Snape vulnerable (Re: This moment)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 175460

> >  Jen:
> >  My most surprising identification was with Snape when he was 
> > crying like a 'wounded animal' after Lily died.  I didn't know he
> > had that in him from how he was portrayed in earlier books.
> 
> Kemper now:
> HBP, Flight of the Prince:
> 'DON'T--' screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented,
> inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling
> dog stuck in the burning house behind them -- 'CALL ME A COWARD!'


Jen:  You're right there's a comparison of Snape to a wounded animal 
(you clever one <g>), but I was referring more to the vulnerability 
of crying, wishing he were dead from grief.  (Oh! Another comparison 
to Harry: after Sirius died.  Or that might simply be how JKR has her 
characters feel after a death to show the impact.)  Hmmm, I just re-
read that scene...did I insert the tears myself? I don't actually see 
evidence of tears. might have imagined the sound of a wounded animal 
involved tears.  

OK, well tears or no, his vulnerability made me feel like I was 
invading his privacy a little or had walked into a room and seen 
something I shouldn't have.  Which made him giving Harry *permission* 
to see his life all the more amazing because of their shared past.  

His adult persona for me was of an incredibly private and angry 
person.  I could imagine a young Snape capable of wearing his heart 
on his sleeve after reading the Pensieve scene, but I also imagined 
all of his vulnerability died when he became a DE and he rejected it 
further as an adult.  So watching him slumped over in grief *was* a 
shock for me because of how I read him.  As was his mother hen 
healing of Dumbledore after the ring curse, complete with scoldings - 
loved that moment as well.

Jen, thinking she's made a mess of trying to explain why the 
scene was surprising to her but doesn't know how else to put it into 
words.