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

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 185679

> Magpie:
>  He didn't start off with 
> any bias against Snape or not.

Zara:
Based on their brief interaction in the Great Hall and Harry's dream 
the night before class, I consider this debatable. That Harry was 
not, to Snape, just any new student in his class, I would agree. That 
Snape deliberately and with malicious forethought planned out a 
scheme to make Harry miserable from Day One, I'd say we lack the 
evidence to conclude. 

> Magpie:
> Does it really matter what exactly he thought made Purebloods 
> superior? 

Zara:
That depends on what we are trying to establish, does it not? From a 
practical standpoint, it would have made no difference to Muggleborn  
victims of the Death Eaters in whose victimhood Snape was complicit. 
On the other hand, as you state later:

> Magpie:
> He may 
> never have completely gotten over the belief, frankly, no matter 
how 
> ashamed he was over how he treated Lily. 

Zara:
Such a statement is meaningless if Snape never had such a belief. He 
would have nothing to "get over". As I am willing to stipulate that 
Snape is responsible as (at the least) an accessory to crimes 
motivated by bloodism, I'm only interested in the topic in terms of 
what was going on in Snape's head. And in such a discussion, of 
course it matters what he believed.

I did not, I would point out, argue Snape thought Purebloods were 
superior. Merely that he wanted to be one, for the advantages I 
listed, that he had reason to suppose would have accrued to him if he 
were one. 

For example, as a middle school student, I wanted to be a perfectly 
coiffed and made up, regular-featured, designer-jean-clad popular 
girl. This was not because I believed them to be superior, but 
because I wished to enjoy such advantages as having someone to sit 
next to in the cafeteria, and not being called by "nicknames" based 
on Pinocchio. On the contrary, I did not. For better or for worse, I 
knew I was brainier than any of them, and believed that was what 
mattered. 

I am inclined to believe young Snape similarly regarded his own (and, 
for that matter, Lily's) prodigious magical talent as a sign of their 
mutual superiority to more mediocre witches and wizards. The 
conversation you mention, in the little thicket, is where I mostly 
get this idea from. His reasons for stating Lily's blood does not 
matter, include not only his affection (the sentence he would not 
complete, I imagine, would have ended with some very flattering 
assessment of her looks and/or personality), but also the observation 
that she has "loads of magic" and anyone can see that. In addition, 
there is his proud private name for himself, that he used on the book 
in which he recorded his inventions.