James Potter and the Dark Arts (wasRe: The Huge overreactions

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 150124

Joe Goodwin wrote:
> Snape's worst memory has to be the single most hysteria-inducing 
piece of Harry Potter. It gives rise to a lot of clap trap including:


Potioncat:
I think I've read all the answering posts to this one. To be honest I 
hesitate to join in, because this is one of the many continuously 
running Snape threads. It never goes away for very long, and I've 
been in this before.

OK, I hesitated, here goes:

Hysteria? Yeah, I think I went hysterical the first time I read this 
chapter. James did such a thing? *James?* Wonderful, heroic, brave 
James Potter? (I'm not being sarcastic here. This was my reaction.) 
To be honest, had all the characters been anonymous, I would think 
very poorly of the group who humiliated the lone student. The fact 
that it was James Potter made it worse. I was very, very disappointed 
in James. And of course I felt pretty bad for Severus.


Joe Goodwin;    
>   Let's not forget that Snape hated James because he was cocky. 
Lots of teenagers can be branded with that label. James hated Snape 
because he was, to quote Remus Lupin "Up to his neck in the Dark 
Arts." Now this wasn't teenage Remus Lupin who said this it was adult 
Remus Lupin who is one of the few people JKR sets up and paragons of 
wisdom and forgiveness. It was interesting to note that Snape was 
like that when he arrived at Hogwarts.

Potioncat:
Can you provide the location for that quote? Here's the one I found 
from OoP, chapter 29, but it is adult Sirius (not Remus) speaking:
"...And Snape was just this little oddball who was up to his eyes in 
the Dark Arts and James--whatever else he may have appeared to you, 
Harry,--always hated the Dark Arts."

You see, what bothers me, is the use of "little oddball." Spare a 
kind thought for the poor little oddball, whether the name be Snape 
or Longbottom or Lovegood.

And Sirius seems to be acknowledging that James looks pretty bad here.

Let's go back to chapter 28, after Severus calls Lily a Mudblood, she 
says to James,"...waking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys 
you just because you can..."

So we have Lily, paragon of virtue, saying that James hexes people 
just because he can. Teenaged James was not a nice kid. Let me 
quickly say, I doubt teenaged Severus was either.

A couple of other thoughts. Apparantly that upside down jinx was used 
a lot.(From Lupin, in HBP) I'm sure some of the victims laughed along 
with the joksters and it was probably a give and take at tines.  Some 
kids would never take that joke very well and of course, no one would 
laugh at being completely exposed. 

This is the point where the discussion turns to "When is a hex a hex 
and when is it Dark Art?" I don't know. But I wonder if James's 
association with Dorea Black Potter has anything to do with his hate 
for the Darks Arts?