Snape again

[amiabledorsai]

No: HPFGUIDX 146931


> Carol responds:
<Snippage>

> All that being the case, Harry is placing a disproportionate
> amount of blame on Snape. Even if Snape's taunts were a factor
> in Black's presence at the MoM, their contribution to the
> cumulated events leading to his death is very small.

<Even more Snippage>

>Even after Wormtail murders Cedric on LV's orders, Harry hardly
> gives Wormtail a thought. As far as he's concerned, Voldemort 
> murdered Cedric. 

<Unconscionable amounts of Snippage!>

> Later (in OoP), Harry finds out about the Prophecy and that someone
> (the eavesdropper) revealed part of it to Voldemort. He has, IIRC,
> almost no reaction to this information... 

<Will this slaughter never cease?>

>But in HBP, he finds out that this seemingly unimportant
> person was Snape, and immediately, the murderous rage is kindled
> again. The actual betrayer, Wormtail, is forgotten...

<Apparently not.>

> How does being the eavesdropper somehow go from being nothing
> at all to a worse crime than revealing the Potters whereabouts to
> Voldemort?

I'm pretty sure that if Harry could get his hands on Peter, Buckbeak
would soon be having rat fricassee for lunch.  I doubt that Harry has
forgotten Peter's crimes.  But Peter isn't an immediate problem.

Peter isn't sitting in authority over Harry, giving him exaggerated
punishments for pretended (and, yes, some real) infractions. Peter
hasn't piled a thousand unanswerable insults on Harry, hasn't put
pebble on top of pebble until he's built a mighty avalanche.

Peter isn't living in Harry's home, in the midst of Harry's friends,
poised to betray everything Harry holds dear, not anymore.

Peter doesn't enjoy the confidence of Harry's mentor and protector.

I think that Harry's rage at discovering that Snape was the spy was as
much at Dumbledore as at Snape--Harry trusted Dumbledore, and
Dumbledore didn't tell him the whole truth, didn't mention that the
snitch who fingered his parents was right there, within reach.  Didn't
mention that he, Dumbledore, was protecting the sneak who toppled that
first domino that lead to Harry's parent's deaths.

And there's more--have you ever failed to stop a loved one from
pursuing self-destruction?  Imagine Harry's frustration: He *knows*
deep-down, that trusting Snape will be disastrous, but he can't
convince Dumbledore, he *knows* he won't be able to convince
Dumbledore even as he goes to the Headmaster's office.

And after the events on the tower, after Harry is, in his own mind at
least, proven right, he can't even go to Dumbledore and say, "I told
you so." So Snape inherits Dumbledore's giant-sized portion of Harry's
rage.

I'm agnostic about Snape.  I don't know if he's just the backstabbing
scumbucket that he appears to be, if he's really Dumbledore's man, or
if, as I suspect, he just wants Voldemort dead as badly as Harry does,
and will do anything he has to towards that end.  I'm pretty sure,
though, that before that end can happen, he and Harry will have to
come to some accommodation, and that that will be a very bitter potion
for both of them.

Amiable Dorsai