Scene with likeable James WAS: Re: Eileen Pince

[Joe Goodwin]

No: HPFGUIDX 156367


Kemper now:
I can see the difference between hexing in the halls and the bullying
that James and Sirius throw down on Snape. The hexing if more
prankish (like 'kick me' taped to someone's back) and the bullying is
more threatening which is why Snape goes for his wand. And, yes, Lily
defending Snape would be humiliating and emasculating... though I
don't think he would really care about her being Muggle born in spite
of calling her a mudblood.

  Joe:
  The canon evidence I refered to included members of various houses trying to hex members of other houses Quidditch teams and at least implied that it was to intimidate or injure them so that they did not play well. As I said before most boys play hard. I'm not saying James and Sirius should have done what they did because I don't know the whole story. I am saying that it could very well be that Snape deserved it for things he had done but we haven't seen yet. I am also saying that what happened wasn't that bad and I think some people have blown it WAY out of porportion. It's like those people who cry on talk shows about things that happened in high school. You don't know if you want to laugh or tell them to grow up.

  I mean we know Snape was up to his ears in the Dark Arts and people are like "Oh well the poor misunderstood boy" but take James and Sirius to task for ONE meanspirited but HARMLESS act. Where is the sense of scale here? Or has everything just been so picked apart in the HP universe that every tiny mole hill has to be made a mountain?

  Also why would you think Snape would not care that Lily was muggleborn? Not only did he call her a mudblood which is evidence right there that it did matter to him but only two years down the road he joined a group of people who were pleged to drive the muggleborn out of wizarding society.

  That makes no sense at all.


  Kemper:
So Joe, I posed a scenario on a different though similar thread. Here it is:

What if at the end of Harry's written DADA O.W.L's, he and Ron
rolled-up on and started provoking Draco while Hermione pretended she
didn't know what was going on? We already know what an arrogant prick
Draco is, but would we think this scene of righteous bullying funny?

Would Harry be in the right here? Or would we think a little less of
him based on only a 5 minute incident?

Joe:
  No I wouldn't think one bit less of Harry. Not a bit less. Malfoy has been asking for something like that since their first year. He has pushed, prodded, insulted and been a general jerk to the three of them for so long I wonder why they haven't done it. So much so that it makes the books a little less believable. In a real school they would have stuffed him in his locker at best and bat him down at worst long before fifth year. Harry is a saint for not having given him the beat down he has been asking for.

  In fact I think if someone had taken Malfoy down a few pegs earlier he would not have been willing to let things go as far as they did.

  I don't know if Snape acted like Malfoy but if he did I have zero, I repeat zero, sympathy for him.

  I don't like Snape but I am betting that what James and Sirius did wasn't the worst memory. I don't think he was that big of a wimp. I think it was Lily defending him in public that was his worst memory.

  Joe