Would Harry forgiving Snape be character growth for him? Re: CHAPDISC: HBP 29,

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 164208

Carol earlier:
> <SNIP of the whole post basically>
> > I'll be very surprised if Harry, who has been wrong so often,
turns out to be wiser than Dumbledore from the age of eleven, and to
have learned nothing about judging people and things based on more
than appearance in seven books.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Harry clearly learns to not judge people by appearance IMO, it is
just a possibility to me that he may learn that lesson not on the
example of Snape.
> 
> He does not judge Luna by her appearances anymore in HBP. Despite
all appearances he listens to Sirius in PoA.
> 
> So, I see plenty of possibilities for Harry to learn that lesson,
and if just so happens that Snape's appearances are what they are, oh
well.
> 
> Magpie:
> I think Carol chose a slightly off word in that post when she said 
"appearance." Harry doesn't judge by appearance with Snape but by how
Snape treats him and feels about him. That's not an issue with Luna.
She likes Harry throughout OotP. There's no moment where Harry
realizes he's been *wrong* about Luna or misjudged her or accused her
unfairly--she's just as odd as she's always seemed. With Sirius Harry
never judges him as a person because he doesn't know him. He's just
believes the wrong story, but when Sirius shows up and explains
himself Harry understand the right version. The one place Harry's had
this kind of lesson before is in GoF with Fake!Moody where he did seem
primarily swayed by Moody's liking and disliking the right people. But
Harry wasn't personally invested in Fake!Moody the way he is with
Snape. He didn't do half as much work trying to make Fake!Moody fit
his view of him as he does with Snape.
> 
> It's only with the Slytherins there's an issue of Harry disliking
the person intensely, and being disliked in return, and so seeing them
as the most likely suspects in crimes that sometimes have nothing to
do with them.

Carol responds:
How about preconceptions, then? Harry starts out prejudging the
Slytherins thanks to Hagrid and Draco, to the point that he thinks
"Not Slytherin! Not Slytherin!" when the Sorting Hat is placed on his
head, and he's told that Snape favors the Slytherins (which seems to
be borne out by Snape's singling him out to ask the Bezoar question,
etc.). So when he finds out that someone is out to steal whatever is
hidden in the third-floor corridor, his natural suspect is Snape, and
he interprets the "evidence" (Snape's rushing off to the corridor on
the night the Troll appears, the bite on Snape's leg, the overheard
conversations with Quirrell, one of which is actually with Voldemort)
to fit his preconceived view of Snape, which is reinforced by Snape's
behavior in the classroom, his always seeming to follow Harry around
at night. He assumes that the pain in his scar is caused by Snape's
looking at him (he should have realized that it wasn't when Snape
first looked deeply into his eyes in Potions class) and (along with
Ron and Hermione) that it's Snape who's hexing his broom in the
Quidditch match.

Even though he finds out that it's Quirrell (whom he certainly does
judge based on appearances) who tried to kill him and that Snape is
saving his life (Hermione or no Hermione, he'd have fallen from his
broom if it weren't for Snape's countercurse), he holds onto his view
that Snape is evil. The personality conflict and misunderstanding
escalates throughout the books, so that by the time Sirius Black is
killed, he's ready to blame Snape for that death rather than accepting
the truth, that he and his friends are alive because Snape sent the
Order to the MoM and that Black is dead because Kreacher tricked both
him and Harry and because Bellatrix's spell sent him through the Veil.
(It's more complicated than that, but even Harry knows that Black
didn't die because Snape taunted him about being a coward.)

Anyway, I do think that Harry judges people based on appearances
(Neville, Luna, Quirrell, Fake!Moody and possibly Cho being the most
prominent examples), and it's only their subsequent behavior that has
caused him to (unconsciously) change his views. (I don't include
Sirius Black here since Black's behavior really was that of a man who
murdered someone and what changed Harry's view is the realization that
Black wanted to murder the traitor Pettigrew, not him. Still, I
suppose that qualifies as judging by appearances.)

However, his attitude toward Snape is more complex. No matter how many
times Snape saves or tries to save his life, no matter how carefully
Snape explains what Occlumency is and why he needs to learn it (Snape
can't tell him about the Prophecy orb, but he tells him everything
else), no matter who the real villain of each book turns out to be,
Harry's preconceptions about Snape are reinforced by appearances
(Snape's favoritism of the Slytherins and his obvious dislike of Harry
and Harry's father must mean, in Harry's view, that Snape is on
Voldemort's side).

So, whether the word I'm looking for is "appearances" or
"preconceptions" or something else, Harry prejudges Snape as evil in
SS/PS and that assumption is reinforced throughout the books by his
increasing anger at and eventual hatred of Snape, and Dumbledore's " 
" trust in Snape merely makes Harry more determined to hate him.
Trelawney's revelation that young Snape was the eavesdropper and the
murder of Dumbledore make Harry certain that he was right. And yet,
all along, he's been refusing to see and accept the times that Snape
has helped or tried to help him--saving his life in SS/PS, conjuring
stretchers in PoA, sending the Order to the MoM in OoP. Nor does he
see Snape's Healing powers in HBP. All he sees is Snape *appearing* to
help Draco with the "job" that Voldemort has assigned him--which fits
nicely with Harry's heavily reinforced preconception that Snape, head
of Slytherin House and (ostensibly) interested in the Dark Arts, not
to mention an unpleasant person with an intimidating manner, must be evil.

Carol, hoping that her point is clearer this time around and still
sure that Harry is myopic figuratively as well as literally