Headmaster for a day (was Prank WAS :Re: CHAPDISC: DH33, The Princ

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 184960

Cat:
> What I have never understood about the Prank is the subsequent
> psychology.  Sirius goes to prison when he was barely out of his
> teens, and having worked with inmates, I know that time sort of stops
> for them on the inside.  Without development programs, many
> prisoners age chronologically but remain about the same
> psychologically.  (And I'm pretty sure the Dementors weren't big into
> enrichment programs!) While that helps explain why Sirius sometimes
> behaves like an overgrown boy, Severus is harder for me to understand
> for two reasons.  First, he remains in the world and should continue
> to mature.  Why has he not gained any perspective on the incident?

Montavilla47:
You are not alone.  The psychology is far from straightforward, 
especially the part where Snape never questions this person who
dislikes him giving him important information.

As for why Snape never gets beyond this, I interpret it something like
this:  

At sixteen, this guy tried to kill me.  Okay, maybe he wasn't trying 
to *kill* me, but he certainly wasn't sorry when something he did 
nearly killed me.

I tried to warn the authorities (Dumbledore) about him, and instead
of taking me seriously, he simply put me under a gag order and 
ignored the Marauders when they publicly humiliated me a week
later.

Then it turns out this fellow was a Death Eater, which frankly, 
takes all the fun out of Death Eating for me.  Not only that, but
he betrayed his best friend (just like he betrayed his almost-
best friend, Lupin), and ended up getting my precious Lily 
killed.  Oh, yeah, he also killed that stupid Peter Pettigrew and
a bunch of other people.

Why should I ever forgive him now?

And then, he escapes from Azkaban (just like he has escaped
just punishment!) and he's threatening Lily's son.  Which 
is basically my reason for living.  And, he's probably talked
the stupid werewolf into helping him.

And, as the moment just before Snape goes into his famous
tantrum, Lupin is recasting history in order to make Sirius
look better and reduce my eternal hatred for these thuggish
bullies in jealousy over Jame's prowess in Quidditch!  

Plus, while Sirius stopped developing at 22 because he 
was put into a prison environment, I've stopped maturing 
because I've been in a different prison--in which I'm 
surrounded by children, with institutionalized House
division that encourages clan thinking.

Cat:
> I suppose I view him as emotionally stunted and unwilling (unable?)
> to accept responsibility for his actions because the consequences
> (losing Lily and then really losing Lily) were so traumatic to him.
> The problem I see with the line of thinking is that he is such a
> disciplined, controlled, intellectual person that it's hard to
> believe he so completely lacks insight into his own behaviour.

Montavilla47:
But isn that Snape?  He's disciplined, controlled, and intellectual 
with a very blind spot when it comes to himself.  But, I think that
his memories do show that he understands his own culpability 
in losing Lily--both times.

He doesn't blame anyone else when Lily dies.  He blames himself
to the point that it's only his promise to protect her son that allows
him to live on.

>From that point on, his journey is one of slowly (very slowly) 
expanding his circle of concern from Lily outwards, until, by 
HBP, he's protecting everyone he can from Voldemort.