Snape and Harry

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 188948

Nikkalmati

I am not sure I understand. If I say to a friend, I am disgusted overthe
actions of the person who robbed you, I am apologizing for the unkown robber? 
No, not at all. "I'm sorry" can have two meanings. 1. That's too bad. 2. I
regret what I did. In this context (apologize), we are talking about I'm sorry
as meaning I take responsibility for doing something wrong. Harry cannot take
responsibility for things that happened before he was born. He could say "I'm
sorry" to Snape in the meaning of it is too bad that happened to you. <SNIP>

Alla:

I had this discussion off list and we decided that this is one of the cultural differences probably. I mean I understand the meaning of "sorry" that you are explaining here, however in the context we are discussing, to me it still implies apology, I just do not see Harry saying Sorry here being only "sorry it happened to you".



> Nikkalmati
> 
> Whether I apologize depends on my own sense of right and wrong, not on whether the other person is worthy.<SNIP>

Alla:
But of course. I however was not talking about Snape being worthy of Harry's apology. I was talking more about Snape owing Harry's problem, period in my opinion and never actually owing up to it. I was talking about Snape being the one responsible for making sure Harry's right and wrong detector was sometimes off where Snape is concerned thanks to Snape's own actions. It is not like I think that Harry for example always behaved properly towards Snape during his school years, of course he misbehaved a plenty.

However, I maintain that Snape met Harry with such ill feelings (Harry could sense hatred on the first lesson and it turns out he was right about that for example) and mistreated him so many times, that as far as I am concerned  if even in situations when Harry ought to apologize and he did not, I still do not blame him for it. Like sure it would be wonderful if he apologized for Pencieve, he did invade Snape's privacy, but five years of abuse (again, in my view of course) would make a person to sort of forget to issue apology to abuser even if the apology is due and owed. And these are Harry's actions for which he is responsible, but I refuse to put any of responsibility for James' actions on his shoulders, period.

JMO,

Alla