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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 188890



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> > 
> > 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
>
Carol responds:

I meant that he wasn't inferior when it came to magical ability or cleverness, not social status or popularity. And notice that it's James, not the rich and handsome Sirius, also a pure-blood like James, at whom Severus directs most of his venom. It's almost as if he resented having his life saved by an enemy more than being nearly killed by one, but I think it was mostly jealousy--not over Quidditch as Lupin assumed but over Lily.

And, as I said, he's not afraid of MWPP. He's furious with them, especially with James, and humiliated by being "rescued" by a seemingly indifferent Lily, hence the "Mudblood" slip.

Whether he really thought that Lily would be impressed by his becoming a DE, I don't know. JKR says so off-page, but I see no evidence of it in "The Prince's Tale."

I don't disagree that he sought a reward when he joined the DEs. Of course he did, or he'd have sold his many talents to a higher bidder, such as the MoM. I'm just saying that IMO, he didn't see himself as in any way inferior to the arrogant toerag despite having a Muggle parent and not much money. What counted to him was brains (see his early comment about Slytherin) and magical power.

One on one, he was a match for James, as either Lupin or Black admits in OoP.

Carol, noting that James may have been better at Transfiguration but Severus was an expert at both Potions and DADA (see his detailed OWL exam) and invented spells of at least two types (hexes and charms)