Do I like ... Ron, Hermione, Pansy ... James, Sirius ... SEVERUS SNAPE

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 183276

Mike Crudele started a very active thread in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/183133> by writing:

<< I wanted to know if you liked Severus Snape. I don't want to know
if you liked having his character in the books, I've already said that
I liked having Snape in the books and I hate the guy. I'm not really
asking if you sympathize or empathize with him. Heck, I sympathize
with the young Severus in the playground with Lily, per-Hogwarts. No,
what I want to know is if you *liked* Severus? If you were in the
Potterverse, would you be mates with him? (snip) Is there any part of
his behavior you disliked, abhorred, or just thought was a little too
over the top? >>

Part of Rowling's genius (whether intentional or not) is that I like
people in these books whom I wouldn't like in real life. Ron may be
the best example: I like Ron. He's a good kid with a good heart who
suffers from immaturity, but he'll grow out of that. He's brave and
loyal and remarkably lacking of envy, other than wishing he weren't poor. 

And in real life, my view of ordinary kids who suffer from immaturity,
are obsessed with sports and don't like schoolbooks, say mean things
about ugly girls and swots, is I don't like them and I don't believe
they have good hearts. I had many very bad experiences with ordinary
kids when I was a kid myself and have not disposed of the emotional
scars. 

If I were Ron's classmate, I'd probably hate him for saying mean
things about me. Even if he didn't, I can't imagine that being mates
with him would be anything but boring. Still, I outside the book like
him inside it.

Hermione. She's bossy and she's intellectually brilliant and she
brags. If I knew her in real life, I might well wish to "be" her, but
unless she went out of her way to make friends with me, I'd probably
*hate" for being so much cleverer and more successful than me. Still,
I outside the book like her inside it.

Pansy - altho' this may be more my deliberate effort than Rowling's
writing. Pansy is a pretty girl, apparently fashionable, probably
rich, who is arrogant and a snob and a bully. In real life, I wouldn't
care if she also has some good traits. In my fic, I made her also a
clever student with some real intellectual interests, with a sense of
humor, and really in love with Draco, not just cultivating him for his
money or status. If I were her classmate, I'd be the target of her
bullying, and not like it one bit.

I like Sirius and James and Remus. I might have liked Peter in his
younger days if we'd gotten a better look at him. I set out to write a
fic depicting Peter as a basically good kid who was seduced step by
little step into evil. I like Severus. I don't feel any contradiction
about liking both Sirius and Severus, and feeling sorry that they
couldn't have made peace as grown men. People who resemble James and
Sirius and Severus, I feel inclined to like them (from a distance) in
real life, and make excuses for them unless *I* am their victim. 

If I were their classmate, I would have yearned to be mates *and more*
with them. Sirius and James would have hated me: a fat, ugly,
unfashionable, would-be groupie pestering them. They would have been
vicious about it, their allegedly good hearts not extending to people
who annoy them. Peter would have joined in to be like his mates (and
glad to discover someone inferior even to him) and Remus would have
stood by, and I would have grown to hate them. If I'd been able to
spend time with Remus without his mates, I would have fallen more
realistically in love with him, and maybe he would have liked me.
Still, I outside the book like schoolboy them inside it. I don't like
the SWM but I do like the running with the werewolf.

If we'd met as adults (21 - not long left to know each other!), with
adult manners, I would have liked James and Sirius from a distance and
wished to be mates (and more) with them, but it wouldn't have worked
out; at that age, I mistook mere polite friendliness from an
attractive man as encouragement to come on to them, which they would
soon get tired of and try to avoid me. That's a pity, as I'm sure they
would have been fun buddies. I would have liked Remus from close-up
and tried to court him. Maybe his self-esteem was low enough that I
would have succeeded.

I admire (desire) Snape for his intelligence and his snarky wit, which
I imagine were both apparent in his school days, and for his
eloquence, self-possession, and confidence, which he apparently didn't
yet have then, and for his extreme competence and courage, also not
apparent in his school days. Meeting each other as adults in the
Potterverse, I would have immediately had a tremendous crush on him
(greasy hair, sallow skin, and all), and I am sure he would be a very
enjoyable buddy to hang out with -- endless new ideas to talk about,
and lots of humor. I don't know whether I would have been so taken
with him in our schooldays that I would have sought out his
friendship. I don't know how much of his conversation in those days
were tiresome complaining about his tough life; on the other, so was mine.

If he were my buddy, I would forgive all his bullying of other people
and hanging out with Death Eaters. I do not set myself up as an
exemplar of good morals.

The question is how he would react to me. I can't think of any reason
he wouldn't consistently turn his venom (venomous words) on me,
hurting me tremendously, motivating me to go to great lengths to avoid
him. And to criticize him bitterly (behind his back) for his cruelty
to third parties.

Because I am one of the listies who views Snape's classroom treatment
of Harry and Neville and Hermione as not merely mean, but as child
abuse. (The opposite of listies who view it as an excellent teaching
style.) And his treatment of Remus as a teaching colleague and his
behavior in the Shrieking Shack as almost completely unforgivable. And
his taunting of Sirius in OoP is completely unforgivable (altho' I
would have forgiven him for it if he were nice to *me*).