Scene with likable James WAS: Re: Eileen Pince

[esmith222002]

No: HPFGUIDX 156305

 
> 
> Magpie:
> Interesting that you're pretty sure, because you're incorrect.  
> Snape only takes out his wand at James' intentionally provocational 
> shout.  James already has his wand out, ready to hex him.  


Brothergib - OK, you got me. That is the problem of emailing at work 
with no 'canon' to rely on.


> You've left out another "major difference" in the scene, which is 
> that Moody is actually a psychotic Death Eater punishing the son of 
> a Death Eater who went free.  Draco "deserving it" for throwing a 
> hex is only one level of the scene.  Had it been another kid Harry 
> and his friends might have been more suspicious of Moody.  

Brothergib - My point here is that Draco is being abused/bullied in a 
similar manner to Snape. It is irrelevant who is doing the bullying. 
Because we have seen how Draco behaves prior to this point, we do not 
feel much sympathy. We have not seen how Snape behaved prior to the 
Pensieve scene, and therefore we do not have a reason to believe that 
Snape deserved this treatment at the hands of James.

> 
> Magpie:
> Probably not, I agree.  Harry himself says just that when he thinks 
> the scene would be fine if done to Draco.  Harry also loses 
sympathy 
> for Snape when he has to deal with him as an adult.  But does that 
> mean Harry's instinctive reaction to the scene is completely 
wrong?  
>

Brothergib - I am not stating in any way that Harry's instinctive 
reaction is wrong. I am trying to make the point that we seem to 
think badly of James because of how he treats Snape, but we do not 
think badly of Moody for how he treats Draco. I would even suggest 
that we still don't think that badly of Mad Eye Crouch in this 
particular scene even now we know exactly what he is! We are getting 
into theological waters here - Eye for an Eye etc.
We know how Draco has treated Harry prior to this scene.
We do not know how Snape treated James prior to the pensieve scene.
If we had seen Snape treating James badly prior to this scene - would 
we still feel sympathy for Snape?