What Harry "knows", Was Why we'll get no further revelations Snape was Evil

[Dana]

No: HPFGUIDX 169807

Wynnleaf
<snip>
> The reason it's not sufficient and we all know it is probably 
> because it's not the way JKR has been planning it out.  We 
> all "know it" because we can sense that just being evil doesn't fit 
> how Snape has acted.  Which of course works perfectly if JKR hasn't 
> written Evil!Snape.
<snip>

Dana:

You all know it (well DDM!Snapers that is) and therefore you all will 
be wrong because it will be the expected way for JKR to write Snape. 
Many Snape fans are expecting JKR to turn HBP around because Snape 
can't be ESE but that isn't much of a revelation either because Snape 
was never before HBP portrait as ESE so turning it around in DH will 
just be ever so lame. It will also not be much of a challenge for 
Harry to once again find out he was wrong about Snape. The challenge 
for Harry will be to be right about Snape but then to make different 
choices and proof he is the better man then Snape would ever be able 
to be. That is something Snape has been trying to do throughout the 
books; be the better man then everybody else especially the marauders 
and Harry. 

wynnleaf
> Absolutely correct!  I started noticing this over the thing in OOTP 
> of "He would never forgive Snape.  Never!"  If ever there was a 
> promise that wouldn't come true, that just was obvious.  Writers 
> often use this sort of comment on the part of a character as a kind 
> of "set up" for that character to be proven wrong.  And clearly JKR 
> has set up Harry several times with having Harry think he "knows" 
> something or is "sure" of something, only to discover it just 
> wasn't so, or didn't happen.
<snip>
> wynnleaf, thinking that JKR writing that Harry "knows" something or 
> is "sure" of something is a signal to us that Harry will be proven 
> wrong.
<snip>

Dana:
Precisely JKR has been setting the reader up to expect that Harry 
will be wrong again but this time she will not turn it around because 
she will make Harry right. 
Harry doesn't have to come to terms with Snape. The only one Harry 
has come to terms with is himself. He must learn that it wasn't his 
fault that the people he loved died for him. They wanted to die for 
him just like he puts his life on the line for them any time. He must 
reconcile with this fact and like Jen stated in a previous post take 
away the power Snape holds over him and grow past this, just as he 
did with Peter. Harry will be the better man because he will learn 
that no matter how much he is right he will never let the feeling of 
hatred lure him to the side of evil like it did Snape. 

JKR doesn't have to proof Snape is on LV side for the same cause LV 
is fighting for but she will show us that hatred can hollow the heart 
to such a point that one can make evil decisions because one thinks 
that vengeance is the only way for the heart to stop bleeding but it 
isn't (like she showed Harry trying to use unforgivables twice when 
he is in deep pain and turns it around into hatred against those he 
holds responsible). It poisons the heart and makes it cold. Snape 
never loved anyone because he never wanted to let anybody get close 
to him and why he had no friends but only alliances. DD offered Snape 
his friendship and Snape rejected it because he did not trust DD. The 
question never was why did DD trust Snape but why did Snape not trust 
DD and the answer is because DD could not see the pain Snape felt and 
he did not want to aid Snape in resolving that pain. He took Snape 
for granted. That pain was not inflicted by anyone other then Snape 
himself and he cherished and nursed it until it grew over his head to 
such an extent that it directed his choices. For Snape this pain was 
caused by the anxiety of failing to be considered somebody, to be 
considered weak and why him being called a cowards strikes a nerve 
with him so much.

In CoS DD says to Harry that it is not our abilities that make us who 
we are but the choices we make and what do we see of Snape? We see 
that Snape wants to be recognized to be somebody by knowing more 
curses then the 7th year students, by knowing potions better then 
anyone, by being the best in DA and later DADA (the discussion Harry 
had about how best to repel a Dementor) and by trying to be the most 
important person in DD's life and by showing everyone that he was 
risking his life for the cause. And why he tries to proof over and 
over that Harry is no one and should not deserve all the attention he 
is getting. 

He resented James and Sirius before they probably ever laid a hand on 
him because here were two boys that had everything going for them. 
Who came from rich families, who were good looking, who didn't have 
to make an effort to be found interesting and liked, while Snape had 
to proof himself in every direction or so he thought. Snape never saw 
that Sirius too did not come from a loving family and that he had to 
fight for his right to be within that family and that he actually 
lost that battle. Snape probably idolized Sirius's background; it was 
probably everything Snape ever wanted to have and why he called 
himself the Half-Blood Prince. The Black's were considered to be 
practically royal and what does Snape give himself? A royal title. 

The marauders never saw Snape as an easy victim because Snape never 
presented himself as such. If you clime on a peddle stool then 
nothing is more challenging for people then try to push you off. 
Bullying Snape would probably never have been so appealing to the 
marauders if Snape had just been a stupid, clumsy kid like Neville 
was in the beginning. They would probably just pity him and consider 
him not worth the attention but to me Snape presented himself as a 
challenging opponent while he probably wasn't and why he lost to them 
over and over (and no not just because it was two to one because we 
see that Expelliarmus is a spell that can disarm more then one 
opponent at the same time). I believe that is why Snape mocked Harry 
at the end of HBP because Harry might think he is all that but he is 
to incompetent to kill a fly let alone have enough power to win a 
battle with Snape.   

Snape forgot the most important lesson life has to offer and that no 
matter what you are; people will accept who you are, as long as you 
open yourself up to them. Snape never accepted himself and he blamed 
everyone especially the marauders for that lack of acceptance. He 
bullied his students into acceptance and he tried to make Harry 
accept him over his own father which was never going to happen. We 
all think Snape hated Harry because he hated James but I believe 
Snape hated Harry because like James, Harry pushed Snape into a 
background position. Snape became his outer shell and 
compartmentalized every feeling he had except the one he nourished 
and cherished so much. It fueled his hatred for those who were better 
then him, who he thought, never had to struggle for anything in their 
lives. 

To me Snape went to LV because he could not find the acceptance he 
graved for with DD after the werewolf incident. It wasn't the 
marauders bullying Snape, it was not being accepted by an authority 
figure like DD. Snape's dad was a muggle and probably never 
understood anything about the wizarding world in the same way the 
Dursley's did not want to understand that part of the world. DD gave 
Snape a second chance after Snape showed remorse of delivering the 
prophecy to LV and DD was right Snape was not responsible for the 
choices LV made because of it but DD was wrong about something and 
that is that Snape would not have been remorseful if he did not have 
the debt to James because he would have seen it as a fitting 
punishment for James. After LV's downfall he resented the marauders 
even more because if it hadn't been for them then he would not have 
been in a position where DD held the power of judgment over him 
again. I do believe that Snape grew attached to his position at 
Hogwarts because it substituted his search for recognition until 
Harry came to Hogwarts and started challenging (willingly or 
unwillingly) that position again. 

I do believe that JKR made Snape switch sides again because he could 
get more acceptances from LV and was more appreciated for his efforts 
then DD gave him, hence the argument in the forest that DD took to 
much for granted and Snape not wanting to do it anymore. Snape was 
not loyal to either one but his search for acceptance and recognition 
was directing his choices and so were his feelings of revenge of 
never getting what he deserved because of those marauders. Remember 
what Narcissa stated in HBP, he will reward you above all of us. 
Snape did not only think about the appreciation LV would have but 
also how the DEs will think about him and the respect he will receive 
from them unlike that bunch that runs around DD, those ungrateful 
bunch of no goods. He did not take the vow to safe Draco because the 
vow did not safe Draco from being on the wrong side and the vow did 
not have an influence on Draco's decision to not kill DD. He just 
couldn't as was already predicted. 

Snape and Harry are each others opposites, while having endured 
pretty much the same things throughout their life's, Harry never 
wanted that eternal glory that Snape accused him of wanting from the 
first time they met. Harry never let an urge for recognition guide 
him in his actions and now he has to learn that revenge will not make 
his heart stop bleeding. Snape let his urges and hatred guide him in 
making the wrong decisions and Harry just like his mother did in the 
pensieve scene, has to make a decision to not let a powerful emotion 
keep him from making the right choice. Lily did not stand up for 
Snape because she liked him but she stood up against James while 
already loving him dearly because what he was doing was wrong. 

Harry like his mother needs to show Snape that no matter what Snape 
did, he will meet Harry on Harry's terms and not on Snape's. Like Jen 
states Harry will take away the power Snape has over him and Harry 
will win not because he will be proven wrong again but because Snape 
should be pitied and that is Snape's worst nightmare to be revealed 
for what he actually is, a man that is nothing more then his 
abilities and out there alone with no one that would be willing to 
fight for him as he killed the only one who ever did. 

Snape will be facing the responsibilities of the choices he made 
throughout his life and that no one was responsible for the 
predicament he got himself into but just Severus Snape himself and 
then he probably will do an unselfish thing for once in his life.   

So in other words the revelation that Snape indeed made the evil 
choices he made because he wallowed in sad memories and could not 
control his emotions and allowed himself to be provoked so easily 
with other words, he was as weak as he claimed those people were that 
wore their hearts on their sleeves. Snape was very wrong, love is not 
a weakness as love empowers and being loved by many will never make 
you stand alone. Snape closed his heart and now has to face the world 
alone because the respect he thinks he gained by his actions in HBP 
are as hollow as one could possibly get. No-one respecting Snape on 
that side of the fence will be willing to give their life for Severus 
Snape but all the people on Harry's side will want to give their 
life's to him without thinking twice. And what will Harry do in DH he 
will show that he is willing to sacrifice himself for Snape not 
because he forgives Snape or suddenly likes Snape but because it is 
the only right thing to do and thus the revelation of Snape being 
worse then ever WILL drive the plot forward because it will be far 
more challenging for Harry to do the right thing while he has been so 
right about Snape then it is for being proven wrong one more time. 

JMHO

Dana