Secrets (Long) OLD POST REPOST

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 186476

 
> Montavilla47:
> But, Snape is singled out as "wasting his life" over
> a grudge which is, even after the Prince's Tale, linked by
> many fans to those wedgies.  

Pippin:
As the someone in question, I want to make it clear that I didn't mean Snape's whole life was a waste, just that the waste was life long. And I also don't think the grudge was just about the prank, or James's schoolboy arrogance. 

It was about  James's arrogance in refusing to believe that someone close to him had turned traitor and was keeping the Dark Lord informed of his and Lily's movements. 

That was the thing for which Snape never forgave James, IMO, much as the thing for which Harry was never going to forgive Snape was goading Sirius to go to the MoM, not the way Snape treated him as a student.   I agree  that clinging to the grudge was a defense mechanism in both cases. I think Harry was able to face his own guilt and let go of that grudge once he recognized that Sirius was flawed, too, a realization that Snape was never able to come to about Lily, except perhaps at his very last moment.

I think knowing that Sirius was flawed made it possible for Harry to think  that Sirius would understand and forgive him, even though Harry, deceived by the Dark Lord, had helped bring Sirius to his death. 

Pippin