What If He Didn't Tell All? (very LONG)

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "susiequsie23" <susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
> Kneasy:
> >>>Revulsion and hatred for what? For DD or for what has happened to him and 
> for he who was responsible for it? I like to think it's the latter.<<<
> 
> SSSusan:
> Kneasy, are you referring to *Harry* here?  To Voldy?  Just who are you saying is 
responsible for what's happened to DD?
> 
>

Kneasy:
Voldy.
He's the one booby-trapping the Hercrotches.
Snape is very attached to DD, I  think. Probably more so than to anyone 
else he's known - excepting his theoretical wife and sprog. Hatred for the
one who reduced DD to this would be fitting.
 
> 
> SSSusan:
> Totally agree.  This has been my take from the get-go.  NOT that DD's death *that* 
particular night, in *that* particular way, was planned out, but just that Snape & DD had 
talked about the possibility and about what Snape was to do should he find DD with 
"something terminally nasty."
> 
>  

Kneasy:
Yeah.
Be almost impossible to plan in detail every possible scenario, though general
outlines would be agreed between them. Snape would be expected to use
his judgement - and initiative. And to be brave. No coward, is Sevvy.
  
> 
> SSSusan:
> I agree that a strong Snape will be more useful than a dying DD *but*... DOES Snape 
know that everyone but Harry is expendable?  
> 
> I have been pissed at Snape for years, for his unwillingness to do something -- 
anything! -- to see that Harry learns, *really* learns.  (This is old news to you, Kneasy; 
you've read my bitching about Snape & his teaching methods where they concern Harry in 
particular, his unwillingness to CHANGE anything in order to try to get Harry to learn more 
fully.)  But then someone pointed out that I was going upon the assumption that Snape 
*knew* the full contents of the prophecy, that Snape *knew* that Harry was It -- the WW's 
Only Hope of getting rid of Voldy -- and that that assumption might just be wrong.  
> 
> According to DD in HBP, that assumption indeed was wrong, for he stated that only DD 
& Harry knew the full contents of the prophecy.
> 
> It's true that DD might still have told Snape that Harry was It, without ever having told 
him the contents of the prophecy nor how he knew this to be true, but is it possible that 
DD never did so?  That DD's focus on Harry and insistence about Harry's importance has 
always been something Snape never fully understood or agreed with?  If so, then does 
Snape believe in Harry's "unexpendability"?
> 
> I'd like to think that by now Snape does know & believe this... but I'm just not sure it's 
true.
>

Kneasy:
IMO he does know, or at least if he hasn't been told he's guessed.
But he's the type that doesn't believe in wrapping Harry in cotton wool.
He's teaching Harry a lot by being as obnoxious as hell.
Harry saw the WW as a refuge from the Dursley unpleasantness. Snape's
behaviour is a deliberate warning that the WW can be even worse; not only
can people be unkind - they're out to get you. How would Harry have got
to *really* appreciate this before it was too late without Snape as an object
lesson? 

And as you know, I've long believed that Snape is looking for revenge on
Voldy. He can't do it himself, but he sees Harry as the best instrument for his
vengence. He *needs* Harry.  But a soft Harry will lose.