What might Snape consider cowardice?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 163973


> Nikkalmati
>  
> Harry has already called Snape a coward without much reaction, so I don't  
> think it is that word alone that provokes Snape.  By referring to murder,  as in 
> "why don't you murder me" ? Harry is demonstrating that he totally fails  to 
> "get it."  Here Snape has been protecting Harry all along, he just  killed DD 
> to protect Harry, and he is refraining right then from harming him and  the 
> idiot boy still doesn't see it.  I think that is the main reason Snape  loses 
> his cool and why he slaps Harry with a hex to drive home that he is  
> deliberately not doing anything to Harry.  His rage is over the perception  
that Harry is  so stupid that he may make all of Snape's efforts fruitless. 

Pippin:
Huh? If Snape is perpetrating a ruse, whether the ruse is the killing itself
or the motive for it, the worst thing would be if Harry 'got' it.
Harry has no subtlety, no capacity for occlumency, and is simply not
capable  of treating Snape as a murderer if he doesn't believe that Snape 
is one. 

Snape's escape is hardly being hindered by Harry. There's certainly
no reason Snape couldn't have struck Harry's wand away or incapacitated
him as soon as he was within striking distance. Instead he stops for
this pleasant little chat about ways and means. If he's enraged, perhaps
it's because Harry's attempt to stop him is so incompetent that Snape
is hard put to it to find a reason to escape without doing Harry any
real harm. So fortunate that Buckbeak got loose -- or did Snape
free him and Imperius him to chase Snape off the grounds? Do
we really think a man can outrun a hippogriff?

Pippin