Understanding Snape

[naamagatus]

Jumping in here for short dip (and because I'm glad that the Old 
Crowd has revived a bit...)

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
<snip>
> 
> Harry was scrawny and undersized, started school with a 
> reputation, had an unhappy home, clung to the wizarding world 
> all the tighter for not being sure whether it would accept him,  
> was suspected of being involved in the Dark Arts, was desperate 
> to earn recognition--and has that saving people thing.  All of 
> which seems much more like Snape than like James, although 
> we can only guess at why Snape seems to be so alienated.
> 

But I don't think that that's how Snape saw him. I truly don't think 
that up to the Occlumency lesson, when Snape saw the dog chasing 
incident (with all it's accompanying humiliation), that he realized 
what Harry's childhood was really like. From Snape's reaction to 
Harry at the very beginning of PS, it's clear that he sees Harry as 
most of the WW sees him - a returned legendary hero. Only, unlike 
most of the WW (then), it drives him nuts that that's who Harry is, 
so he is obsessed to take him as many pegs down as he can. 
Later, JKR keeps on harping on how similar Harry is (physically and 
otherwise) to James. The physical similarity would strike Snape 
immediately, and since we now know that his loathing of James ran 
really deep (James being responsible to his worst memory), it seems 
almost inevitable that he would start off by loathing Harry.
Also, of course, Harry is a Gryffindor, and he immediately makes 
friends (whereas it would seem likely that Severus had to struggle 
quite a bit before getting accepted). 
Therefore, I doubt very much that Snape would see any likeness 
between himself and Harry.

Regarding a Harry-Snape denouement:
Thinking about the way JKR has ended GoF and PoA, and the 
relationship between the ending and the next book, makes me believe 
that Harry's deep grudge towards Snape is going to be a major element 
or theme in book 6: PoA ends with Pettigrew escaping - in GoF, his 
escape enables Voldemort's return. In GoF, Fudge refuses to believe 
Harry's tale - in OoP disbelief and suspicion of Harry/Dumbledore is 
central to the story. Soooo, OoP ends with Harry feeling an 
unreasoning, obsessive hatred to Snape - this hatred will be pivotal 
in book 6, somehow. 
Since OoP also ends with Harry trying to cast an Unforgivable, how 
about - in book 6 Harry will cast/be tempted to cast/will try to 
cast/will fail to cast an unforgivable curse at Snape?


Naama