[HPforGrownups] Re: DH and PS/SS

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 175363

lupinlore:

> Oh, one other thing about the last scenes of PS/SS.  At one point we 
> had a lot of discussion about DD's motives in intervening when he did 
> in the manner he did.  

<snip>

>Well, given what we see in Snape's 
> memories, there seems an obvious answer, although one much simpler 
> than many proposed, and much more brutal.  DD just didn't like 
> Slytherins, and this provided a fine opportunity to stick the knife 
> in -- in front of God, Severus, Minerva, and everybody, I might add.  
> And if he could do so while tilting the scales to Gryffindor and 
> brightening the summer of a child with whom he was "quite taken," 
> then so much the better.


By god, you are right. This simplest explanation also covers some other canonical conundrums, like why Sirius was not adequately punished for the Prank, or why Dumbledore enjoyed pulling Snape's chains so much in PoA. He just never liked him.

I like lizzyben's theory of Slytherin being the scapegoat house for qualities Rowling hates in herself.
I wonder if as a child Snape didn't bring in Dumbledore the memories of his own worst qualities as a child - quest for knowledge without regard of how dangerous or dark that knowledge is. So Dumbledore dislikes him in the same way Rowling dislikes Slytherin - as a projection.

Irene