First lesson WAS: Re: Marietta, was Slytherin's Reputation

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 185673

> Trekkie: 
> I wonder why it's so hard to believe the fact that Snape is simply 
a 
> mean, petty character 

Zara:
Perhaps I find it difficult to believe that which the evidence of my 
eyes tells me is false? Snape's not "simply" anything. 

> Trekkie:
> And he hates Harry for being the spawn of James. 

Zara:
Your argument is not convincing to me.

> Trekkie:
> Snape's 
> problem is that he can't bring his love for Lily over to Harry. IMO 
> because Harry LOOKS like James, short of  "Lily's eyes" - and they 
are 
> after all obscured behind glasses that also *resembles James*

Zara:
While it is not deniable that Harry has some physical resemblance to 
James, this is not where the resemblance ends. Your insistence that 
this important conflict of the series comes down to this one 
superficial factor, again, does not convince. Snape, on assorted 
occaeions, when expressing his own disapproval of Harry, brings up 
many other things, things which I could certainly see being 
irritating to a teacher responsible for Harry's safety, to a person 
of a studious disposition, or to someone who found James Potter not 
to his taste long before Lily and Amor entered the picture. 

> Trekkie:
> Snape's a fullblood bigot. He's a halfblood wizard but a fullblood 
> bigot, just like Voldie. He WANTS to be something he's not. 

Zara:
This, of course, is why his private name for himself, with which he 
adorned what was probably his most prized possession, was "The *Half-
Blood* Prince". Wait, no, that makes no sense to me at all.

I do agree he probably wanted to be a pureblood/wished he had been 
born one, but I don't think it was out of any belief in racial 
superiority. He probably cherished some idea this would have given 
him a father who actually liked something rather than not much of 
anything. Maybe even, a father who liked him and his mother. Not to 
mention the possibility of growing up around other kids like himself, 
where his dress would not mark him as odd, and he could make 
connections with friends and relatives which he would not need to 
leave behind upon entering school and adult life.

We also see that as a young boy of 9 or 10, he wanted a friend far 
more than he cared who her parents were. It was evident what Lily was 
before he even met her. I see no sign he cared.

> Trekkie:
>it 
> doesn't mean he also has to LIKE the brat. 

Zara:
I so agree. He doesn't have to like Harry. That he apparently didn't, 
has never bothered me in the slightest.