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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 185838

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sherry Gomes" <sherriola at ...>
wrote:
>
> Pippin:
> An eleven year old has a right to wounds that are too deep for the
healing, but a thirty six year old does not? That is the part I don't
understand.
> 
> 
> 
> Sherry:
> I can't speak for Alla, but in my opinion, of course the 36-year-old
has the right to his emotional wounds, even though they are too deep
to heal.  Most people have some wounds like that; I know I sure do. 
But that does not give the adult, the teacher, the 36-year-old the
right to take out those wounded feelings and reactions on a child. 

Pippin:
I agree, I just don't think that Snape ever understands that he is
doing that. Consciously, IMO, he's reacting to the over-privileged
celebrity he perceives Harry to be. I don't think he has any idea that
this is a delusion. That's where the emotional damage comes in. 

I wouldn't be surprised if Draco spun Harry's rejection as snobbery
and Snape got to hear of it. But even if he didn't, ordinary students
aren't Sorted to cheers of "We got Potter!", teachers don't fall off
their chairs, and students don't stand on their tiptoes to stare.

 Harry senses that Snape hates him. But  Snape does nothing that he
doesn't do to students he doesn't hate, and he isn't breaking any
Hogwarts rules that we can point to. There's really no one incident
that says, "Snape wouldn't do this if he didn't hate Harry so much."
That's why we can still argue about whether Snape hated Harry at all,
though I accept JKR's statement that he did. 

 And there's nothing that one can point to, IMO, and say, Snape only
did this to emotionally destroy Harry. 

There's no rule that says teachers have to justify the awarding of
House Points, and many teachers do so in a completely arbitrary way.
There does seem to be a rule about detentions, and I can't recall
Snape ever assigning a detention that Harry hadn't earned. 

That makes it very hard to say, "Stop doing thus and so, or you're
fired. It really isn't sensible, IMO, to say, "Stop making this
student feel like you hate him." Even at eleven, Harry is responsible
for his own feelings. 

And no one is judging Snape and Harry by the same standards. Harry and
his pals do things that would get Snape sacked faster than you could
say, "polyjuice potion."

I don't expect Harry to understand all this as a child, and certainly
not during the first lesson. I do think he came to understand it as an
adult. 

Pippin
going AFK for two weeks starting tomorrow