Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

My post:
In DH, Prince's Tale chapter, Severus reassuring Lily Hogwarts is a real place: "It's real for us" and they discuss his home life in a way which leads the reader to believe this isn't the first time they've discussed it: "How are things at your house?" "They're not arguing anymore?" They also talked on their first train ride to Hogwarts about the letter Petunia wrote to Dumbledore.

My post:
While at Hogwarts:

Here, Lily admits they are "best friends", and even calls him by the shortened form of his name, which sounds like a nick name one friend would call another (and it doesn't appear to be an insult.)

This is also from DH, Prince's Tale

She did not end her friendship with "Sev" until SWM, which happened after the O.W.L. examination, when he went to the Gryffindor tower to talk to her.
SWM can be found in OotP, Snape's Worst Memory chapter

I read this as having a relationship from before Hogwarts to the end of their 5th years.

My quote:
For this, I added "I believe" because it is not based on canon, but instead my opinion, and a JKR quote:

http://www.the-leaky-cauldron.org/20...hat-transcript

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

IMO it could have been nothing more than an infatuation. Snape did not really know Lily, the grown woman. I don't think it's possible to really love someone you don't know. For instance I really think George Clooney is one handsome man and he seems to have a lot of the same values that I have but I couldn't say that I would ever love him, (apart from the fact my husband wouldn't like it) is that I don't know him. You can love an image, but to be really in love I think you have to know the person involved. Ifit's not love, MO it's infatuation...of a sort.


But he was and she ended up cutting the contact.

.

In that case Snape was the one responsible for changing his situation. He was a young kid but I think he was well old enough to know rigtfrom wrong and he wanted the association with Avery and Mulciber more than he wanted the friendship with Lily. It came down to a choice and he made the wrong one. He chose the wrong relaintionship and lost any chance he hhad of ever changing Lily's feelings for him.

I wouldn't disagree with this. I just see it as very immature behaviour. At 35 he wasn't the kid in the playground anymore. There's a quote in the Bible, it goes something like,
'When I was child, I spoke and acted as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things.'
This is what I think Snape never did, he never put away the childish things. I don't call that tenacious, it's more like not wanting anything else, IMO.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

They were friends before Hogwarts. They were friends, and at one point "best friends" for their first five years at school. For the final two years, they would have had classes together in the same room, I believe, with at least potions being one, since they both excelled at the subject. Lily died, when - only 3 years after she graduated? Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think she changed very much. She was still the same person, and Severus had actually known her on a personal basis.

Myself, i see this as completely different from someone admiring an actor from afar on a tv or movie screen, or reading about him in a fan magazine. (BTW - I do agree - George Clooney is very handsome.)

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

To me it seems more like they ended up in different gangs where they slowly grew too different and a too big distance... I don't think Lily loved Snape the way Snape loved Lily, so Lily didn't get that badly hurt from that change and could move on more easily. Either Snape is an emotional, easily hurt man or he was bullied quite often and could really find no other possible love than Lily (the latter probably fits for both). Either way, it kept him affected until his very death and must've been of great importance to him.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

Mmm...well, I think one can be infatuated with someone one knows, like a classmate. (I am careful not to speak from personal experience here. Certainly not.) I don't think we are disagreeing substantively about the nature of Snape's romantic feelings wrt Lily; his feelings about her blood status are of course a different matter entirely. Call it infatuation, call it a schoolboy crush, it amounts to the same thing.

And I think that this infatuation entailed a certain level of objectification of Lily. He idealized her. We see a lot of self-consciousness in his interactions with her; he tries to be careful not to say the wrong thing. After the tragic failure of this in the events of SWM, those interactions obviously went away to a large degree, but I don't think he ever totally matured in his conception of her. She continued to be something he wanted that someone else had. Nonetheless, it is a testament to the depth of his feeling, for better or for worse, that it motivated him to abandon the Death Eaters and work for the Order. (I know there is a lot of disagreement about this, but I do not see compelling evidence that he ever transformed his view of wizarding conflicts away from his Lily-centric perspective. At most, I think it might be slightly ambiguous.)

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

Yeah, but huge changes had occurred in both their lives in that 3 years, Snape joined a gang of criminals, one where you had to prove to the gang leader that you were willing to murder and torture. Voldemort was bent on overthrowing the legal government and installing himself as a dictator. He didn't stand for slacking from his minions. So there is Snape, deep in the Death Eater ranks and there is Lily...firmly fighting the Death Eaters. She also fell in love, got married and bore a child. That sounds better for this time of year. This changes people, it changes people profoundly. I'm minded of what someone said about his experiences in the Civil War. When it was over he felt like he was living in a completely different country. The Chinese don't have a curse that says, 'May you live in interesting times.' for nothing. To say they stayed frozen in time is...disengenous to say the least, IMO.

Yeah, he makes my little heart go pitter patter. I think it has to be along the same lines. The fact is Snape was out of Lily's life from the time he was 15. After that her life change completely and his life changed completely. I think he had no idea what kind of woman Lily grew into. There was no way he could know. We don't even know if the school schedule at Hogwarts was the same as when Harry attended so it could be that they were not even in the same classes.

Well I think being so greviously insulted by someone you considered your closest freind would cause you to feel like you had been cut to the bone with a meat cleaver. It probably caused Lily a good deal of agony. Snape, probably felt pain at it as well. But something springs to my mind. There is a discussion over in the James thread talking about James drew Lily's initials in his work paper and how this is a clear sign of his interest in her. We get a very good look at one of Snape's textbooks. One where he has written all over it. There isn't a L E to be found in it. I find that very interesting. When did this great love start? The textbook was used after the breakup and Snape was writing in it then. But no sign of Lily's initials anywhere in it? :hmm:

Yes I agree. Worshipping from afar is just that. Worshipping from a considerable distance and while distance can make the heart grow fonder it doesn't do much to foster knowledge of that person's character.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

We show our love in different ways depending on our personality. Love is mostly something we keep more secret until we know how the other person feels. James was much more extraverted than Severus, that is obvious. He needs to get things out constantly (for example, writing it down) - something that is also seen in Harry's personality - while Snape rather keeps the secrets inside himself. He chose the people he trusted carefully and he chose Lily, this by a reason.

This later made him a good key for Dumbledore; He was mostly (the mudblood thing is a big exception) very good at collecting information while not giving the wrong people too much. As a slytherin who was in love with a mudblood, he probably learnt acting very well, so he could later keep pretending in the position he ended up in. While Harry has the honest personality, Snape has the useful one; luckily he's also on the right side.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

Well, honesty and deception have their uses both! :) Harry's honesty made it easier for him to trust in people, which was important to the mission; I think people practiced in deception have much more trouble with that, in general, because they often hold up a mirror to themselves with everyone they meet.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

I find "schoolboy crush" and "infatuation" both rather inedequate terms for a state that lasted some 20 years past the time both Sev and Lily had finished school, and inspired in Snape the actions that we see him take in "The Prince's Tale". Dumbledore calls it love, and that seems the only adequate word to me.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

I think that we might keep a few things in mind while discussing Severus and Lily's relationship:

1) Severus and Lily knew each other as friends from the age of about nine until their friendship ended at the end of their Fifth Year. That's about seven years. So, they probably knew each other pretty well.

2) Lily appears to have been one of the few, if not the only , bright spots in Severus' life, so the impact she made on it/him was huge and lasting.

3) Just because Severus was a teenager doesn't make his love for Lily "infatuation." IMO, the love we feel as teenagers is just a powerful and can be as deep as that of people in their 20's and older. Infatuation suggests that the whole relationship was one-sided and shallow, which it wasn't. There was a deep friendship which, for Severus, blossomed into love.

These things having been said, IMO, Severus loved his best friend, Lily Evans, with the depth that one bestows only on their "first love." But he, like many adolescent boys before him, chose a path that went against what his love wanted him to do (some teen boys drink or use drugs when their girlfriends want them to give them up and end up losing the relationship because of such poor choices).

Severus felt guilty about calling Lily a despicable name, and we see him exhibit this when they talk outside Gryffindor's entrance. So, he's aware that he is at least a large part of the cause of the end of their friendship. (I happen to feel there was more to the end of their friendship, and his name-calling was just the chance to break if off, but that's not for this thread.) He wasn't ready for the friendship to end and, I think he still clung to the memories of the good times they had together because he didn't have much else to brighten his life.

We don't see anything of Severus, first-hand, while he was a DE up to the time he overheard the Prophecy. We don't know how much he still thought of Lily or if he had tried and possibly succeeded in putting some of that behind him. Not that he ever totally stopped loving her, but that he was able to move on a bit. But, when he learned that she was in danger, I think it reminded him of his love for her and brought that all back again. We know he loved her enough to risk going to Voldemort to spare her. We know he loved her enough to risk going to Dumbledore to save her life when he didn't trust Voldemort to spare her.

There is no indication that Severus ever "stalked" Lily after they broke up. I'm sure that Sirius or Lupin would have noticed this and mentioned it to Harry at some time. But they did not even seem to be aware that Severus was in love with her, so he must not have openly exhibited his feelings at any time either of them knew him. I'm not sure where the "unhealthy" aspect of a young man loving his best friend, even after they've broken up, comes in. There's no stalking, trying to approach her, trying to win her back, harassing her and her family, or any other contact that we know of once Lily tells him that she doesn't want to be friends anymore. And deep feelings are not something that can be turned off at will. Almost every love song has to do with lingering feelings for someone who is no longer in love with the singer and how desperate they are because of that. So, if Severus' feelings were unhealthy, then there are an awful lot of unhealthy people around singing along.

That he continued to carry a love for her deep in his heart and that it was possibly rekindled by his putting her in danger by telling Voldemort the prophecy doesn't seem "unhealthy," but seems a fairly normal reaction.

Severus' inability to separate Harry from his memories and abhorrence of James is not healthy, but, considering his and James' "relationship" during their school years, I think it is understandable -- not right, but understandable. Harry brought out all of the worst in Severus, and Severus was not able to handle his reactions to Harry. This is one of his major flaws. He should have been able to get rid of all that baggage and see Harry for who and what he was, not as a reincarnation of James.

But, as far as Severus' love for Lily, I see it as a "first love" that was special to Severus because of what Lily meant in his life and because of his regrets for things he did that negatively affected their relationship. It was so special, so deep, that it gave him the strength to face Voldemort and Dumbledore to try to save Lily's life, and, after she died, it was enough to overcome his hatred for James and to agree to watch over Harry. However, I think that Severus eventually moved beyond just his desire to protect Harry as Lily's son and that his actions became focused on the destruction of Voldmort and saving the world from his domination. To me, this happened when he accepted the announcement from Dumbledore that Harry, the final horcrux, had to die to destroy Voldemort. He was very upset about it, but he accepted it as a part of what had to be done to defeat Voldemort.

We all know that Severus Snape was not perfect. But, IMO, his actions were not based on an "unhealthy infatuation," but on a deep and abiding love, an unwavering sense of loyalty, and an eventual determination to vanquish Voldemort.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

I'd say that what Snape felt was an obsessive love (like Slughorn said in "The Half-Blood Prince", HBP: "When you have seen as much life as I have, you will not underestimate the power of obsessive love....")


I think it was more than that, way beyond just doing things his friend didn't want him to do. I'd say that Snape chose a path that was directly harmful to his best friend, but was blind to that because he considered her an exception.

I think at the time he called her "filthy little Mudblood", he did see calling her that name to her face as his only mistake, because he doesn't seem to have put much value in her concerns about the Dark Arts, Death Eaters, or the welfare of other Muggleborns. I think he cares that he upset her, but not about why he upset her. I do think he valued their past friendship, but not enough to consider what bigotry was doing to it.

His "moving on a bit" involved joining the Death Eaters, so I'd have to agree that Snape wasn't really thinking about Lily or her welfare during that time. His placing her in danger does seem to have jogged his feelings about Lily to the forefront of his mind. I think this shows the same disconnect that he displayed as a teenager about how the violent bigotry would work agianst Lily-- as a teen, he engaged in the behavior, but when he slips up and calls Lily "filthy little Mudblood" to her face, he's very sorry he had something to do with upsetting her; as an adult, he's joined the Death Eaters, and there's no sign that violent bigotry bothered him-- and that violent bigotry posed a constant threat to Muggleborn Order-member Lily-- but then when he does something that directly places her in harms way, he again springs into damage control action. I think what concerned Snape wasn't any harm that came to Lily through indirect actions of his, but he became upset if he could see a direct line between what he did and Lily. I don't think he wanted any direct responsibility for harm coming to her or for her disapprovel. I think when it comes to Snape's character, the key word there was "responsibility". I think that was something Snape tried to avoid, but his feelings for Lily made it impossible for him to completely overlook the consequences of his actions whenever a straight line could be drawn from what he did to how it affected Lily.

I don't think Snape stalked Lily directly-- but I do think there is enough evidence to pick out a pattern of behavior where he stalked those people around her in an attempt to control who she would be friends with-- for example, his treatment of Petunia, stalking Lupin in fifth year, and attacking James during seventh year when Lily was dating James. I don't think Snape would count this as doing anything to Lily, though. I don't think he would launch any direct stalking campaign against her, either. I think he would work more around the edges, trying to control who she would see or like.

Actually, I think part of the problem was Snape's skewed version of James. I don't think Harry would have been a bad person if he was a reincarnation of James, or that that would somehow make Snape's behavior understandable or right. I think Snape had a lot of baggage, but a lot of it was of his own device-- something I think he finally admitted in the end.

I can see Snape's love for Lily meaning that to him. I also agree that Snape had moved beyond his preserving Harry's life because it was good for Snape's feelings about Lily, and was ready to work to bring Voldemort down.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

Well, in the first place, I was thinking of teen-aged Snape at that point. I'm sorry I didn't make that clear.

Secondly, well--I think "infatuation" is a fairly broad term. I use it to include "carrying the torch for," which can certainly be applied to people who know each other long and well.

However, I'm aware that not everybody uses these terms the same way, but to me, that is secondary, as I think we shouldn't be focusing on the term. That was my point in the last sentence you quoted from me; it doesn't matter what the term is, what matters is characterizing his feelings with respect to her. And whatever each of us may call it, I think he did objectify her somewhat. Not in the sense of treating her harshly, or rudely--at least not in a superficial sense--but in the sense that she was something to possess, and yet he did not. I think that was a cause of anguish in a way that selfless love could not be, and that it's pretty difficult to explain his intense hatred of James and especially Harry without this aspect to his feelings.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

You seem to be equating anguish over the loss/absence of a loved one with selfishness. It seems to me that by this standard, no love is selfless. Consider a partner in a marriage whose wife chooses to leave him for another man. Would we counsel such a man that he is selfish for feeling sadness and anger at his wife's choice, would we accuse him of objectifying his wife, because she is clearly happy with her new lover? If you would agree that such a man could be presumed to "love" his wife rather than merely be infatuated with her - what is it that you see in the development of Snape's character within the series that distinguishes for you Snape's feelings from those of my hypothetical character?

The answer that Snape hates James does not work for me. Firstly because in my hypothetical - I would expect the typical person in such a situation to experience negative feelings toward their spouse's new lover. And secondly - because unlike the character in my hypothetical, Snape can be presumed to have hated James since before he lost Lily to him, and for reasons that were initially, completely independent of any feelings James and Lily may have had for one another.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

I agree. Snape seemed overly consumed with Lily from the first moment they meet (in their home town when he sees she is also magical) to when he makes the statement "I won't let you!" (wanting to control her and/or who she spends time with in order to seemingly keep her close to him).

I think even more than thinking she was an exception I think he may have believed he could keep her safe or talk others into not harming her (as when he pleas to Voldemort to save her).

I generally agree. I think, as evidenced from the "I won't let you" scene, I think their friendship was already kind of rocky and the mudblood incident was the straw that broke the camel's back. I also agree that he probably cared that he upset her but not why - some people are very good at compartmentalizing their feelings which, in Snape's case, would allow him to love Lily despite the fact that he believed her blood lineage to be inferior. I think this ability to compartmentalize his feelings would have played an even more important role as a spy against Voldemort when he would have had to keep certain things secret or hidden from Voldemort's legilimens abilities - how he did this is another topic of discussion...

Meh.. I agree and disagree with what you're saying. It's an interesting approach to thinking Snape only seemed to care when it was something he did personally that effected Lily directly. Where I disagree is in the statement that joining the death eaters equates to his moving on. I don't think he was ever sufficiently able to move past Lily though he might have put of airs of having done so to show Voldemort he was fully committed to him (there's a quote I'm thinking of where Voldemort says something to the effect of 'once I convinced him [Snape] otherwise [that Lily was nothing to be desired] he realized the error of his ways.' totally not an exact quote but I don't have the books with me). I think he still maintained the belief that he could somehow save her from Voldemort's wrath should she become his target or a target of the DEs - and he actually does save her by approaching Dumbledore upon learning she has become a target.

I agree that Snape seemed to skirt around the edges of Lily's life trying to play puppetmaster and I agree that there is a definite pattern of behaviour in evidence in the books. Where I think it might have turned to stalking at all would have been when Lily and James began to date. Yes, their friendship was effectively over but the sheer fact that she would entertain the thought of dating Snape's nemisis let alone start a relationship with him might have set Snape over the edge. Snape, in addition to his controling behavior, also displayed a tendancy to completely lose emotional control. There is at least one time in canon what he flies off the handle and becomes sort of deranged and I think something Lily dating James might have sent him over that edge again - at least temporarily. For all Snape's seeming control and stoic demeanor I think it's a thin facade for a boy with the ability to become overcome by emotions he's trying to repress (perhaps emotions that remind him of a painful childhood.)

Snape definitely had a skewed vision of James - it seems that he makes a snap judgement of people and then sticks absolutely to those judgements; James as a self-righteous egotist and Lily as a pure, angelic girl to be protected. My opinon only...

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

To me, the reason I view Snape's love for Lily as potentially unhealthy is that it seems to be the motivating factor behind everything he does. And a lot of what he does is being unkind and unfair to the students of Hogwarts. I don't think that's a good legacy because I don't think Lily would have approved of the way Snape treated the students. That shows me a lack of understanding of Lily on Snape's part: if he was doing it all for Lily, and if he understood Lily, he'd have been a kinder, fairer teacher IMO.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

I agree. Infatuation tends to be quite temporary and is fueled by idealizing the other person. Severus and Lily were close friends for nearly half their lives when their relationship ended. As one gets to know the object of their infatuation and deals with day to day issues, either love steps in or it does not. Up until the time when Severus began to fear for Lily's life, we do not see obsessive behavior from him. When he does become obessessed is after her death--but his obssession, driven by his grief and guilt, is to protect Harry and bring down Voldemort, all on Lily's behalf.

And we see that Sirius tended to have the same reaction just in the opposite direction. Many times Sirius treated Harry as if he were James. Severus is not alone with his inability to see Harry as a separate individual.

I think there were some overlapping issues here and it's difficult to tease them apart. Because on the one hand we have the problems between Snape and the Marauders--but I don't think Snape necessarily saw a connection between those issues and Lily. His spying seemed due to his dislike of them, not because he was trying to control her.

I'm not sure that every personality quirk Snape exhibited proves he had unhealthy feelings for Lily. He had quite a horrible childhood and that leaves heavy and lasting scars. (I find it interesting that where his father apparently yelled a lot, Snape would get quieter as he got angrier, perhaps in an attempt to not be like his father.) And he didn't treat all students badly (he was Draco's favorite teacher)--just some of them for personal reasons, which is no excuse. It seemed to me that once tasked with protecting Harry, Snape put everything else on hold--including his own emotional and social development. Which seemed to help him fit in with the Death Eater clan, so in the end worked toward the overall good, I suppose, though it was pretty rough on some of his students.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

Severus came from a dysfunctional home, he wore odd-looking clothes -- which probably drew attention to him and made him the blunt of jokes and bullying, he only had the idea that he was a wizard and would soon be moving beyond that to look forward to. Then he sees a girl who has capabilities even more advanced than his even though they are the same age. He's enthralled by her and watches her until he can work up enough courage to approach her. I don't see why he wouldn't be very attracted to Lily. I don't see this as being "consumed." It wasn't as though he had people standing in line to be friends with him. He was socially awkward, physically unattractive (as he's described), and, being a wizard, was possibly considered a "freak" among the Muggles in his neighborhood the way Petunia considers Lily a freak. So, IMO, he spends his time being with someone he likes, has fun with, and has things in common with. Many Best Friends spend all of their time together, excluding others because they are more comfortable that way. I, personally, don't consider this being "consumed."

Lily, on the other hand, has options, but chooses to spend time with Severus. I don't see how he is controlling her or keeping others away from her. She certainly makes it clear in the memories that he shows Harry that Lily is not shy about ragging on him about things and storming off in a snit when she feels wronged. That's far from being "controlled."

IMO, there's nothing wrong with wanting to protect your friend. And, he did see her as an exception...he tells her this when she asks if it makes a difference if she's Muggleborn and he tells her "no," when he knows it does to many witches and wizards. So, he's telling her it doesn't to him. He tells her again in the memory at the Gryffindor entrance.

The risk he took asking Voldemort to spare her, a "Mudblood," was great. Voldemort could have interpreted that as a weakness for Muggleborns and Severus could have ended up dinner for Nagini. So I don't dismiss the importance of that or of his approaching Dumbledore, cringing in fear that he might be killed, and pretty sure that he is at least going to Azkaban, since he's a DE.

We don't see the ending to "I won't let you..." but, as it is followed up with Severus saying "I didn't mean -- I just don't want to see you made a fool of -- " (DH, US Edition, page 674) Severus realizes that James is attracted to Lily and my interpretation was that he was telling her he wouldn't let her be made a fool of. This seems to be an attempt to protect her rather than control her. As we see through all of his memories with Lily, verbal communication was not one of his strong points when he was around her. I don't see this as "objectifying" her. He knew her too well to think he could actually control her.

I don't see joining the DEs as "moving on," but more as one of the few options he had as a young Slytherin who'd been befriended by two DE wannabes. I think after he was removed from day to day contact with Lily, such as he had as school, he was able to do a bit of "out of sight, out of mind" moving on. It didn't hurt quite as much because he didn't have to see her all the time. But when he realized she was in danger, I think he again became aware of how much he loved her and that he didn't want to see her killed, especially since it was because of the prophecy he'd carried to Voldemort.

Severus was smart enough to know that if he approached Voldemort to spare Lily's life and showed how much he loved her that love would have become a weapon that could have been used by Voldemort against him. Remember what he told Harry about wearing his hear on his sleeve. So, the "convincing" that Voldemort did was, IMO, Severus acting as though he only wanted Lily as a possession. Severus knew that if she was spared he wouldn't have any chance with her. That was over a long time ago. I don't think he ever disillusioned himself into believing that she would ever care for him again. But, he still loved her and didn't want her harmed.

He also knew Lily well enough to know that if Voldemort offered her a chance to live by standing aside and letting him kill Harry, she wouldn't do that. She would die first. That, IMO, is why he risked going to Dumbledore. He knew how powerful Dumbledore was and that he was the only one who had any chance of saving Lily's life. He was so afraid when he met with Dumbledore on the hillside that, according to TPT, "his fear infected Harry too," even though Harry was only viewing a memory and was in no danger himself.

But, Severus went on in spite of that fear in order to try to set right what he had started in motion through a thoughtless and uncaring act: carrying the prophecy to Voldemort without any concern that someone was going to die.


Could you give some examples of Severus trying to "play puppetmaster"? I'm not sure that I understand where you see these patterns. From the time that we see any of his memories with Lily she is clearly in control of the relationship. The few times we see Severus "deranged" are in the Shrieking Shack, when Harry goes Pensieve-diving, and when he finds out Lily is dead. I don't see how any of those relate to Lily dating James.
So, I'm interested in the exact incidents you are referring to.

Severus met James and Sirius on the train to Hogwarts and went to school with them for seven years, evidently having several "interactions" with them. I don't see this as making a "snap judgement." It seems that his evaluation of James is pretty much on target. As this is not the James thread, I won't go into detail, but, I think we see enough canon to back up Severus' opinion. Where he was totally off target and one of his biggest short-comings was to judge Harry by James' behavior and to treat Harry badly because of his hatred for James. That he was not able to separate the two was wrong and I think he finally realized it after seeing Harry's memories during the Occlumency lessons as well as seeing the type of person Harry was during the campaign to vanquish Voldemort.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

While he didn't treat Draco badly, I disagree that his treatment of Draco was fair. Giving a student an unfair advantage -- for example, turning a blind eye to misbehavior such as Draco hexing other students -- is just as unfair as treating them badly.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

We've been here before. McGonagall gave Harry a broom his first year. Dumbledore turned a blind eye when Harry and Ron broke a gazillion school rules that would have gotten others expelled. I'm not sure why this has bearing on the shortcomings in Severus' personality and teaching style.

None of the teachers were totally fair. But Severus did have it in for Harry because of James. It was sad that he couldn't get past that for such a long, long time.

Re: Severus Snape: Character Analysis Reboot v.6
 

I'm not sure what McGonagall acquiring a broom for Harry to play Quidditch has to do with Snape giving Draco an unfair advantage in Potions Class or in getting away with corridor hexings, actually.