reasons for Severus Snape’s attitude toward Harry
[as i see it == subjective]
> he avoids closeness with people in general. not just with Harry, with anyone. <jk -- ... never became friends, since Severus never had them>
he dislikes Gryffindor as a phenomenon. he dislikes childish rudeness, disrespect, noise, chaos. and these particular kids also stole ingredients [not Harry, but Snapes assumptionswerent unreasonable], didn’t listen in class, behaved as if he was obliged to tolerate them simply by default.
he has a very low tolerance for any kind of intrusion, and here it’s an entire house that lives by the principle of <innocent until proven guilty;).>
teaching children is not his strong point, but it was never his choice.
[from a personal perspective, he has, in principle, encountered the same problems that any chemistry teacher faces.
and in fact, he would be a very good university teacher, but they don't have universities. so..]
> Harry is a visual and behavioral [in some aspects] copy of James. and what matters here is that James, for Sev, began at 11 and ended at 18. [so he literally sees not the father-son copy, but the sane face of the same age]
this is a person who coincided with the most vulnerable period of his life. so Harry is a walking trigger. on top of that, he’s James’s son. and everything repeats itself: the same house, the same role on the team, the same endless wandering around the castle, the same blind affection from everyone around him. and on top of all that, he has to somehow accept the necessity of protecting “little James.”
psychologically, this is hell.
[and regarding attention. the idea that Severus was jealous of attention, imo, is nonsense. if you hate someone and know what a piece of shit they are, you’re just going to be annoyed that everyone around worships them, loves them, admires them. Severus never had any desire to be the center of attention. yes, he wanted recognition, but… he did not crave the spotlight, nor did he enjoy it]
> Harry has Lily’s eyes. and this works on several levels at once.
first, it is constant grief for a person he loved. and it is raw sorrowful and painful.
second, it is a constant reminder that he is responsible for this. not “partly” “indirectly, by affiliation and inaction” but by being The rootcause. it is a mistake that cannot be rewritten, cannot be undone, cannot be fully atoned for. he will live with it forever. hence the guilt, the self-loathing, the self-punishment. [otherwise the old man Albus simply wouldn’t have been able to manipulate him so effectively]
and he is not Peter Pettigrew. he will not play the victim, press for pity, or look for excuses.
he is not in such despair, and not in such a position, that he would confess that he is a Death Eater and that the Potters died because of him. he does not want to die, does not want Azkaban, does not want persecution.... like any normal person.
but at the same time, he has a heart and a conscience, and he is incapable of pretending to be a pleasant, kind, socially comfortable person...
physically, yes, he could play that role.
but it is not in his nature. and more importantly, the more people consider him good, the stronger the dissonance with how they would treat him if they knew the truth. and the truth, by his internal logic, will be discovered sooner or later.
and the very idea that this boy might trust him, and then find out who it was because of whom he has no parents, would be simply unbearable for Sev.
if he is suspected from the start, it is easier. more honest. safer for everyone involved.
// this is exactly why this dynamic does not apply to Draco.
he knows that Sev is a Death Eater.
the Malfoys are not good people, and he treats them accordingly: with gratitude, with a certain degree of mutual respect, no more and no less.
plus, he feels sorry for Draco. because if for Sev the path of a Death Eater is his choice, his mistake, and his responsibility, then Draco’s mind has been washed from the very beginning. he effectively has no choice, and he is dragged into all of this as a child.//
*don't see people mentioning this part like at all:
and this is where it gets most interesting. the thing about Severus is that he is, in fact, a genius. yes, [slightly Mary Sue, but, thank Merlin, not in the dumb sense of “he’s the best at everything,” but in a very specific and strategically crucial way. he ended up in exactly the position where his skills are not just useful, but critical]
the fact that he is a brilliant potioneer is great, yes, convenient, practical, etc etc.... but his truly frightening and valuable ability is Legilimency. he is one of the strongest Legilimens of his time.
now Voldemort. like any paranoid tyrant, he trusts no one. he constantly checks his allies, and everyone around him, for truthfulness. Legilimency for him is almost a baseline household tool.
and the catch is that Severus cannot simply “close his mind.” because a closed mind, to Voldemort, is already suspicious. the very idea that you are hiding something is already deadly dangerous.
so Severus is forced to give Voldemort access to his mind. he can neither do fully, nor chaotically. but by directing his thoughts so that Voldemort sees exactly what he is meant to believe. hatred toward Potter in this context is the perfect strategy. it is logical, consistent, emotionally plausible.
boy is James’s son. the enemy of his master. an irritating Gryffindor brat. everything fits.
even the fact that he constantly tries to save Harry is already an inconvenient aspect that has to be masked and rationalized and redirected from Voldy.
it would be easier to shut down his mind. but he cannot afford even a hint of a double bottom.
he HaS to be readable. predictable. absolutely faithful to his core.
there’s a magician hiding a rabbit in a hat. the audience sees the rabbit > sees the hat > doesn’t see the rabbit inside. they know it has something to do with the hat, but they can’t figure out how it works. they do know for sure that the rabbit existed. and that somewhere, they were tricked.
in the case of snape: he walks in with the rabbit in his hands and walks out with the rabbit in his hands. the hat doesn’t exist. the only thing he can do /and will do/ is make sure no one even pays slightest attention to the rabbit]
and in that sense, his attitude toward Harry is not only personal trauma + inability to let go, but also a perfectly calibrated survival strategy. for both of them and for everyone else
baratheonpilled
titsay
