Fw: The Geist Predicts

[Amanda Geist]

Oh, I haven't posted over here in ages and there's a serious lack of Snape
discussion. So I'm cross-posting.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Amanda Geist" <editor at ...>
To: <HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com>

:::a wispy vapor drifts into the room. Too late, it notices that there is a
large fan in the corner! Although she struggles, she feels herself pulled
into the suction of the air currents....:::

 Lupinlore:

 > You've made this point several times on various threads, Nora, and I
> find it intriguing.  I know predictions are always dangerous,
> especially (to quote the Zen master, Roshi Yogi Berra) about the
> future.  Still, what kind of rethinking do you think will have to be
> done?  If you were running a betting pool, on what would you bet?
>
> Anyone else want to comment?  I'm talking about things that will be a
> "BANG" in the sense of really revealing important things about Snape's
> character and causing lots of people to rethink things.  What would
> you bet on?

Damn. *sigh* Okay. ::eyes limb and wonders how much weight it will
support:::

We will finally hear that Snape is not a vampire, has never been a vampire,
isn't going to be a vampire, hasn't shared any barroom stories with
vampires, his mother wasn't frightened by a vampire, and he casts a mean
reflection in a mirror. [We will hear this in some inarguable form that will
not cause people to see the light, renounce the error of their ways,
publicly confess, and then later publicly recant the confession and
gleefully fall back into their former evil ways.]

We will learn that he did love Lily; but by that I mean *he* loved *her,*
likely from afar, unless he managed to say something and was let down easy.
I don't think they ever had a relationship. [I still think part of the
strength of the venom he associates with James is due to some neat
sublimation, where he associates all the negative of being let down to
James, and all the positive feelings that remain to Lily. Also the very deep
fear that Lily may have told James; can you imagine his (even imagined)
humiliation, to even consider that James *knew* and could have laughed?]

I think JKR will think of some mechanism as brilliant as Occlumency lessons,
to make Harry and Snape learn still more of each other, without getting one
iota closer.

I think Snape will be injured or otherwise damaged through some attempt to
protect Harry, which Harry does not understand and therefore fights, causing
it to go awry.

I think Harry will fatally misunderstand some action of Snape's, and act
based on his own interpretation of it, to the great harm of both Harry,
Snape, and the cause. JKR depends on Harry's misinterpretation of things as
a plot driver; and this is prime territory. For example, I will be genuinely
surprised should Snape honestly turn out to be wholeheartedly supporting
Voldemort--but since he must give that impression, and Harry is so ready to
believe it, we will likely see more ambiguity (if not wilfull disbelief on
Harry's part) leading to mishap.

I think Snape will have to mentally "shield" Harry from Voldemort at some
point, requiring Harry to trust him, and putting Snape at great risk of
being caught doing so--for only with help from someone as skilled as Snape
would Harry be able to lie or even hold his own in a conversation with
Voldemort (unless Harry's signed up for Kwikspell's Occlumency program over
the summer).

I think Snape has been part of an extensive set of father figures for Harry;
he has been the aspect of father that a child least appreciates. The
disciplinarian, who just doesn't understand, who catches you doing wrong and
will not let you off the hook and whom you therefore resent because you know
he's at least a little bit right. This aspect is appreciated as maturity
increases--and I think Harry is fighting that emotional maturity because to
do otherwise would make him have to realize his own causative role in
Sirius' death. [Harry's doing a neat bit of sublimation himself, associating
all the negative with Snape, who really had nothing to do with it,  allowing
both himself and Dumbledore to "walk free."] ANYway, I think in either book
6 or book 7, Snape will die; and it will only be then that Harry will
realize the positives he got from their relationship.

And yes, I think Snape will die before that infamous last word "scar": all
of his character looks backward. He gives me the impression of someone whose
goals are not ahead, except to rectify mistakes made, and who does not care
much if he dies in that attempt. He can't let the past go, because that's
where he lives; I think he accepted long ago that the future holds only one
task for him and nothing else, and so has made no effort to move past the
past that defined that future.

I would love to see Harry and Snape see each other for each other, and not
for the associations that each have built for the other--but I doubt I will.

::: the shreds of vapor emerge from the other side of the fan and reform.
The hazy shape hurriedly heads out the door on that side of the room, making
a mental effort to tell someone to turn off the Snapefan.:::

~Amandageist