CHAPTER DISCUSSION Chamber of Secrets Ch. 5. The Whomping Willow

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 188843


> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> As indicated, I agree with most of your post. But I don't think that James made Severus feel frightened or hopelessly inferior--humiliated, yes, on the one occasion when James attacked him publicly, but the humiliation was mostly because a girl he liked (and wanted to impress) came to his defense.

Pippin:
James and his friends made a habit of attacking Snape four on one, and though he certainly was not cowed or terrified by them, he could never feel safe or comfortable in any situation where they might get the upper hand. He thinks they tried to kill him, and would have succeeded if one of them hadn't gotten cold feet. He knew what would happen if he let down his guard. 

As for being inferior, I don't see how that can even be in question. James had wealth, charm, physical grace, pureblood status and Quidditch stardom, all of which gave him social status that Snape could never have. And though Snape may not have envied any of those things for their own sake, he surely thought that power and prestige  would impress Lily just as much as they impressed him. He didn't become a Slytherin or a Death Eater for the sheer intellectual challenge, IMO. He expected a reward.

Pippin