Christian Forgiveness and Snape (was Would Harry forgiving )

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 164314

Magpie:
> 
> In thinking about the scene in canon, iirc Harry comes in furious at 
> Dumbledore but quickly winds up thinking that he's got to control his anger 
> or else Dumbledore won't let him go on the Horcrux Hunt. I don't have the 
> book in front of me, but it seems like Dumbledore managed to work is so that 
> when Harry confronted him with this rather large betrayal on his part, > 
<snip>
Pippin:
Betrayal?
Harry didn't give two knuts about who the eavesdropper was or what
happened to him until he found out it was Snape. He didn't think it was
his business before, so  was it really? As far as Dumbledore is 
concerned, I think not.

Dumbledore's biggest problem is that he doesn't know he's in a book.
He doesn't know it's inevitable that Snape and Harry will be thrown
together for occlumency lessons or that Rowling means to ratchet
up the tension between Harry and Snape for dramatic effect and
will make sure every revelation about Snape makes him seem worse
in Harry's eyes than before. 

I don't think it's the forgiveness itself that would be Dumbledore's
aim. Harry has never had a problem granting forgiveness. The
big step for Harry would be understanding the need to do it. For
Harry to do that, he will need to see how his prejudice 
against Snape has distorted his judgement, (if it has) and that 
this is doing harm to the things that Harry loves.

I think Harry is going to discover in some way that Snape
is innocent of killing Dumbledore, and then he will see how
ruinous his prejudice has been.

He will come understand that it's impossible to keep personal 
feelings out of one's judgements in the Potterverse. He can 
only choose whether to be blinded by love or by hate. I think 
Harry will decide that it's better to be blinded by love and risk 
overlooking the bad in people than to be  blinded by hate and 
overlook the good. That, I think, is where Dumbledore wanted
Harry to end up, but he also knew that the relatively 
powerless may need hatred to survive.

The drubbing Harry received from Snape at the end of HBP
conceals a seismic shift in the balance of power. No longer
are they student and teacher, child and adult. Snape is now a 
friendless outlaw and Harry is the Chosen One. The Minister of 
Magic and the Headmisstress of Hogwarts,  the two most influential
people in his world, are begging Harry Potter for advice and favors. 

Harry has not yet recognized this, so his challenge will also be
to realize that he is now the one with the power in the relationship
and he no longer needs his hate. That was the step
that Snape never managed to take with regard to Harry. 
A teacher who feels that he constantly needs to assert his
superiority over a student is not feeling superior inside, far
from it.


Magpie:
 (Sort of like how in OotP I see him saying how 
> he's going to explain all his mistakes and then going on to explain everyone 
> else's mistakes--making his mistake not expecting so many mistakes by 
> others.) To me he always seems to want to forgive himself for all his 
> mistakes, so we get lines like his one about the Dursleys where he describes 
> Harry as a little less well-fed than he would have liked or whatever.

Pippin:
It's the leader's job to analyze everyone's mistakes, not just his own. 
I didn't hear Dumbledore excusing himself, except for loving Harry so
much that he put Harry's present happiness above his future. He was
mostly trying to get Harry not to put all the blame on himself. If
that meant shifting some of the responsibility to Sirius, so be it. As
painful as that was for Harry, IMO Sirius himself would rather 
have Harry learn from his mistakes than repeat them through 
ignorance. Harry needs to understand that old hatreds can turn
even a kindly heart toward cruelty and injustice. Harry doesn't
get that yet, so he doesn't understand what Dumbledore was saying
about Sirius, but when the time comes,  he will.

Harry knows perfectly well how much he suffered at the Dursleys.
He does not need to hear Dumbledore feeling sorry for him -- he
hates it when people do that. 

Pippin