Albus Severus (Was: Potter's Teacher's Edition)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 175209

Betsy Hp wrote:
<big snip>

> Frankly, I don't buy Harry's little speech about Snape in the 
Epilogue.  JKR doesn't sell it for me.  I mean, yes it's there so it's
canon, but it doesn't fit.  I have to do too much jumping up and down
and dancing around to make that speech make sense.  How does Harry go
from "this man must die!" to "I shall name my beloved son after him!"?
 Can it happen?  Sure!  I was totally expecting this sort of change
before DH.  But for some reason, JKR didn't feel that writing such a
change would be interesting. <snip>

Carol responds:
First, thanks for your very good-natured response to my plea for
canon. I want to focus on just this one very narrow topic in hopes of
persuading you that the jump isn't quite as large as it seems to you
at the moment.

First, we have moments in the Occlumency lessons when Harry first
catches glimpses of Snape's past, and when he sees SWM, he actually
identifies with him and sympathizes with him for the first time.
Admittedly, it doesn't last, but it's important that he realizes, even
briefly, that Snape was right about his father being "arrogant" (and
worse, a bully). That impression is reinforced in "The Prince's Tale."
Also, in the Occlumency lessons, we have Snape's moment of
satisfaction when Harry realizes that "finding out what the Dark Lord
is telling his Death Eaters" is Snape's (very dangerous) job.

We also have moments in earlier books when Harry learns that Snape has
saved his (Harry's) life or helped or protected him in some way or
risked his own life or liberty to help Dumbledore or fight Voldemort
which Harry has always known but never acknowledged. We, as readers,
knew these things too. and many of us brought them with us to our
reading of "the Prince's Tale." It seems safe to imagine that Harry is
unconsciously recalling them, too. he is not encounteringnape's
memories in a vacuum. And HBP brings him into even closer contact--and
identification--with the young Snape, a genius with a slightly warped
sense of humor that he appreciates, who "helps" him with Potions and
teaches him new spells. (Levicorpus and Muffliato come in handy in DH;
Expelliarmus, his signature spell was taught him by Snape back in his
second year.) It's a shame, BTW, that the Potions book is destroyed by
Fiendfyre, but it has served its purpose as a bridge between Harry and
the man he hates, and I think that once he sees the real Snape in
those memories, the feelings he developed for the HBP to some degree
return. We're not told that he feels them, true, but they serve as a
backdrop. He has already, as Pippin has noted, walked for a year in
the Prince's shoes.

I pointed out in post number 175069 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/175069

some of the parallels between Harry and the young Severus (abusive
Muggle father figure, neglect, ridiculous hand-me-down clothes that
cause other kids to meke fun of them), as well as the Lily connection
(Snape giving him Lily as Black and Lupin gave him James). I also
pointed out that he sees Snape's anguished remorse and his progress
from doing "anything" to save Lily to working to protect the dead
Lily's son to helping Harry defeat Voldemort even when he "knows" that
Harry has to die. He sees Snape as Healer and he sees that the
"murderer" is doing Dumbledore's will. I pointed out that both of them
feel used by Dumbledore, and I asked rhetorically:

"How can Harry *not* identify with this man who is so like him in so
many ways? How can he not forgive the man who loved his mother and
spent his life in suffering atonement for his role in her death? How
can he not see the change from not caring about Harry to protecting
Harry for Lily to protecting and helping him even after he "knows"
that Harry has to die? How can he not be appalled at Snape's death and
want to make his last act matter? Or rather, once he knows that he is
not going to die himself, make Snape's love and loyalty publicly known
as a means of compensating for that terrible death?"

During this visit to the Pensieve, Harry moves silently, along with
many readers, from hating Snape yet feeling horror at his death (and
having granted his last request to look into Snape's eyes) to
understanding him, feeling as if Snape had been with him and had just
left the room. His reaction is not directly to Snape but to what Snape
has given him ("Finally, the truth!"). Granted, he is focused now on
what he must do and on DD's "betrayal, but the hatred and bitterness
toward Snape is completely and permanently gone. We have the brief
moment of empathy (the "abandoned boys" whose only home was Hogwarts)
and then the public vindication of Snape, which I've discussed in
detail in message 174936 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/174936 

and elsewhere.

I'll quote a paragraph from that post now since it has the relevant
canon in it:

"But that Harry has, indeed, forgiven Snape (along with many readers)
is clear from the text itself. "Albus Severus" does not come out of
nowhere. First, there's the "abandoned boys" reference, showing that
he understands and empathizes with young Severus's homelife and his
view of Hogwarts as home (697). And then there's the very public
vindication speech, starting with the part about "the man you thought
was your servant" and more emphatically from "Severus Snape wasn't
yours. He was Dumbledore's" (740) and continuing to "Dumbledore was
already dying when Snape finished him" (741). the key point, for
Harry, is that "Snape was Dumbledore's . . . [man] from the time [LV]
started hunting down [Harry's mother]" and Voldemort "never realized
it because of the thing [he didn't] understand": love. He mentions the
doe Patronus, makes clear that what Snape felt was love, not desire.
He has also made clear that DD's death was arranged months before it
happened with Snape, who was loyal to him and not to LV. Granted, his
courage is not specifically mentioned in this scene, but Harry knows
the risks that Snape has taken and the perils he has faced. He has
seen him die, sending mesaages from his own head to Harry so that he
won't have died in vain.

"After that speech, in which Snape is publicly presented as working
with the man he had supposedly murdered to bring down Voldemort, also
publicly declaring Snape's love for his own mother, why should we be
surprised that Harry would name his son after him? And in "King's
Cross, both Harry and Dumbledore sit in silence "for the longest time
yet" in memory of "poor Severus," who died because the plan went wrong
(721)."

It seems to me that Harry has excellent reason to name his second son
for the two headmasters without whom he could not have defeated Lord
Voldemort, one of them not only the bravest Slytherin but probably the
bravest *man* Harry ever knew, the other the master manipulator who
loved Harry after all.

Maybe that moment didn't work for you, but it did not come out of
nowhere. JKR has been preparing for it since she first had Professor
Quirrell say, "Of course, he hated you, but he never wanted you dead."
In fact, she's been preparing for it from the moment Snape's eyes met
Harry's in SS/PS.

Carol, just realizing that yet another plot thread has come full
circle with Harry looking into Snape's eyes