Of Sorting and Snape

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 175393

lizzyben:

> But on the meta level, it's horrible. Because, 
> ultimately, it's JKR selecting those memories, and 
> she's selecting those memories for a reason. There's 
> an agenda here, IMO.(Warning: here's where this post 
> stops making sense - this is just my reaction to 
> the chapter).

houyhnhnm:

I think she did select those memories for a reason.   
Every memory contains a point of similarity between 
Snape's experience and Harry's, making it possible for 
Harry to identify with Snape.

Snape is wearing weird clothes and has dirty hair. Harry 
had all his hair butched off and "spent a sleepless night 
imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed 
at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses."

Some readers might have thought Severus hiding in the 
bushes watching the two sisters was creepy (I didn't).  
Harry may have remembered what it was like trying to work 
up his nerve to ask Cho to the Yule Ball.   >>Didn't 
she /ever/ go anywhere alone? Could he perhaps ambush 
her as she was going into a bathroom<<

Harry's father slurs Slytherin using the identical words 
Draco used to Harry about Hufflepuff.  That can't be a coincidence.

Harry's had plenty of experience at trying to impress a 
girl and botching it horribly, from dribbling food down 
his front to "Wangoballwime."  He's also had a third party 
for whom he was not supposed to feel jealosy (Cedric), 
just as Snape has a sense of not having the right to come 
between Lily and her sister, intrude between himself and 
the object of his affections. He's put his foot wrong, 
made her cry and felt guilty over it. 

Harry has never experienced Dumbledore's disgust, but 
he feared it all the way through OotP when DD wouldn't 
look at thim.  Moreover, Harry has a voice inside his 
head expressing its own disgust whenever he puts selfish 
interest first (his guilt over getting Arthur in trouble
over the flying Ford Anglia for instance). 

He's had lots and lots of experience with feeling 
resentment at Dumbledore's refusal to tell him all the truth. 

So I don't think the author chose these particular 
memories to make Snape repulsive, but rather to make 
Harry's change of heart towards Snape, and especially 
his acceptance of the awful thing he had to do, convincing.

On a personal level, I didn't find the portrait of Snape 
in "The Prince's Tale" repulsive at all, but rather very 
touching.  That's probably because of the experiences I 
brought to the book.