What might Snape consider cowardice?

[puduhepa98 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 163990

> Nikkalmati:
> 
> <snip> 
> 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.  <break>

>Mike:
>I'm going to assume that this is sarcasm  on your part and the "idiot 
boy" is coming out of Snape's mind, right? It's  so hard to read 
sarcasm on this board, I'm not always sure if someone is  writing 
from the character's perspective or giving their own  opinion??!
 
Nikkalmati
 
Yes indeed, this is Snape's POV and "idiot boy" is his impression at that  
moment.
I do not mean to be hard on Harry, but he is young; I assume he has a way  to 
go in the next book to achieve whatever realm of inner peace or level of  
control etc. to be effective in bringing down LV.

>  Nikkalmati:
> 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.  

Mike:
I think you are closer to the reason than any other theory  presented 
so far. If I could tweak this just a little; I think Snape is  indeed 
infuriated with Harry here. But not so much because Harry doesn't get  
it right now, I think he has never seen Harry as capable of being the  
instrument of Voldemort's ultimate downfall. So, yeah, in Snape's 
mind,  all this may prove fruitless, just as he has predicted all 
along (off  screen, obviously). <snip>
 
Nikkalmati
 
Snape as DDM is in a very bad position having to rely on Harry to defeat  LV, 
save the WW, and release Snape from whatever bondage he is under.  I  agree 
he has never seen Harry as up to the job.  If Harry had been more  like 
Hermione, at least looked like he was trying, Snape would not have been so  hard on 
Harry from the beginning.  I have trouble accepting that Snape  hates Harry 
primarily because he hated James.  I think he dislikes Harry  because of who he 
perceives Harry to be  (and part of that is that Harry is  like his father).  
We know that Harry is not like James - at least he  doesn't have most of James' 
faults.  Snape has always had a limited and  wrong-headed view of Harry, but 
circumstances (JKR) have conspired to confirm in  Snape's mind that Harry is 
like James, and James lost.  If Snape  hates Harry, I would propose it is 
because Lily gave her life for him and  Snape cared in some measure for Lily.  Even 
fathers have been known to hate  their own children if the mother died in 
childbirth, rare but it can  happen.  I have been persuaded by the argument that 
Snape  never mentions Lily, that he had feelings for  her.      
 
Nikkalmati



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