First Impressions of Snape from OotP

Written June 24 2004, right after reading the book.

What about that bit of Snape abuse? That was very wierd....I read it a couple of times- not the memory itself but when Harry is pulled out by "a fully grown adult-sized Snape" -- and as JKR states: "It was scary"
Snape must have been deeply impacted by both the memory and Harry finding out to act so.....abusive. I mean, he 1)stops lessons with Harry, 2) Throws Harry across the room and 3) Throws something at him, aiming dangerously close to his head. At that moment, I was more struck by #2 and #3. I thought Snape was more.....controlled. But as Snape himself says, one's "worst memory" is the best weapon against them-- and maybe Snape's angry (that word is not nearly strong enough) that he gave his enemy, (Harry, and maybe even Voldemort- with the possibility that Voldemort can possess Harry) their best weapon against him.

Still....it scared me.

NOW we see the purpose of Trelawny! Her class and the O thing are meant to be juxtaposed! See how Snape almost sounds like Trelawny with the "close the mind to all emotion" crap.

Irony: Snape yelling "I told you to empty yourself of emotion!" Snape is certainly not helping Harry.

This freaked me out-actually, I was waiting for this issue to come up- when Harry says "Voldemort" in his presence- Snape freaks out- actually yells for Harry "Do not say the Dark Lord's name!" There is a major, Definate theme here! The power of a name....
And Snape, the cool person who seemingly has controlled his emotions, who we the readers thought would be above such petty differences as a name------is trapped by it too. This reminds us that Snape is human and has flaws (if the whole keeping a grudge thing didn't convice you). Actually, I have more respect for Snape now, to see that he has a flaw (and that he has a definate reason for hating James.)

This though, is nothing compared to the last sentence in the chapter "Snape's worst memory":
"What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was not being shouted at or having jars thrown at him -- it was that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him."
Wow....Snape has been right all along........it took, well, proof for Harry to believe it.
?Has Snape ever been wrong about anything?

Snape's still as ambiguous as ever---but POOR SNAPE! those bastards! No wonder why he hates the maurauders!
And we don't have a specific reason to trust Snape- Dumbledore just asserts it.

And WHAT is the deal with the Oocra- occllam- oh crap let me check-occlumency thing? nice to see that Snape's teaching it... but what is the significance of Harry being able to see though dreams?
(That was a VERY cool hint from JKR, having Snape say that the secret of the O thing was in the eyes...which leads me to beleve that 3 people can (what Muggles call) mind read: Voldemort (purpose of O lessons), Dumbledore (he admitted it himself), and Snape.)
? How many times did Snape use the power before....?

At least the tie to Trelawny is closer- both in the fact she made the 1st prediction, and how closely prediction is tied into another image....
Insteresting jux- 1st O class with Snape lecturing about showing "heart on the sleeve', next is Cho crying her brains out.

It was very nice to see Snape out of the context of a class room, or even out of Hogwarts- what with the very random Snape-popping-up-at-Sirius's-house-thing combined with the fact that they almost fought.
I find Snape to be a bit more open too- he leaves behind that bit of emotional distance and insults- sounding more and more like Mafloy (especially with Sirius)

And a last thought: Do you think that Snape would have known that Potter would one day be able to break into his mind?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~