Handwriting (WAS:Re: CHAPDISC, HBP 10)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 148773

> 
> brady:
> 
> On the issue of the handwriting, I have asked this same question 
> before without getting any replies. Harry has seen Snape write his 
> exam. He could see that the handwriting was cramped, small and he 
> wrote a lot of matter. How is it that he didn't place the exam 
> handwriting and the HBP book writing together? At least a faint - 
> "I have seen this writing before...but where?" kind of contemplation 
> would have been more suspenseful in HBP than this case where HP 
> doesn't recognise it at all.
> 


Pippin:
I think the suspense is supposed to come from the reader realizing
that the handwriting may be Snape's while Harry never even thinks of it.
Like the scene in a horror movie where you can see the monster
creeping up on the oblivious hero. 

No one has ever complained that they can't read the adult Snape's
handwriting. Considering what a dandy excuse that would make
for overlooking an instruction, Snape's writing in class must be
crystal clear.

Most likely Snape has more than one script at his disposal--
a large, legible bookhand for communicating with students, and
a cramped, hard to read but efficient script he used when the goal
was to get as many words on the page as he could. An
expert would be able to tell they were the same hand,
but Harry is not an expert on handwriting. 

The only time he saw teenage Snape's writing was in the pensieve. 
Unlike the readers, Harry has not had the opportunity or the desire 
to endlessly revisit the experience, hunting for clues. He didn't try 
to read what Snape was writing on his examination paper, and I doubt 
he even consciously remembers now that he saw it.
Certainly it wasn't the part of the experience that left the greatest
impression on him.

Pippin