Snape! Snape! Snape! Snape! Loverly Snape! Wonderful Snape! (long)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 148336

La Gatta Lucianese:
 
> I think that Hermione and Snape are more similar that a lot of people 
> realize ...

houyhnhnm:

I see them as similar in many ways and I think this is the personal
reason Snape picks on Hermione (aside from the fact that she is
Harry's friend, a Gryffindor, and Snape is maintaining his cover--if
that is the case--and so forth).  He sees Hermione as an overachiever,
someone who knows-it-all out of books, an unpopular oddball (if she
weren't friends with the Great Harry Potter), very much like the young
Snape, in fact.

I'll bet Snape was called a know-it-all more than once while he was a
student at Hogwarts.  I even see Snape's projection of his own
self-hatred at the bottom of his most egregiously cruel remark in all
six books: "I see no difference".  Having been taunted because of his
looks all through school, an unattractive feature (the Hermione of the
books is no where near as pretty as Emma Watson) would not only remind
him of what he hated about himself as a teenager, he would probably
even be able to rationalize it by telling himself he is helping her. 
It's a mean, hard, dangerous world and the sooner you learn to take
your lumps and get-over-it, the better.

And I agree that Hermione's lack of originality--in class that is; she
shows plenty of originality outside of class when she is helping
Harry--the quality that Snape most admires in himself, exaccerbates
the problem.