[HPforGrownups] James Hatred of Snape (Was: Snapes Worst Memory)

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 174252

Nate wrote:


I believe that James had two reasons to hate Snape.

1.) Snape practiced and was very interested in the Dark Arts.  It 
has been said (I believe) many times in canon that James, like Harry 
and Sirius, hated the Dark Arts and anyone who used them.  This 
would have been enough reason to get Sirius, the Co-Leader of the 
gang, to abuse Snape, as he agreed with this reasoning.

2.) Exactly as you said, James was worried that Lily was going to 
become more than friends with someone else.

What I would like to know, and it is not something that we can 
possibly know as JKR might not even know, is which reason for hating 
Snape came first.  I think that it is a very good possiblity that 
James at first didn't like Snape because he was such good friends 
with Lily, and therefore started to hate everything about him.  
Because Snape loved the Dark Arts, James then hated the Dark Arts.

Irene:

But haven't we seen the beginning of that hate? It was not about the Dark Arts or Lily's heart at all, they've hated Snape at first sight, since that meeting on the train.

Was it because he was poorly dressed and ugly? Or was it because he had expressed interest in Slytherin? And if in JKR's world Slytherin equalled dark arts even before Voldemort, and so made it OK for James and Sirius to hate Snape, then it's an even worse world than what it seems post book 7. :-(

Oh, and the whole "Dark Arts" business really lost its influence on me after book 7. It seems now that the definition of Dark Arts is totally dependant on the caster of the spell.

What did Avery and Mulciber do, I wonder, that was worse than putting a boy into a vanishing cabinet and keeping quiet about it for two weeks, never giving a thought (or maybe giving a hopeful thought?) about him dying there from hunger and thirst?

Irene