Bullying WAS: Re: Prodigal Sons

[zgirnius]

No: HPFGUIDX 140748

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "quick_silver71" 
<quick_silver71 at y...> wrote:

> Yet the person who defends Snape (Lily) states quite clearly to 
> James that he, James, is as bad Snape. Snape appears to be the meter 
> stick used to measure "badness" at Hogwarts during the time of the 
> Marauders. How did Snape get the reputation for "badness"? Surely he 
> must have done some bad things at Hogwarts...unless you are saying 
> that Lily is simply a gossip and spreading slander. 

zgirnius:
I think the precise context of Lily's statements here suggests an 
alternate meaning for her statement. She says this right after Snape 
calls her a Mudblood, and James tells him to apologize. James is trying 
to impress Lily as a "good guy" by making Snape take back the insult, 
and Lily rebuffs him. The reference could easily just refer to Snape's 
uiuse of the very insulting term for  Muggle-born.

quick silver:
> Perhaps people laughed at Snape because they liked seeing someone 
> like him get a taste of his own medicine once in a while. He did 
> after all invent the spell that was used to hoist him up. Maybe the 
> Marauders where popular for the very reason that they could "stick 
> it to Snape" so to speak. Everyone loves the kids who beat up the 
> school yard bully.
> 
zgirnius:
Harry was very upset by seeing this memory of Snape's. So much so, that 
he took the chance to Floo to 12 Grimmauld Place, where he discussed 
this scene with Sirius and Lupin. Both of them could see how upset 
Harry was, yet all they could tell him was that James grew out of this 
sort of behavior, and he and Snape had bad feelings for each other form 
the start. If Snape were a habitual bully, don't you think they would 
have mentioned this to Harry? Harry is especially upset by what he sees 
as James attacking Snape for no good reason. he specifically brings 
this concern up for Sirius and Lupin. "nut he just attacked Snape for 
no good reason, just because-well, just because you said you were 
bored".

If there were some excellent reasons for James to dislike Snape, 
wouldn't it have made sense to bring it up here? But no, the reasons 
they give boil down to, James and Sirius were young and arrogant...