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

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 185683

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> > > 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.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> And after this interaction and his dream Harry comes to Potion class 
> thinking about how horrible the professor will be, how much he will 
> suffer...  I do not think so. Quite the contrary, narrator says that 
> Snape just as McGonagall has a gift to keep class quiet (paraphrase). 
> Yes, I know Harry is not narrator, but narrator describes how Harry 
> feels and it seems to me that Harry decided to disregard the pain he 
> felt (he thought) from Snape and just give him a chance. Not  till 
> Snape starts bullying him and takes a point off for not helping 
> Neville, Harry starts thinking bad thoughts about greasy git.
> 
> So, yes I agree with Magpie completely.

Montavilla47:

I'm going to pretty much agree with Magpie.  Harry was no
more biased against Snape than the average firstie would be.
I mean, the guy dresses in black, wears his hair in that weird
do, and cultivates an air of meanness and mystery.  No kid is
going to walk into his class without a bit of dread.

And, of course, Snape had every reason to feel strongly 
about Harry.  This kid was Snape's reason for not killing 
himself ten years earlier.  It's of enormous importance 
to him that Harry in some way resemble Lily--which
we know is only in the eyes.

He could have tried to figure Harry out by being nice
to him--but that's not really Snape's way, is it?  Even
when he approached Lily on the playground, he went 
about it all wrong.

> Alla:
> You think Snape started spouting the nonsense about Harry's enjoying 
> his celebrity status by accident then?

Montavilla47:
Actually, this is the part that I find most interesting about
the exchange between Harry and Snape.  We've seen the 
whole Wizarding world making idiots of themselves every
time Harry walks into the room--because Harry *is* 
a celebrity.  There is a *statue* erected to Harry and his
family in Godric's Hollow.  There were fireworks set off
all over England on the day after Harry lived.  There are
stories going through the ex-Death Eater circles that
Harry's the next Dark Lord.   His sorting elicits the 
biggest number of cheers, when Gryffindor "gets
Harry Potter!" 

He's a bigger story than Anna Nicole Smith's baby.

Which is, of course, the reason Dumbledore gives
for leaving Harry with the Dursleys.  He doesn't want
Harry growing up with all that adulation and speculation.
He wants Harry to grow up somewhat normal.

I doubt Snape was unaware of all this hoopla.  I mean,
how could he be?

Neither James nor Lily would be indifferent to that 
type of adulation.  James would have reveled in it, and
it might have turned even Lily's head.

Taking Harry down a peg signals to the other kids
that he's no one special and that they don't need to 
treat him like a celebrity.  And, although it certainly
doesn't feel like it, and I'm sure Snape didn't mean
it that way, this moment helps humanize Harry for 
the other kids in his year.  He's not going to be a 
the Boy-Who-Lived to them.  He's going to be the
Boy-Who-Cheeked-Snape.

It probably doesn't endear him to the Slytherins,
but I'll bet the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws started
thinking of Harry as being a lot more like a kid
than an icon after hearing about this moment.