Regarding the Harry/Snape eye contact..

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 181622

"doddiemoemoe" wrote:
<snip>
> 
> However, I must state that as much as I do not like Snape, I'm 
> enjoying my rereads more each time Snape brings himself to look into 
> Harry's eyes...and also each time Harry tends to return the stare.
> 
> So all of these instances I'm wondering, is Snape on a search
mission (to trap the son of James), or is he remembering(Lily)?!?
> 
> It also adds an entirely new creepy light on detentions...
> 
> Also, I think Snape may have come to some epiphany in HBP when he 
heard about Harry's progress in potions!! 
> 
> I dunno, I just don't think that Snape is as a successful 
> Legillimens against Harry as he was towards everyone else(only 
> because he went searching for Harry's expeiences with Lily...yet 
> only found Petunia experiences--like when Harry had been tree'd by 
> Aunt Marges Dog...and Snape's only question, "Whose dog was that?? 
> or something of the equivalent...made me think that perhaps Lily had 
> a dog like that and this was how Vernon and Petunia met--as 
> children..)...JKR did pound how Harry's eyes looked like Lily's with 
> a 1,000 pound anvil over our heads...She did say Harry's eyes were 
> important and protected him no less...I'd have to say it may have 
> gone further than the firey rescue from the ROR in DH.. It also 
> helped him get confirmation of DD's theory in HBP via Sluggy's 
> memory.. <snip>

Carol responds:

I'm not sure where to start here, except that I do think Snape is a
successful Legilimens most of the time. The only time he's mistaken is
when he thinks that Harry stole the boomslang skin and gillyweed in
GoF, and Harry seems to have recalled Hermione stealing boomslang skin
in second year and Dobby stealing gillyweed, both of which would have
confirmed Snape's suspicions (though he wouldn't have seen Harry
himself stealing those items). Of course, he didn't know that Barty
Jr. was actually stealing them. If Snape had the Marauder's Map, Barty 
would be in big trouble!

Snape is thwarted by Draco's crude and easily detected Occlumency in
HBP, but he can hardly push past that barrier and invade Draco's mind
without doing more harm than good (assuming that it's even possible to
do so).

However, we see him looking into Harry's eyes from SS/PS onward, and
he seems to have understood Harry's unspoken message about Sirius
being (supposedly) captured by Voldemort even before Harry translated
it into code ("He's got Padfoot in the place where it's hidden").
Snape used the Legilimency spell rather than eye-to-eye Legilimency
(which Harry evidently has trouble detecting) in the OoP lessons so
that Harry would instinctively defend himself, either with a wand or,
preferably, mentally, as he had done with the Imperius Curse.

At any rate, he certainly read Harry's mind effectively in HBP when he
caused the Potions book to float into Harry's conscious awareness.
Snape may not be able (or perhaps not willing) to enter Harry's
memories in the way Voldemort invades a victim's mind, but I think
he's not only a perfectly competent Legilimens but a highly skilled
one. I think that only a Legilimens can remove memories from his own
mind to place them in a Pensieve, as Snape does easily and repeatedly
in OoP, and sending out memories from his own mind moments before
death is an astounding feat that, IMO, only a highly skilled (and
desperately determined) Legilimens can perform.

As for an epiphany when he heard from Slughorn about Harry's supposed
proficiency in Potions, that's surely when Snape first suspects that
Harry is using his old Potions book. He knows perfectly well that
Harry is no Potions genius, and he uses Legilimency on him at that
point. Once Harry has used Sectumsempra on Draco, Snape *know* that
Harry has his old Potions book and forces him to bring it to mind.

I think maybe there are degrees of Legilimency, and Snape usually uses
only the less invasive version that detects lies without forcing
particular thoughts or memories to appear. I doubt that he ever uses
Voldemort-style mind invasion (which he protects himself against using
his superb and undetectable Occlumency).

I also think that Snape uses Legilimency and Occlumency at the same
time when he looks into Harry's eyes, which is why his eyes look to
Harry like dark tunnels leading to nothing. 

As for his expression of suppressed triumph in PoA (and again in HBP,
when he's announced as the DADA instructor), the narrator is
describing him from Harry's perspective, which can't be trusted. We
know that he didn't want Harry in Hogsmeade for Harry's own safety,
that Draco had reported seeing Harry's head there, and that he
suspects the Marauder's Map of showing him a way to get into
Hogsmeade. Exactly what he learns from looking into Harry's on this
particular occasion is unclear, but it's enough to confirm his
suspicions that Harry was indeed in Hogsmeade (wearing an Invisibility
Cloak?) since they're discussing the "extraordinary apparition" of
Harry's head floating in midair.

Snape's order to Harry to turn out his pockets follows the, erm,
discussion of James's saving of Snape's life when they were boys. It's
unclear whether he connects MWPP with Harry's ability to get into
Hogsmeade or whether his mind returns to the reason that Harry is in
his office. I don't think he's using Legilimency at that point, but he
seems to decide that it's time to produce evidence that Harry was
indeed in Hogsmeade. The bag of Zonko's products serves that purpose,
but the spare bit of parchment is better. It doesn't take much thought
to figure out that it provides a way into Hogsmeade or to figure out
who the makers were. Even if he isn't already familiar with MWPP's
nicknames, and I'm not convinced that they used them openly, he's
already figured out that the hump-backed witch is the entry point of a
secret passageway and the Prank is fresh in his memory, so four
mischief-makers taunting him in ways that make it clear that they know
him from boyhood pretty much seals the identity of the makers. He
wouldn't know the significance of Wormtail, Padfoot, or Prongs (he
doesn't believe the animagus story when he hears it later), but Moony
is extremely easy to figure out, so he summons Lupin and insinuates
that the makers (meaning Lupin and Sirius) have provided Harry with
that useful bit of parchment.

During this scene, he uses Legilimency only once that I can see: to
determine the truth of Draco's story (which he may already have
confirmed on Draco himself; Draco later says, "I know what you're
doing!" when snape starts to use Legilimency on him in HBP, which
suggests that Snape may have Legilimensed him before he knew how to
defend himself).

Anyway, I don't think that Snape is on a mission to trap James's son
into anything, but he certainly attempts to trap Harry into telling
the truth on more than one occasion. His mission, as we know from DH,
is to *protect* Lily's on. That he's also James's son and seems to
Snape to be the same sort of arrogant rule-breaker that James was is
an unfortunate deterrent to any bond of trust, much less affection,
between the two. That Snape is a Legilimens who knows that Harry has
lied to him on more than one occasion adds to that animosity, but it
also adds to Snape's satisfaction when he can give the "nasty little
boy who considers rules to be beneath him" (GoF Am. ed. 516) a
particularly unpleasant detention.

BTW, it's interesting that Snape not only gives the Marauder's Map
*back* to Lupin knowing full well that he's one of the makers but that
he says nothing about it to Dumbledore. Nor does he mention the Map
when it falls into "Moody's" hands even after he knows what it is. DD
doesn't know about the map until the Veritaserumed Barty Jr. mentions
it near the end of GoF. Granted, JKR needs the map to be a secret so
that Lupin, Snape, and Crouch can use it, but, nevertheless, Snape is
keeping Lupin's secret for him. If he had reported the parchment to
Dumbledore, including the makers and his suspicion that it was
providing Harry access to Hogsmeade, Lupin would have been forced to
reveal that not only he but Sirius Black knew ways to get into the
school and the grounds (and, ultimately, that Black was an Animagus).
It's as if Snape and Lupin together are keeping Harry from knowing the
truth about Sirius Black's closeness to his father. Snape mentions
"the Prank" and James's friends, but he doesn't identify Lupin and
Black as participants or give away that it involved a werewolf. They
are definitely talking over Harry's head; both know exactly who "the
manufacturers" were, but Snape in essence covers for Lupin--*and*
gives it "back" to him! (Does Snape hope that Lupin will confess that
he's one of the manufacturers or that Harry will figure it out? Does
he hope that Lupin will keep the parchment out of Harry's hands or
does he figure that the harm is already done since Harry knows how to
get into Hogsmeade and he (snape) might as well return the parchment
to its maker since he has no claim on it himself?)

Carol, admitting that Snape is wrong to bring up Harry's father (whom
he understandably hates) but finding him a complexly fascinating
character all the same