Snape teaching Harry Occlumency/AK and Guns

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 167157


> J Lyon Responds:

> He may be on the light side (since he didn't try to kill Harry 
> in book 6 and kept shouting out "Dueling for Dummies" hints), but 
> he is not light. He enjoyed mind raping and opening up Harry 
> for visions.  
> 
> He had the son of the man he hated in his hands, with the  
> Headmaster's senile and stupid permission, and he was going to 
> PROVE that Harry was no good and a rotten student. Of course, 
> he also always made sure that there were a couple of juicy 
> "James was such a dick" memories left out in the pensieve. 
> After all, the arrogant brat would think nothing of trying to 
> see HIS worst memories, so he made sure that they were Snape's 
> worst memories of Harry's sainted dad.

Magpie:
I don't think this fits with the canon we have. First, Snape doesn't 
show much pleasure either way at "mind-raping" Harry--and when he's 
enjoying making Harry squirm he usually shows it. He's surprisingly 
restrained at seeing Harry stuck up a tree, for instance. Perhaps 
Snape found it just as uncomfortable watching Harry harassed 
unfairly as Harry found watching him harassed unfairly.

Which brings me to Snape's memory. James might look like a dick in 
the scene, but Snape looks like a powerless loser, which is far 
worse, imo, from Snape's pov. And why would those memories being in 
the Pensieve indicate Snape's put them there for Harry? If he left 
them in his head he could have made sure Harry saw them when they 
were practicing. By taking them out of his head he makes sure Harry 
won't see them. The only reason he does, weeks into the lessons, is 
because Snape is called away for something he couldn't have foreseen 
would happen. We don't know what the other memories in the dish 
were, and can't assume they were all James being a jerk. The Snape I 
know from canon would never ever want Harry to see him with his 
underwear showing, period. Plus, if he likes this so much, why stop 
the lessons after Harry sees that memory? His emotions about it seem 
genuine to me.

J Lyon: 
> The man has no redeeming bones in his body. He may fight against  
> Moldie, but only on his terms for his reasons and not because it 
> is the right thing to do.

Magpie:
I think he fights against Voldemort on the terms he has to and 
because it is the right thing to do even by his own personal code. I 
don't think he has any other reason to fight him the way he is.

Jen: JKR *hasn't* explained her theories on dark magic in a 
comprehensive way like Star Wars does. And yet there are sign-posts 
in the books like Dumbledore telling Harry 'you have never been 
seduced by the Dark Arts,' implying there is an effect on the person 
who uses the Dark Arts. I don't see this as a magical seduction so 
much as a moral one: the less restraint a person governs himself 
with re: magic the more likely he is to be seduced into using magic 
to get what he wants without regard for the well-being of others or 
their free-will. 

Magpie:
I agree-and it applies to Muggles as well as Wizards, imo, so isn't 
about the spell itself. Once you've done a horrible thing, another 
is easier. Harry has tried Dark Arts. He's cast Sectumsempra, he's 
tried to cast Crucio. But I don't think he's been affected 
automatically by them, because it's not all or nothing, exactly. 
Harry's tempted, but also pulls himself back, sometimes after he's 
crossed a line. The use of any kinds of magic, I would guess, has an 
affect on a person just because anything you do has an effect on you-
-your choices are always going to mold who you are. "Seduced by the 
Dark Arts" can simply mean you come to want to use them and prefer 
to use them and use them easily. It's giving in to a certain kind of 
impulse, I think.

Both James and Harry are said to hate Snape and Malfoy specifically 
because they like the Dark Arts, and this is kind of taken as a 
given without us seeing either of them specifically doing a lot of 
Dark Arts stuff. They've both been shown doing some, yes, but they 
don't seem defined by being controlled by Dark Curses etc. so much 
as dark impulses. (Malfoy, in particular, doesn't seems to put some 
effort into mastering his own fear of them.) Yet you can also see 
James falling a little into the Barty Crouch trap where the fact 
that he's against somebody using the Dark Arts makes him give 
himself free rein to his own bad impulses.

-m