Snape / Harry & Temptation / Healing

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 161413

---  "horridporrid03" <horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:

> ,,,heavily edited....
>
> Betsy Hp:
> 
> I think this goes towards the Potter books as a "child 
> healer" type of story.  Harry is there to heal the rift
> in Hogwarts (and therefore the WW), and I'm wondering if
> Snape has maybe done some foundation work for him. Snape
> has cleaned out the poison of the Voldemort temptation 
> so Harry can get on with the healing.
> 
> Does this make sense?  (Where's Sydney when I need her?
> <g>)
> 
> Betsy Hp (not thrilled with the subject line - but can't
> think of a better title...)
>

bboyminn:

Oddly, and I say 'oddly' because you and I are so rarely
on the same page, to some extent I can see what you are
saying. Perhaps in a sense, by seeing Snape, even knowing
that Snape changed sides (bad->good), and by seeing the
mistakes Snape has made, Harry out of shear determination
to never be like Snape is equally determined to not make
those same mistakes.

Note in the scene in which Dumbledore points out that 
despite the horrible things that have happened all through
Harry's life, Harry has never been tempted by the Dark 
Side. To which, Harry furiously agrees. He will never go
over to the Dark Side 'Voldemort kill my parents!'. 

By implication, distant vague implication, what Harry is 
saying is that he could never be like Snape, tempted to
the power, sense of superiority, and self-affirmation
that the Dark Side initially provides. 

Harry has been alienated his whole life, before, during, 
and most likely after Hogwarts, it would be very easy for 
a put-upon person like Harry to seek out and hold on to 
the very thing that can give him was one might expect to 
be lacking in his life. Purpose, sense of superiority, 
value, meaning, combined with the shared aspects that bring
him a sense of human belonging the way a cult brings a sense
of belonging. 

Yet, Harry sees what returned when Snape returned to the
good side. He sees that the experience was like a poison
that can never be fully purged, and he doesn't want any 
part of that. He will never yield to the temptation of
Voldemort offerring to bring his parents back from the
dead, nor any other enticement that Dark Side could offer
him.

In that sense, Snape serves as a model for a good guy who
did it all wrong, and paid a dear price for it.

Naturally, I have had to grossly overstate my case to make
my point, but if you dial what I have said back to a more
subliminal subconsious level, then I think, yes, Snape has
made the terrible mistakes that Harry will never allow
himself to make. Better to be a good guy and stay a good
guy, even if it brings suffering, pain, loss, and even 
death. Better that than a reformed bad guy.

Again, I admit to way overstating myself, but have I at 
least touched on some aspect of what you were trying to
say????

Steve/bboyminn