Hermione and 'Evil is a strong word'

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166029

Pippin wrote:
> > Perhaps what she has in mind is that she was perfectly sure that
she had seen Snape hexing Harry's broom with her own eyes, and
perfectly sure that no one but Draco Malfoy could be opening the
Chamber of Secrets. Both times she was completely wrong.
> >
> > She doesn't seem to have as much confidence in the straightforward
interpretation of events as you do.
> >
>
> a_svirn:
> She was right about Harry being hexed. She suspected the wrong man,
it's true, but here and now there seems to be no room for doubt – it
was Snape who killed Dumbledore. <snip> But what's for her to
investigate now? She knows how Dumbledore died (unless she questions
it too?) and she knows how the death eators got into the castle.
>

Carol responds:
But these two events are not the only ones that have been
misinterpreted. Hermione knows that most of the students (and some of
the staff, notably Filch and possibly Snape) suspected Harry of being
the Heir of Slytherin after he spoke Parseltongue to Draco's conjured
snake, supposedly encouraging it to attack Justin Finch-Fletchley, who
soon afterwards is found Petrified. That Hermione and Ron knew he was
innocent does not change the fear and suspicion of the Hufflepuffs
toward him. And, of course, the entire WW, including even Dumbledore,
believed for twelve long years that Sirius Black had betrayed the
Potters to their deaths and killed twelve Muggles and a wizard, based
on the eyewitness reports of many Muggles and the disappearance of
Peter Pettigrew, of whom there seemed to be nothing left but a bloody
finger. The Muggles *saw* what happened. They just didn't understand
what they saw. The Hufflepuffs and others *saw* Harry egging on the
snake. They just didn't know that he was really telling it to stop.

We see over and over again in the HP books that appearances are
deceiving, not only with eyewitnesses misinterpreting what they see
and hear (Harry thinking that Snape made his scar hurt and that Snape
was threatening Quirrell because *he* wanted the Sorceror's Stone) but
even with characters' true identity (Scabbers seems to be an ordinary
rat, "Moody" seems to be helping Harry because he's Dumbledore's old
friend). We need to read the books very carefully to see the hints
that all is not as it seems.

Given JKR's track record in this respect, I'd say the odds are very
much in favor of Harry having missed some key observations (Snape
seeing the brooms, Snape and Dumbledore communicating through eye
contact, the abnormal aspects of the AK) and misinterpreting others
(the look of hatred and revulsion). Hermione wasn't there, of course,
but if Harry ever gives her a fuller and more objective account of
events on the tower, just enough to get her started with questioning
Dumbledore's murder in connection with the Snape she knows--the Snape
who saved Harry's life, whom Dumbledore trusted, who conjured the
stretchers (without which there would have been no Time-Turned Harry
and Hermione), who saved Katie and Draco and Dumbledore earlier in the
year, who taught them about Bezoars and Expelliarmus, who sent the
Order to the MoM, who showed his Dark Mark to Fudge, who spied for
Dumbledore at great risk to himself before Godric's Hollow and after
the TWT, who might have succeeded in teaching Harry Occlumency if
Harry hadn't been trying to have that dream and hadn't entered the
Pensieve, who taught them DADA as it should have been taught from the
beginning, who made the Wolfsbane Potion for Lupin for a whole year
until Lupin himself blew his cover and acted irresponsibly--maybe
Harry can be made to understand that "evil" really is too strong a
word to use for Snape and there's more to the scene and to Snape's
motives than he currently understands.

Also, Harry gave Hermione a full account of the eavesdropping on Snape
and Draco, so she *knows* that Snape didn't know that Draco was
working on the Vanishing Cabinets to get the DEs into Hogwarts. She
knows that Snape was looking for information, and she, like Lupin and
Mr. Weasley, has already figured out that "helping" Draco doesn't
necessarily mean helping him complete his mission for Voldemort. She's
already tried to figure out what "your master" means. Now that she
knows that it does refer to Voldemort, she may pick up on "your" as
opposed to "our"--i.e., Draco's master as opposed to Draco's and
Snape's. (Hermione remembers what she hears as well as what she reads,
for example, Dumbledore's speeches and Harry's remarks on DADA.) She
knows about the Unbreakable Vow to *protect* Draco (but neither of the
other clauses).

Carol, actually hoping that a_svirn is right and that Hermione has
reasons other than Dumbledore's word to suspect that Snape is not evil