If the Marauders weren't so mean to Snape would he have been nicer to Harry.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 192498


> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "corey" <coverton1982@> wrote:
> >
> > Hey group, just thought I would post a topic on the group cause the group's been kind of dull, not many messages. But does anyone think that if James, Sirius, Wormtail, and Lupin weren't mean to Snape do you think he would be nicer to Harry?
> > 
> > Corey
> >
ncfan:
> Erm, I'm not so sure myself. If the Marauders were nicer to Snape, but Lily still ended up with James, I feel like Snape still would have been pretty nasty to Harry. Not as nasty, perhaps, but still nasty; Snape's really not a nice person, after all.


Pippin:
Harry wasn't the only Marauder relative. If that's what it really was about, then Tonks and Teddy should have been targets, not to mention that Sirius had scads of cousins, one of whom Snape actually liked. 

No, I think that in his heart of hearts Snape wouldn't have given two knuts who Harry's father was if his mother had been anyone but  Lily. Harry would have been treated with the same cool disdain that most of Snape's students got except when Snape was particularly annoyed with them. But Harry was Lily's son by another man, and I think that even if Lily had chosen someone Snape liked or admired, those feelings would not have survived losing Lily to him.  

 Not that I think the bullying was harmless or only pushed Snape down a path he was going to take anyway. I think it contributed to Snape's tolerance of cruelty and undermined the moral lesson Dumbledore always tried to teach: if Snape could be treated as if his mere existence was a crime, then why should Muggles or Muggleborns be any different?

We don't know that Sirius wasn't punished for the prank, only that he wasn't expelled as Snape thought he deserved to be. We also know that James and Sirius were both punished many times for other transgressions, and it seemed to have no more effect on them than it did on the Weasley twins. 

Snape, IMO, wanted the Marauders expelled to get them out of his hair (and James away from Lily), not reckoning that others would probably take their place. But from Dumbledore's point of view, throwing them out would just remove them from whatever influence he had. Harry sees expulsion as the end of the world, or of his future as a wizard at any rate, but Sirius and James both had means of their own. Except that it would have parted them from Lupin (and Lily) they had no more reason to dread it than Grindelwald did. 

All five, the Marauders and Snape,  were engaged in activities that would have forced Dumbledore's hand if they'd been exposed: the Marauders for being illegal animagi and setting a werewolf loose, Snape for consorting with Death Eaters. A general crackdown on student behavior would have been bad news for all of them.

 As much as Snape believed that Sirius had gotten away with attempted murder,  he had reasons to let the authorities regard the incident as closed. And as much as the Marauders would have liked to stop Snape from spying on them and hexing them whenever he got the chance, they couldn't complain too much without  drawing attention to their own secrets. 

Much of the time Snape saw little reason to be nice to people. But whether Snape was nice or not nice depended on the circumstances: he had a range of behaviors, like most of us. We can see him struggling to find an outlet for his anger that wouldn't alienate him from Lily. He was not at all like Riddle, who never had a friend, or wanted one. 

Pippin