OoP: Amanda goes on and on and on and on and on about Snape

[Blaise]

Amanda has made a lovely long, long post on Snape!  Hurray!

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<<I refuse to believe that being turned upside down in public was the 
worst thing that James and Sirius ever did to Snape. They didn't turn 
him into anything, they didn't poison him, they didn't change him. So 
there had to be another factor that made it so traumatic.>>

I'm not sure how seriously I want to take the chapter title 'Snape's 
Worst Memory'.  After all, it wouldn't have sounded quite so snappy 
if it were called 'One of Snape's Bad Memories', would it?  On the 
other hand, our worst memories are often not the things that one 
might expect, and the acuteness of such things as humiliation in 
adolescence can go beyond any reasonable 'get-over-it' border.  
Certainly I have no difficulty in believing that being humiliated is 
far worse for Snape than any other kind of torment. After all, he 
dishes it out in ladlefuls to his students, he must think it's bad. 
I'm fairly sure that Snape passes on to his students all the things 
he thinks are most unpleasant. 

But you make a good case for the Snape/Lily thing.  I've never been 
terribly sold on that ship, but my imagination could stretch to some 
unrequited love, and that might well explain the selection of this 
scene. 

<<But they have shared memories (anyone else
surprised, as I believe Snape was, that Harry broke through to *him*? 
the superb Occlumens? I think Snape removed memories to be extra 
careful, but I don't think for a minute that he expected Harry to be 
able to do that).>>

That surprised me as well. Do you think the shield charm reflected 
Snape's powers back on himself, so that, in a sense, Snape shot 
himself? Or, a more hideous thought - could it have been Voldemort 
from inside Harry's head? Or, thirdly, since Voldemort transferred 
some of his powers to Harry, and Voldemort is an accomplished 
Legilimens, presumably Harry has the potential to be so as well.  

The scenes from Snape's memories were well-chosen. The first and last 
create sympathy, whilst the middle - shooting down flies in a 
darkened room - is remarkably potent in what it communicates: 
despair, loneliness, viciousness, boredom ... a cocktail of misery 
pointing towards the Death Eaters. It warns us against creating a 
purely hard-done-by image of Snape. Oh, and the girl laughing appears 
again in the last - some more ammunition for your earlier argument. 
Although he seems to have got over this one - in PS Snape could ride 
a broomstick well enough to referee Quidditch. 

Oh, and wasn't it horribly risky for Snape to teach Harry about 
Occlumency? After all, if Voldemort gets wind of how Snape is 
concealing his true loyalties from him, that'll be it for Snape. 
Presumably either Voldemort does not know that Snape is an Occlumens, 
or he thinks Snape could not possibly resist him. Do you suppose 
Snape had some kind of cover story for Voldemort? I think Snape must 
need every ounce of his subtlety to balance this one! 

<<When Harry is picking himself up after yet another failure, and 
Snape asks what the last memory is, and Harry asks if it is the one 
of his cousin trying to make him stand in the toilet, Snape 
says "No," softly. That's it. That's all you get. This is not Remus 
Lupin, and Snape hates James still, and I still think Lily is a 
complicating factor, and so about all Snape will do is this. Softly. 
Not menacing; not dismissively; not angrily; not low; not sneering. 
Softly. Because he knows, for he is hiding some of his own
memories in the pensieve, how he would hate having his childhood 
indignities seen, and Harry has not once complained about this. I 
think he respects Harry for this, for what he has gone through and 
how he is handling himself with Snape in his head. Softly.>>

I was also, perhaps without reason, touched when Snape asked 'To whom 
did the dog belong?'  Perhaps that was just my inner classicist 
approving of the 'whom', but it seems like he wants to gauge the 
severity of what he has seen. Especially when he follows this with, I 
believe, his first ever praise of Harry. Albeit rather faint praise. 

<<Snape is, I say it again, one of Harry's father figures and Harry 
is in full adolescent rebellion. The different aspects of fatherhood 
have been "spread" over several men for Harry, and Snape is all the 
negatives. Snape is the one who won't listen, the one who knows 
better, the one who doesn't understand, the disciplinarian. The one 
you absolutely *hate* and can't wait to get away from. The one you 
only come to value when your perspective has matured.>>

Wonderful analysis! I think you are right about this, and I too look 
for future Snape & Harry cooperation. Do you think there will be more 
Occlumency lessons, or was Dumbledore's comment about Harry's own 
power thrusting Voldemort out a signal that they are over. And will 
Harry get a sufficient grade in his OWL to take Potions next year? If 
we have seen the last of Snape hounding his Potions class, perhaps it 
will be easier for Harry to work with him. Although the Auror thing 
suggests that Harry will keep going with Potions even if Dumbledore 
has to lean on Snape to let him into the class. 

<<One more short bit about the worst memory. Someone asked over on 
Chatter, where were the gang of kids who almost all turned out to be 
Death Eaters? Why wasn't anyone helping Snape? My thought: it may be 
that it was occasions like this, treatment like James and Sirius were 
handing him, that made Snape start running with those others. Maybe 
this memory was bad, also because it was the point at which Snape, 
unable to fight back any other way, turned a corner in a Dark 
direction to gain safety and revenge.>>

I read the 'you .. wait' as a foreshadowing of Snape's journey to the 
Death Eaters. A way to gain like-minded allies and revenge. 

<<And I love the sarcastic wit in Umbridge's office, talking to 
whoever was choking Neville. A lot of tedious paperwork indeed; 
mentioning it on job references. Taking this, in light of how he 
handled Lockhart, and I see a man with a very dry sense of humor 
indeed. But it is very much there.>>

Oh yes, that was brilliant! And I was infuriated with Harry for 
wanting Snape to jump up and down in a tizzy when he was trying to 
tell him about Sirius.

What did you make of all the Dark Arts connections? There's Snape 
doing extraordinarily well on his exam paper (another connection with 
Harry, incidentally), and the confirmation that he really has been 
applying for the DADA post each year. Why didn't Dumbledore accept, 
if he trusts Snape and Snape is such an expert? And why does Snape 
keep applying if Dumbledore has explained that he won't accept? Is 
Dumbledore waiting for something? Was Snape applying every year to 
try to keep up his image as a lover of the Dark Arts in preparation 
for Voldemort's return? Potions seems more suited to his personality. 

And one final comment - Sirius' sneer that Snape is Lucius Malfoy's 
lapdog. Ruling out the first implication that jumped to my mind, that 
Snape was Malfoy's catamite, what do you make of this? I always 
thought Snape's favouring of Draco was connected to Draco's father - 
after all, most of Draco's breaks are from his father's influence. Do 
you suppose Lucius was the one who guided Snape into the Death 
Eaters, perhaps being in his final year during Snape's fifth year? I 
can't see Snape being anything like, for example, Wormtail, but I 
imagine having some kind of approval/support from a senior boy would 
be heady stuff. And will Snape's position with Voldemort suffer once 
Lucius goes to Azkaban? 

Ah, JKR was speaking truly when she said we'd learn more about Snape! 
More questions than answers, as always with her. I suppose that adds 
to the fun. 

Blaise