[HPforGrownups] Lily, Hagrid, Snape, Lucius, Friends (was Re: good/bad Slyth/Disappointment

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 175361

Irene:
> But that's exactly my point! No matter how long the list of actual 
acts 
> of kindness, the list of the persons involved is rather short, and 
they 
> are all centered around Harry.

> 
> Ron gets inside the circle after Sirius learns he is Harry's 
friend. 
> Before that Sirius could care less how frightened or injured Ron 
gets.
> 

Lanval:
Where's the proof for that?

Irene:

What do you mean? It's all in PoA. Sirius broke to Gryffindor dorm at night, and stood at Ron's bed brandishing a knife. He broke Ron's leg. He wasn't in any hurry to explain to Ron that he isn't planning to kill either him or Harry.

Irene:
> Weasley family gets covered as extension of Ron, I suppose.
>
> It's exactly the same with Snape - he is nice to his friends, and 
the 
> rest of the world can go to hell for all he cares.

Lanval:
Well, then, show me -- moments of real kindness by Snape. Mind, 
absence of malice does not count. I only picked moments where Sirius 
does something actually kind, as opposed to just being "not mean', 
or being civil. Nor do I mean earth-shaking, life-saving deeds. 

Snape?

He once helps a distraught Narcissa into a chair.

Irene:

Look, I can see we are not going anywhere with that amount of irony in the above, but I'll give it another honest try.
He reassures Narcissa that in the world where everything seems to be stacked against her son, he will look after him. And Narcissa must by then have realised that lots of people whom she considered friends were only in it for Lucius' influence and/or money, so Snape's act is really one of personal kindness.

Healing Dumbledore and Draco doesn't count? Fine.

Does it count that he notices Neville being strangled in OoTP?

Lanval:

The way I see it is that even after twelve years in Azkaban, half 
starved, or deep in a depressive state, Sirius still is able to 
extend some degree of kindness, understanding, and good-will toward 
his fellow humans -- if they're not named Severus Snape or Peter 
Pettigrew or Barty Crouch. For a man who's been treated as unfairly 
as Sirius, that's a remarkably short list of personal enemies. 

Irene:

Snape's list is quite short as well: Sirius, Remus, Harry and Neville. :-)

Lanval:

Snape? Dislikes/despises the entire world, with the exception of 
perhaps DD and the Malfoys.

Irene:

He is very good in hiding it then. In the end of HBP, he could have justifiably left a long trail of bodies behind: Flitwick, Hermione, Luna. He seems very determined not to harm them. In DH, not even Stupefy for McGonagall? Why, that's chivalrous.

Irene