Evil Snape

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 154348

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "steven1965aaa" <steven1965aaa at ...> wrote:
>
> Steven1965aaa:
> 
> IMO,if anyone is acting arrogantly here, its Dumbledore, by not 
> letting Harry in on the real reason he trusts Snape (that's how I 
> interpret the pause in his office as if he was making his mind up 
> about something) (but of course he may have a very good reason for not 
> doing so, of which we have not yet been made aware), and by brushing 
> Harry off when he was trying to tell him about Malfoy's "whooping".  
> When Dumbledore says to Harry in the cave that age errs when it 
> underestimates youth, he might as well have been talking about 
> himself.
>
Pippin: 
He certainly was talking about himself. He underestimated Draco's
ability to find a way to get DE's into the castle. But he can hardly
be blamed for not taking Harry's report very seriously, since Harry
forgot the important bit. If Harry had told Dumbledore about the 
attack on Trelawney, Dumbledore might have reacted differently. 
Dumbledore was waiting for Draco to show his hand. An attack
on a teacher is culpable. Whooping is not.


As for not revealing his 'real' reason for trusting Snape--

What if there isn't a 'real' reason? After all, why does Harry trust
Ron and Hermione?  or Dumbledore himself? It isn't because they've 
never let him down, or because he's sure they never would. They
have, and as long as they're alive they may again, because they're 
human.

It isn't  because they've performed some spectacular act of atonement, 
or because they've taken some magical oath or debt on themselves, 
or because they're blood relations, or because Fawkes gave magical  
proof of  their loyalty or because they were secretly in love with 
someone that Voldemort killed. 

Purely and simply, Harry trusts them because he values their 
friendship. In the end that is the only reason to trust anybody.
The mere fact that Harry is asking for proof shows that he doesn't 
understand why anybody would value Snape's friendship, so
it would be useless to explain it to him. Now maybe there was
some incident, like facing a troll together, that cemented Dumbledore's
understanding of what a good friend Snape could be. But if 
Harry were determined to distrust Snape, what difference would
knowing about that make? He already knows that Snape has saved
both Dumbledore and himself at least once and he's still not
convinced.  



Pippin