CHAPDISC: DH33, The Prince's Tale

[jkoney65]

No: HPFGUIDX 184863

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Zara" <zgirnius at ...> wrote:
>
> > jkoney65:
> > I think that Dumbledore was trying to prod Snape into being a 
> better 
> > person with all his little "digs" at him. I think he wanted Snape 
> to 
> > stand up for himself and show what type of person he could be and 
> to 
> > leave the petty stuff behind him. Unfortunately Snape never did 
> this 
> > as he showed when he wanted to know what Dumbledore was telling 
> > Harry. It took some massaging of Snape's ego at that point to 
keep 
> > things on track.
> 
> Zara:
> I disagree that Snape wanting to know what Albus was telling Harry 
> was primarily about ego. Snape's life mission was, at that point, 
to 
> help Albus to protect Harry so Harry could live, as Lily would have 
> wanted. WE only saw Snape complaining about being in the dark about 
> this in the HBP part of the timeline. Specifically, well after 
Snape 
> had agreed that he would, before the year was out, kill Albus to 
> spare him a worse death at the hands of other Death Eaters.
> 
> How Snape was supposed to accomplish his mission of protection 
> without Dumbledore, and without any idea of what Harry was up to, I 
> personally cannot see. Snape must have thought that he needed to 
know.
> 
> In the conversation after the argument in the Forest, I would not 
say 
> he particularly massaged Snape's ego. On the contrary, he insulted 
> him. 

jkoney
There was no reason for Snape to know what he was telling Harry. 
Snape is a spy. You don't give a spy more information than he needs. 
There is always the possibility that he is going to get caught. There 
is also the possibility that Voldemort knows about him already and is 
playing Snape.

In either scenario it dangerous and foolish to give Snape more 
information than he needs.

Do you really think that Snape would except hollow praise? Or 
straight forward praise of any kind? Do communicate with Snape you 
have to talk to him in a way that he understands. Prodding, teasing, 
and sarcasm are things he understands.