Snape and Umbridge and abuse again/ Ending for Snape

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 162960


> Carol responds:
> I think that Harry in these quotes could be described as nervous 
and
> apprehensive rather than fearful. Certainly, he's had unpleasant
> experiences with Snape and doesn't want to be there.
> 
> OTOH, in both instances, Harry is overreacting. Snape doesn't 
torture
> him or keep him in permanent custody. He tells Harry what 
Occlumency
> is and why he needs to learn it, and he teaches it as it must be
> taught, using the Legilimens spell, which Harry is supposed to 
repel
> using any spell he can think of, or better, using a mental method 
like
> the one he used to repel Fake!Moody's Imperius Curse (a much Darker
> spell worthy of a life sentence in Azkaban). 
> 
> And the tensing when Snape raises his wand is wholly unjustified. 
All
> Snape does is remove thoughts from his own head.


Magpie:
Which also makes it funny.:-) (Remember that scene in Raiders of the 
Lost Arc with the coat hanger?)

But I agree--and I think this is the kind of subtle misdirection JKR 
excels at, leaving you often thinking certain things have happened 
or people have done certain things when they haven't. I was thinking 
about it recently when Harry's early impressions of Draco came up 
and JKR is a master of using the Harry-filter that way. I think that 
filter often gets accused of doing too much--like making Harry 
literally not see what's in front of him or make up things in front 
of him--when it doesn't do that. What it does do is imbue scenes 
with emotions and lull you into mixing up Harry's reaction to 
someone with what you've actually seen.

But I think that in general what we actually see is more important. 
Sometimes there's a grey area where we might like or dislike someone 
in a way that disagrees with Harry. But often if Harry thinks of 
someone in a positive way but a close look shows the person doing 
some cruel things (let's say, for instance, Fake!Moody) that might 
be important.

With Snape Harry's emotions are so engaged in every moment (with 
Draco's too, though Snape even more) that we rarely got a truly 
neutral description of the person. This is a perfectly example. Lots 
of students would feel, upon arriving for a private class with a 
teacher they hate and who hates them, that shutting the door is like 
locking yourself in prison. But that's describing Harry's emotions 
to the situation, not the literal situation or a rational fear. And 
Snape's lifting his wand also, imo, speaks not just to Harry's 
mistrust of Snape and his fantasies of what Snape would do to him if 
they were alone, but to his feeling at sea about Occlumency in 
general. He doesn't know what to expect-Snape raises his wand and he 
flinches. 

Harry tends to feel defensive a lot of the time, and that sometimes 
makes him feel like he's acting defensively even when he's not. 
Like, for instance Harry is angry at how violated he feels during 
the lessons, and he and Ron even wonder if Snape isn't opening 
Harry's mind up more to help Voldemort. But really it seems more 
likely that the kind of mind violation Harry's suffered is part of 
anyone's learning Occlumency--how could it not be? Snape seems to 
handle it that way, brushing off things he sees in Harry's mind in a 
way very neutral for Snape (Who's dog was it? struck me as a rather 
positive reaction). Yet Harry still feels violated and blames Snape 
for everything he hates about the lessons (not just not liking the 
way he teaches it with the yelling etc.). But then he himself 
blatantly violates Snape by diving into the Pensieve, and although 
he has a moment of feeling caught and guilty, he quickly goes back 
to feeling defensive again.

-m