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Snape: a question

I only posted for the first time today as it's bugging me :p I did a search for a forum I could ask about it on and thats what google came up with :)
 
good plan Ice - let us know if you get a response. I must admit to forgetting to check this when I got home last night.

Snape just doesn't have any of the qualities that JK associates with Gryffindor - to reverse the question, why does everyone seem to be adverse to the suggestion that Snape was in Slytherin? He is certainly horrible enough to be a Slytherin (I mean who really would victimise a small boy because of what is father had done 20 years previously?) and hates non-pure blood wizards etc. and, of course, there is the whole death eater thing.
 
Lyra said:
why does everyone seem to be adverse to the suggestion that Snape was in Slytherin?
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I'm not adverse. It's so obvious that he must have been in Slytherin, that it would be an unexpected twist of action if it turned out to be otherwise. I like surprises.
 
Ok the best someone has come up with so far is:

In GoF, American edition, page 531:

"'Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters.'"

Now I know this doesn't state implicitly that he was a Slytherin but it's very close.
 
Ice said:
"'Snape knew more curses when he arrived at school than half the kids in seventh year, and he was part of a gang of Slytherins who nearly all turned out to be Death Eaters."
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Strange as it may seem, Polish translation of this quote implies something opposite, that he joined this band, as if he didn't belong there.
It's as Idun said- we take it for granted without strong evidence. I did also until I read a comment stating that it could be otherwise. Having looked up the relevant scenes in OoP, I started thinking that it's possible.
His character is that of Slytherin- but has any Slytherin turned to good? And we know that not all Gryffindors are innocent.
 
But surely we should be looking at the quote in the context the Author (in this case British) meant it and not how it translates into a foreign language???
 
But it means that this quote can be understood in different ways and it doesn't say directly that Snape was in Slytherin.
BTW, the scenes with James and Sirius didn't make you justify Snape's behaviour towards Harry.
 
To my mind, Snape's bullying Harry cannot be justified. Harry is not responsible for what his father did. As a teacher, Snape should treat Harry like other students, even if he hates him.
 
Like others? Hmmm... :D For example?
For me, knowing Snape's past made me understand him and justify his behaviour towards Harry. Furthermore, I lost all sympathy to Sirius and I was not sad about his death. Therefore I found OoP the best of HP book- because everything stops being so black and white.
 
Snape is too single minded to see past Harry's father when he looks at Harry. When James and Snape were at school, James was popular and everyone paid attention to him, he was the Gryffindor's seeker and won the cup at least once to be in the "Hall of Fame" thingy that Hermione showed him. So in other words, he was the opposite of Snape so, when Harry comes to school, he is naturally already famous for something that his mother did to save him and living after Voldermort. So everyone knows his name and talks about him and looks up to him just like James. He is also the seeker for Gryffindor. Maybe all this hostility towards Harry is because Snape asumes that Harry is a fame seeker and wants attention and is basically a miniversion of James. On the first day he doesn't even give Harry a chance because he automatically assumes that. He never gives Harry the chance to prove him otherwise either, and all of his rescues and great deeds that he does against Voldermort do not do anything but enhance this hate for Harry/James.
 
h_carnahan said:
James was popular and everyone paid attention to him, he was the Gryffindor's seeker and won the cup at least once to be in the "Hall of Fame" thingy that Hermione showed him.
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Erm actually he was a Chaser, not a seeker.
 
Im sure James was a seeker. I remember in the Order of the Phoenix he was playing with the snitch alot. Maybe im mistaken. havnt read the books in a while.
 
But Snape didn't hate James for his being seeker or chaser. He hated him because of constant persecution and humilitation.

And Harry did little to convince Snape that he's different from his father. If you look close, you'll see that Snape is right in many cases concerning Harry, who is let off without punishment while breaking rules with support of other teachers.
 
Catalyst said:
Im sure James was a seeker. I remember in the Order of the Phoenix he was playing with the snitch alot. Maybe im mistaken. havnt read the books in a while.
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No you're not mistaken :) In OOTP he was playing around with the snitch alot - and it was never stated in the books which position he played. In an interview JKR said that he was a Chaser and that he was only playing around with the snitch to show off. If you're basing it on the film, then WB did change his position to a seeker.
 
Ice said:
No you're not mistaken :) In OOTP he was playing around with the snitch alot - and it was never stated in the books which position he played. In an interview JKR said that he was a Chaser and that he was only playing around with the snitch to show off. If you're basing it on the film, then WB did change his position to a seeker.
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I wonder why they did that?
 
My guess is that they were aiming for the whole deal of identifying with his father which isn't quite what Rowling have been aiming for in the recent books.

Hopefully it will be a big deal in one of the new books so that they'll have to make drastic changes for the movie adaptation.
 
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