The 'Seeming' Reality

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 155531

Magpie:
 Though even then Harry wasn't  wrong about Snape in the way some 
fans write him.  It's not like every  time it seems like Snape is being a 
jerk he's really being nice.  

 Harry was perfectly correct when he sensed that Snape hated him that 
 very first day.  He's not always wrong about Snape.  He just doesn't 
know the man truly and neither do we readers.  There's a big question 
 mark at the center of him.


Pippin:
Harry is not very good at analyzing motives -- especially when his
own feelings are in the way. He doesn't even get Ron when they're
angry at each other in GoF, and a more obvious character
never graced the page. 

So while Snape certainly treats  Harry like a jerk, I'm not
sure that hate is the right word. This is where the Harry filter
may mislead us. Harry is told he is wrong when he says that
Lily hated James and that Sirius hated Kreacher, but he isn't offered
an alternative. I think the  alternative word is "despise."

Hatred is a wish to destroy, "despise" means to find unworthy.
Lily did not want to destroy James and Sirius did not want to 
destroy Kreacher, so in each case Harry was mistaken to call
the feeling he saw hatred.

I don't really see that Snape wants to destroy Harry. If he did he
could surely find more efficient ways to do it.

I do think that Snape hated James, and perhaps still does, but
it may be that he came to despise James more than hate
him. That could be  the realization that
drove Snape back to the right side -- that he never had hated or no 
longer hated James enough to want him dead.

 It should be remembered that DDM!Snape is not a static character,
and is capable of changing his motivations. 

The unreadable expression Snape wears as he looks at Harry after
he has returned to Hogwarts at the end of GoF has to signify something.
I think up to that time Snape genuinely thought that Harry was unworthy,
and owed most of his success to his friends and his luck. I think Snape
started to reconsider after he learned about the graveyard, but
Harry's failure to learn occlumency reinforced Snape's earlier opinion.

In any case, Snape had to continue to play the role of someone who
did not take Harry seriously, but it is very possible that he still
despises Harry. Of course we see in the books, most famously with
Harry's sectum sempra curse that many times behavior which is
not driven by the wish to destroy can still be extremely destructive.

I am not saying Harry's always wrong about who hates him. I think
Petunia really hates him, but even her hatred is not complete.  IMO,
she  'only' hates the magical part of him, but never really understood
or cared that she couldn't destroy that part of him without destroying 
Harry himself.

Pippin