Why did Snape _really_ hate Harry?

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 186917

> Frank D: 
> I'd appreciate it if the HPfGU list members could consider and discuss
> the article's ideas as set forth below.

Zara:
I read this essay at some point between the publication of HBP and DH (and found it very well-written and interesting). Even then, though, I found the claim that there is a contradiction between the statements of Trelawney and Dumbledore about the circumstances in which the Prophecy was given was not likely to be true (as I have no difficulty constructing a course of events consistent with both statements). This aspect was discussed on this list before DH came out. And again after. I think this is the clearest post in which I explain what I think happened and how it is consistent with both statements: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/171052

The conclusion that Snape was likely recruited by Albus before he became a Death Eater (in the aftermath of the Prank, in fact), I found an interesting and new idea at the time, but I consider it to have been refuted by DH canon. From "The Prince's Tale" I gather than after being dropped by Lily as a friend, Severus became a Death Eater for his own reasons, and approached Albus for help once he learned that Voldemort planned to kill Lily (the Potters). Their first meeting shown in that chapter, is between just the two of them; there is no reason for them to put on acts. Severus expresses the opinion that his life may be in danger from Dumbledore, for example, which I find inconsistent with a supposition he is already at that time Albus's mole in the Death Eater organization and his most valued young protege.

> J. Odell's essay:
> And if this is so, we can now finally conclude that the biggest
> reason that Snape so hated Harry—-and he did sincerely hate
> Harry—-had
> very little to do with James, much as Snape honestly loathed James.
> Harry had taken his place. 

Zara:
Right, only if we accept DH canon, Snape did not have this ongoing reltionship with Albus as his mentor from some point in his fifth year at Hogwarts, so Harry was not taking his place. 

> J. Odell's essay:
> Or at a last resort, that it was about Lily. But it
> wasn't. It really was all about Harry, especially by the end.

Zara:
Except that it really was. Always. DH canon again! It seems to me that what we have instead is that Snape's issues with Harry do stem from the fact that he is the son of the woman Snape loved by a man he despised, and to make matters worse, reminds him of that guy.

Oh, in your intro you mentioned the word "supplant". A propos of nothing, the meaning of the name "James" is "he who supplants".