Snape's anti-muggle feelings (was Re: Snobby Snape?)

[Judy]

I said:
> > I was really surprised that Snape turned out to have anti-Muggle 
> > feelings. Unlike most of the other Death Eaters, he's half-Muggle 
> > himself (and he's not a raving lunatic like Voldemort.) I suppose 
> > JKR's rationale was that Snape disliked Muggles because his main 
> > experience of them was his cruel Muggle father, or because he 
> > felt so different and cut off from the Muggle community where he 
> > was raised. 

Pippin responded:
> I think there was a bit more to it than that. The Ministry doesn't
> seem to recognize emotional abuse as such, which means a witch
> being emotionally abused can't use magic to defend herself or she
> risks Azkaban for violating the statutes of secrecy for an
> 'unprovoked' attack on a Muggle. 
> 
> It would be frustrating for Snape to know he had the power to
> defend his mother but wasn't allowed to use it. Naturally he'd 
> think the laws should be changed.  

That's an interesting possibility, but I tend to agree with Rita that 
the Secrecy Statute wouldn't apply to spouses of magic-users. I don't 
see any way that magic could be kept secret from the spouse of a 
witch or wizard, especially not since half-blood children are almost 
always magical, and young magical children tend to use magic 
uncontrollably.

In fact, we see Lily's parents and sister on Platform 9&3/4, and 
Hermione's parents go shopping in Diagon Alley, so there seems to be 
no real attempt to keep magic a secret from immediate family members 
of magic users. Tobias Snape had both a magical son and a magical 
wife, so keeping the existence of magic a secret from him would have 
been even more pointless than keeping it secret from the Grangers or 
Evans.  

As for Harry being accused of doing magic in the presence of Dudley, 
the charges against Harry were clearly trumped up, and mostly focused 
on underage magic use. 

I do think Snape's father being a Muggle may have been a major reason 
for his disliking Muggles. As for whether Snape felt he couldn't use 
magic against his father to protect his mother, for all we know, 
maybe Severus *did* use magic against Tobias. We don't even know if 
Tobias lived at the house on Spinner's End after Severus got a wand 
and some training; we only see or hear references to Tobias being 
there before Severus goes off to Hogwarts. Maybe later Severus drove 
Tobias away. (I think I would have.) 

As for why Eileen didn't defend herself, I tend to see her as being 
like Merope -- so depressed at the failure of her marriage that she 
lost her ability to use magic. 

Poor Severus' childhood strikes me as tragic.  It's one of the 
reasons why I have so much synpathy for the character.

-- Judy