[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape as Neville's teacher / JKR's sexy men roll call

[Sherry Gomes]

No: HPFGUIDX 168537

Pippin:
> IMO, it's a case of mistaken identity, one of so many in the books. 
> Harry has the misfortune to resemble James. Snape's subconscious 
> identifies Harry as James, who persecuted Snape for years.



Sherry:
Snape is the adult here.  It's not enough to blame it on his subconscious.
He has to take responsibility for his actions, his words everything.  He
chooses to let his past cause him to treat a child, an eleven-year-old child
as unkindly as he does, blaming the innocent child for what that child's
father did.  That is incredibly immature in my opinion.  Snape seems never
to have grown up at all.



Pippin:
<SNIP>
> Meanwhile Harry's subconscious  tells him Snape would like nothing 
> better than to ruin Harry's life, although Dumbledore tells him that 
> he's actually been working very hard to save it.

Alla:

The key difference for me is of course that Harry's subconscious
**only** tells him that after Snape did something to provoke it IMO. 



Sherry:
I agree with Alla--no surprise on this topic--and I would add that Harry is
deciding for himself, based on Snape's day to day treatment of him.  He's
not relying on the tired old thought, Dumbledore trusts him, so I guess I
should.  And yet, Harry *does* trust Snape, based on Dumbledore's word, at
least till the death of Sirius,.  Even though he dislikes Snape, he tries to
communicate his belief about Sirius being in danger.  


Pippin: 
> Snape had no business to blame Harry for Neville's accident. But I 
> suspect he figured Neville would get it right since Neville's
parents
> were both Aurors and therefore skilled at potions. He probably wasn't 
> paying attention for once, blamed himself for the accident and 
> immediately thought of a reason to blame Harry instead. Now who does 
> that sound like?



Sherry:
Oh yeah, the height of maturity and great teaching, blame one student for
the mistakes of another just because you hated his father.  As for who it
sounds like--I'm guessing you mean Harry after OOTP--Harry has five years of
Snape's treatment to base his feelings and anger on.  and I repeat, Snape is
the adult here, Harry is the hormone riddled child, going through hell and
just having lost the only parental figure he has ever known.  Transferring
your pain is pretty common in grief and the stages of mourning.  A person
has to be angry at *someone*!  My guess was that Harry would have moved
beyond that in time, if not for the murder of Dumbledore, but that's only my
own personal speculation based on my grief experiences and not something
that can ever be proven.

Sherry