[HPforGrownups] Closure for Harry & Snape

[Christine Maupin]

No: HPFGUIDX 174468

Cat:
>I'm new to the group, so I'm not sure if this has been
 >discussed previously. But I felt somewhat unsatisfied
>with the closure or lack of closure between Harry and
>Snape. I think there should have been a scene where
>either Harry or Snape or both apologized to the other,
 >or perhaps JKR could have had a scene where they
 >showed mutual respect for each other.
 
>For instance, when Harry goes into Dumbledore's office
 >with Snape's memories and uses the pensive, I don't
 >understand why she didn't mention Snape's portrait.
>... [snip]...I sort of feel cheated.
 
>Does anyone else feel this way?


Welcome, cat.  I too am new to the group and have found it fun, enlightening, and challenging (which are good things)...

In response to your question, no, I personally do not feel cheated.  I really like both Snape and Harry as fictional characters -- Snape for his complexity and ambiguity, and Harry for his perseverance and innate goodness (not to be be confused with perfection because I'm definitely in the "Harry is not perfect" camp -- Harry has on occasion made me quite angry as has Snape).  Yet, I would find a "touchy, feely" confrontation between the two of them unbelievable within the characterizations written by JKR

Sometimes as I read posts I wonder if people experience disappointment because they want JKR (the characters' true creator) to write the character they have come to know in the fanfiction they read during the "in between" years.  I don't confuse the two characterizations and I think that is one reason why I don't feel cheated.  I'm not saying that your lack of closure is a result of that -- but I suspect some do feel disappointment because they fail to separate the two.  (I have a friend who has not finished the book but who vehemently argues that Snape is good.  I suspect that if Alan Rickman -- who she knows only from his romantic lead roles -- didn't play the character in the movies she would feel differently.  My point is, there is so much to the world of Potter -- and not all of it comes directly from JKR  -- that one can easily lose track of what is "real" -- which is what JKR writes.)

So, that said, here's how I feel -- given Snape's canon-based personality and the long-term animosity between Snape and Harry, I would find a suddenly "warm and fuzzy" Snape unbelievable.  And, despite his "innate goodness" I do not see Harry simply forgetting how Snape has treated him over the years (despite what he learns in the pensieve) and accepting that "warm and fuzzy" Snape.  Forgetting is often harder than forgiving.  Snape's memories enable Harry to understand him and with understanding comes forgiveness but forgetting and putting it all behind you, well, that's takes time.  Nevertheless, I do believe that both come to respect each other; they just don't have "a Hallmark moment" to express it to each other.  I suspect Snape came to respect Harry when Dumbledore told him, "If I know him, he will have arranged matters so that when he does set out to meet his death, it will truly mean the end of Voldemort" (p.687 US), if not before, because I think Snape fully
 believes that Dumbledore is right about Harry and that Harry would make that sacrifice if it means defeating the Dark Lord.  And, of course,  we see Harry's respect for Snape when we learn he names a son after him and during the exchange between him and that son ("..you were named for two headmasters of Hogwarts.  One of them was a Slytherin and he was probably the bravest man I ever know." p. 758 US).  I find it interesting that Harry doesn't say "one of the bravest" but "the bravest" (which in my mind means braver than Dumbledore, James, Sirius, Lupin, etc. -- all adults important to him who died for the cause).  Let's not forget Harry's parting words to Snape in HBP when he called him a coward -- what a difference knowledge and understanding make.

As for the portrait or lack thereof -- I didn't notice the lack until after I finished my first reading so obviously I wasn't surprised.  I can explain my own acceptance of the lack of  a portrait by my acceptance of the magic of the world JKR has created.  Sometimes "magic happens" and we see magic that apparently is a part of Hogwarts itself (e.g., the moving staircases).  I think we also see that magic when the Headmaster's office refuses to admit Umbridge in OOTP and when we see Dumbledore's portrait just minutes after his death in HBP.  My specific opinion as to the lack of Snape's portrait is this:  Snape wasn't truly a legitimate headmaster because he was placed there by an "illegitimate regime" -- a regime that covered the entire UK magical world and its day-to-day government and life, not just Hogwarts.  So, one might ask, "well why did the headmaster's office accepted him when it wouldn't accept Umbridge?"  I accept that the castle accepted him because, while
 Snape the Death Eater was placed in the position by an "illegitimate regime," Snape the man would protect the students to the best of his abilities within that position.  (That can not be said of anyone else who the regime would have likely placed in the position.)  When he died, the magic didn't happen and no portrait appeared because the castle didn't accept him 100%.

Obviously my individual interpretation...

Christy