Snape's Cruelty Has Purpose (Was Re: lily/snape)/Why I Hate Snape

[gelite67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150594


> Deb wrote:
> > 
> > **Applause** for Angie! YES this is what I have been thinking 
too. 
> > Snape >has to< be nasty to Harry and Neville (and Ron and 
Hermione 
> > by extension) just to preserve his undercover spy status with LV. 
> 
> Magpie:
> I have to admit I never understand this reasoning--which sometimes 
> goes along with the idea that he's faking his favor of Slytherins 
as 
> well, all to preserve his cover.  First, there's just no reason he 
> needs to do any of these things.  If he's supposed to be a double 
> agent for Dumbledore being nice to Harry--and certainly being nice 
> to random students like Hermione and Neville--would be fine.  Look 
> at Moody!  He was exactly what Snape is supposed to be and he was 
> friendly to both Harry and Neville and publically humiliated Draco 
> Malfoy.  Obviously one can do all those things and still be a very 
> loyal DE.  

Angie again:  

Interesting reasoning, but since Snape has never been nice to anyone 
that we've ever known, I believe LV would only expect Snape to be 
nice to Harry & Co if that was necessary to preserve Snape's status 
with DD -- and it isn't.  I believe that DD knowns how nasty Snape 
is, for the most part.  Some of the incidents have occurred in the 
hallways, in front of the pictures, whom I believe keep DD well 
informed.  As for the classroom incidents, as DD told Harry, he 
doesn't need an invisibility cloak to become invisible. 

Seems to me to be an issue of the path of least resistance:  it would 
be easier for Snape to be nasty to Harry, with DD's permission, and 
to allow LV to consistently "see" that side of Snape, than to be nice 
to Harry, claiming that's what DD would expect, and have to 
constantly convince LV that he was still on LV's side.  (But as I 
wrote this, it made me wonder why LV thinks DD puts up with Snape's 
nastiness???  Surely, LV knows DD well enough to know that he's aware 
of his teachers' conduct/attitudes toward their students?  Hmm....)

I don't think the Moody/Snape comparison is convincing, simply 
because Moody had to do as DD asked to avoid arousing suspicision, 
but Snape doesn't.  Snape can be nasty, unhelpful, whatever, and it 
would be perfectly consistent with what is expected of him.  
Moreover, it would be OOC for Snape, who has a bad history with 
Gryffindors and with Harry's parents and their friends to be "nice" 
to Harry & Co.  At least, from what we've been shown, Snape doesn't 
appear to be the the type to say, "Oh, that's in the past, I don't 
blame you for your father's behavior."  Even DD acknowledged in OOP 
(I think) that he misjudged Snape's ability to set aside his 
schoolboy grudges.  

I guess part of the reason I am so convinced that DD knows about 
Snape's nastiness is that I can't imagine that DD would be so out of 
touch as to not know how his teachers treat their students and I 
can't see any other reason than "to protect Snape's status as a spy" 
that would explain why DD allows Snape to be so nasty. Magpie, I'm 
curious as to your thoughts on why Snape is allowed to be so nasty -- 
is it b/c you believe DD doesn't know, or some other reason?

Magpie also said:
The one time we even hear a DE give someone advice on how 
> to behave towards Harry it's Lucius saying it's "unwise" to appear 
> less than fond of Harry Potter or whatever he says.  Did Snape not 
> get the memo? <snip>

Angie again:

Good point, but consider the difference in Lucius's status in the WW 
and Snape's.  Lucius had to convince everyone in the WW that he'd 
been bewitched by LV; Snape didn't. Thanks to DD's endorsement, 
Snape's position seems secure b/c Snape switched sides before LV's 
fall; Lucius didn't.  So, Snape doesn't have to worry about appearing 
less than fond of Harry. {BTW, LOL at the "memo" comment, but Snape 
wouldn't have gotten the memo since the WW thought he switched sides, 
would he?)
 
Finally, I don't mean to suggest that everything Snape does is an 
act.  Thankfully, he's way too complex a character for that (one of 
my biggest gripes about the movies is the way they mercilessly reduce 
his character to "the teacher we love to hate" -- they've got a lot 
of charcter arcing to do in the next three movies to catch up with 
canon).  I think part of the reason Snape is so nasty is because he's 
so tormented.  Against what seems to be his natural inclination, he's 
fighting on the side of good, yet he's vilified.  And he can't even 
toot his own horn.  And, whether he should or not, he still holds 
great resentment against The Marauders.  Just because Snape knew a 
lot of Dark Arts as a student doesn't mean he deserved the way The 
Marauders treated him.  After all we don't know who "started it" 
between them, do we?

<major snip>