GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry and Gargoyles

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 182158

> Montavilla47:
> <SNIP>
> You know what this is making me wonder? Why the heck it takes
> a password to get into the Headmaster's office in the first place.
> 
> The whole reason I brought up that "magic videocamera" idea in
> the first place is because Snape's appearance is so providential. 
> That's
> why it seems likely to me that Dumbledore asked him to go detain
> Harry for a few minutes.
> 
> <SNIP> 
> I think you should reserve your wrath for those gargoyles. They
> were a lot less helpful than Snape. :)
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Heee, you funny, you know that right? 

Montavilla47:
Thanks.  It's always nice to be told. :)

Alla:
> Since this possibility is not cold hard canon fact, I do not believe 
> I am obligated to accept it as fact, I think my interpretation is 
> equally valid, that's all.

Montavilla47:
Quite right.  You have just as much right and just as much 
evidence for your interpretation as anyone else.  

As you say elsewhere, it's fun to argue about Snape.  It's 
even more fun when we can agree (as we really should be
able to now that the books are finished) that different 
interpretations are all pretty much valid.


> Alla:
> Mmm, I know what I had gathered from that, especially after reading 
> seven books. I gathered that Snape is perfectly aware of the 
> importance Dumbledore places on Harry's role in the upcoming War. I 
> gathered that Dumbledore really prefers to know of Harry's related 
> emergencies, whether he decides to interfere or not. Therefore my 
> impression is that if Harry wants to see Dumbledore, Dumbledore would 
> really prefer not to have ANYBODY including Snape decide whether 
> Dumbledore should see Harry or not.

Montavilla47:
You know, before DH came out, I would have agreed whole-heartedly
about Snape knowing about Harry's importance.  But, since the 
Prince's Tale, I'm not so sure.

The first half of the prophecy appeared to have been fulfillled when
Voldemort disappeared the first time.  We don't have any confirmation
that Snape ever knew that Voldemort was on the back of Quirrell's 
head. Unless you want to go by the rumors floating around school
at the end of PS/SS (which everyone seemed to forget completely 
by the beginning of the next year... perhaps Dumbledore puts
Forgetfulness Potion in everyone's pumpkin juice at the closing
feast?)

Snape was tasked with protecting Harry for Lily's sake, not because
Harry's role was still to come... Dumbledore mentions the Dark Lord
possibly returning, but not that Harry poses a threat to him.

I realize this may be a hard concept, since we've known, even before
the prophecy, that the series was working up to a final
confrontation between Harry and Voldemort.  But Snape didn't
necesssarily know that.  He might have assumed Harry's part in 
the conflict was over, except for LV's desire for revenge.  

In which case, his attitude towards Harry does, actually, make
more sense.  In a moment of weakness (when his heart was on
his sleeve), he promised to protect Lily's son.  He does that
as faithfully as he can, not realizing until OotP, that Harry is 
supposed to finish off LV once and for all.  

If this is the assumption Snape's working under, he has no 
obligation to think of Harry as anything but mediocre.  There's 
no reason for him to think that Harry is endowed with the power 
of love (tm), because all he sees is a cocky, bratty kid who looks 
almost exactly like an even cockier, brattier kid that Snape hated.

Now that we know how secretive Dumbledore was and now little
he did tell Snape, there's no reason that Snape would know 
at all about Love being the power that Voldemort knows not.  He
didn't hear that part of the prophecy.  

So, it makes perfect sense for Snape to protect Harry to the 
best of his ability, while simultaneously trying to "treat him like
any other student," and, at the same time, hating his guts.

What doesn't make complete sense is his trying to expell Harry
all the time.  The only thing that justifies that to me is the 
possibility that he thinks (or tells himself) that Harry would be 
safer with the Dursleys.  Of course, he wouldn't know how
Harry was treated there until OotP.  At which point, he would 
probably also know (I think Dumbledore would have told the 
Order by this time) that Harry is the Chosen One and that he
does have a role to play in the future.

And, this is also when Snape stops trying to get Harry expelled.
Even when Harry nearly kills another student.
 
Montavilla47