Nice vs. Good, honesty, and Snape: Was Snape, Apologies, and Redemption

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 153250

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, IreneMikhlin 
<irene_mikhlin at ...> wrote:

> 
> If in PS Dumbledore didn't take the line with Harry "Your father 
was the 
> bee's knees, and Professor Snape didn't like him for some 
unfathomable 
> reasons, a spiteful old meanie that he is", but instead something 
like 
> "Your father was a wonderful man. Professor Snape had some private 
> reasons to dislike him, but that should not reflect badly on your 
> father's shining personality in any way", the whole Snape-Harry 
dynamics 
> would not be as poisonous.
> But then, we would not have the big payoff in book 7. :-)
> 


DID he take the first tack?  I would say DD actually came down 
somewhere between your first and second examples, largely by using 
the Harry/Draco relationship as an illustration.

Now, I grant you that doing so did nothing whatsoever to help with 
the Harry/Snape problem.  One way of helping with that, in this 
particular conversation, would have been for DD to say to 
Harry "Look, Professor Snape really isn't the monster you think, 
look how he worked so hard to help you," (which would have only 
worked in the long term if DD had followed this be telling Snape 
very firmly to KNOCK IT OFF).

But, for whatever reason, DD did not make that attempt that we know 
of.  Instead, he basically told Harry "Professor Snape saved your 
life, but you needn't bother being grateful -- he only did it 
because he hated your father and wanted out from under the debt."  

Strange, strange Dumbledore.  Or perhaps WalkingPlotDevice!
Dumbledore is more to the point.  This seems to be yet another point 
where Dumbledore shows up as mind-numbingly incompetent because it 
suits the needs of the plot for him to act in stupid ways.



Lupinlore