Snape again

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 146955

Carol <justcarol67 at y...> wrote:

<SNIP>
> Anyway, it seems strange to me that both Black and Snape somehow 
> push Harry's buttons, creating a huge emotional reaction in him 
> that Wormtail, friend of his father or no, doesn't create. Is 
> Wormtail just "vermin," unworthy of hatred, even though his crime 
> is more directly linked to the Potters' deaths than Snape's is, 
> whether or not Snape's remorse is genuine?

Yes, I think that pretty well covers it, up to this point in any 
case.  It's hard to hate a subhuman, and that is the way Wormtail 
has been portrayed to us -- and been viewed by almost everyone in 
the books -- up through Book VI.  Whether that is a correct 
impression or not is still to be seen.  JKR seems to find Wormtail 
very important, so likely the impression will be shifted to an 
extent in Book VII.  But I think up till now Wormtail has been 
viewed by Harry, and pretty much everybody else, as a bipedal 
incarnation of his animagus form.  You may find rats disgusting, 
and you certainly exterminate them.  But hating them is pretty 
much beside the point, as they don't have any ability to act in 
any way other than that dictated by their very nature.

> Why don't his crimes, which are legion, affect Harry in the way 
> that Snape's transgressions, some of them as small as taunting 
> Sirius Black in OoP, do? Yes, I know that Snape is Harry's
> teacher and that he's sometimes unfair and often sarcastic, but 
> *he* wasn't the Secret Keeper. 

So, what's the point?  Snape is a child abuser.  Harry's hatred 
for him is perfectly healthy and natural.  And the miserable fate 
undoubtedly waiting for Snape is perfectly just and fitting.  I 
really don't see a problem here.


Lupinlore