[HPforGrownups] Snape's worst memory...you are kidding right?

[AnitaKH]

No: HPFGUIDX 150610



Joe Goodwin pointed out:    Here is something that has bothered me for a while. Could the scene in the pensive really be Snape's worst memory? A high school (in the US) altercation with a couple of guys he didn't like? Doesn't that sound way too much like those Jerry Springer commercials "Got issues from high school and want to confront your old schoolmate?"
    
[snippage]

  Honestly, how can that be the man's worst memory? He was a Death Eater, he had to have seen some gruesome things. If we believe he was one of the first people to Godrics Hollow then he saw James and his beloved(maybe) Lilly laying murdered. Shouldn't that be is worst memory?
    
akh responds:

I admit, my first reaction when I read that scene was, "If that's the worst thing that ever happened to you, Sonny, thank your lucky stars!"  However, I'm presuming it's more of a worst memory because that scene acted as a catalyst. Others have suggested that the incident we see led Snape to dog (yeah, I know, it's a pun) the quartet and take Sirius up on his "prank."  If this was the first step toward DE-hood, it might be the day he regrets most bitterly.

Take a real-life example: my fiance (now my ex-husband) called me in the middle of the night to say he could wait no longer, and that we had to get married immediately.  His mother got on the phone to encourage me to say yes, so despite my reservations, I agreed to a hasty wedding.  Now, on the surface, this is hardly a horrible memory.  If things had worked out, it would have been a pleasant memory, even.  However, given how terribly wrong everything went from then until the ugly demise, it's painful to recall.  

The short-winded version of this reply is: context is everything.  On the surface, Snape's memory could hardly be the worst of his life, given his status as DE, spy and traitor to someone (name your camp).  However, if it led directly to his blighted life, he would consider it "worst" in retrospect.

akh, who has a bevy of candidates for "worst memory"...

		
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