Teasing, tempers, etc. (was Re: Reason Dumbledore trusted Snape)

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 171755

Magpie:
Actually--and I think this is kind of a side issue and not a general 
point about Harry or Ron, but yes I would say they feel inferior. 
Because explicitly, when Harry especially feels confident about 
something, Draco can't get a rise out of him. It's only when he says 
something that hits one of Harry's buttons (which is often) that 
Harry is goaded into responding--sometimes he doesn't even have to be 
trying to goad him. Ron, too, responds to Draco on things that make 
him feel insecure.

I will say about Snape that while he obviously didn't feel inferior 
to MWPP in all ways, I do think they were able to make him feel weak 
and inferior in some ways, and that was when he hated the most. In 
the Pensieve I've always felt that the reason that memory was so 
important to him (though I've since begun to think there's a Lily-
factor there too) was that he hated himself in it--he's helpless. 
Also I think MWPP, like Draco, figures out where the weak spots are. 
I remember in PoA thinking that the voices in the map went for 
something very specific about Snape that he didn't like.
They didn't say he was a jerk or evil because he was into the DA, 
which might have made him feel a bit tough. Iirc, they went after him 
for being ugly and greasy--things that made him very obviously 
socially inferior to handsome, charismatic, athletic, popular James 
and Sirius.


va32h:

I do agree that people react to things they are most sensitive about. 
Ron gets upset when Draco makes fun of his poverty or Quidditch 
skills, Harry loses his temper when Draco makes fun of him for 
fainting in the presence of Dementors. And all the boys get outraged 
if anyone has a go at their mother! (that could be a whole other 
topic.) Snape apparently is sensitive about his appearance (and yet 
perversely makes no attempt to improve it?) so MWPP make fun of that. 

But even very confident people can be provoked into losing their 
tempers. Arthur Weasley starts a fistfight with Lucius - and I've 
never gotten the impression that Arthur is sensitive about his 
family's financial status (Molly yes, but Arthur no.) 

Snape had a spell like Sectumsempra in his arsenal - if he were angry 
enough at James, he could have killed him with it (as Harry nearly 
kills Draco). But he has enough self-control to realize that as 
personally satisfying as it might be to imagine killing James, that 
satisfaction isn't worth a life sentence in Azkaban. So instead he 
gives James a cut on the cheek. That's what I meant by self-control. 
I have no doubt that young Severus could have poisoned all the 
Marauders in a pinch, too. But he doesn't. Instead, it's Sirius who 
resorts to attempted murder - and he doesn't even have the excuse of 
extreme emotional distress. 

Just like Harry says to Dudley - real brave when it's five against 
one, or to Draco - not so brave without your bodyguards -  I think 
the Marauders' need to show off for each other and for the crowd 
speaks more to their insecurity than Snape's loner status speaks to 
his.

va32h