hand Sirius and Lupin straight to the dementors.

I've generally contended that Snape was acting when he lost his temper,  playing the 
character of young!Snape who wore his heart on his sleeve and so forth, but I think Snape 
was genuinely furious with Harry for taking the word of Sirius and Lupin over his, and 
genuinely impatient with Hermione because she really didn't grasp the situation -- Sirius 
was supposed to know a spell that will kill everyone within twenty feet of himself, after all. 
If he gets his hand on a wand, it's all over. So I see Snape as burning for revenge but not 
beyond reason,  exactly as you hope Harry would be. 

We've got some new canon to contend with. Dumbledore says he watched over Harry from 
afar as he met Sirius and discovered what he was, and Snape tells Draco that confronting 
the enemy without backup would be an elementary mistake. Now, did Snape ignore his 
own advice when he went rushing out to the SS, or did he know that Dumbledore was 
watching from afar?  In that case he could have dragged Lupin and Sirius off to the 
dementors fully expecting that Dumbledore would 'conveniently' turn up and 'make 
trouble. ' 

We also have the additional canon that Voldemort wants something from the castle. 
Sirius's statement that he'll go quietly as long as he's taken there doesn't sound so 
reassuring in that light.

Pippin