Snapedom

Looking at James and Sirius and Snape's backgrounds, one might almost expect Snape to be the hero and the other two to be the villains. Snape, the young half-blood living in poverty, magically talented but with an unhappy childhood, seems like the type of protagonist in a fairy tale who starts off living in misery, but will eventually win fame, fortune, and love after going on adventures and proving his compassion and bravery. James and Sirius, the arrogant and wealthy young purebloods, seem more like wicked stepsister--er, stepbrother--material than heroes. In fact, if you change the details just a little, you wind up with Harry in place of Snape, and Draco in place of James and Sirius.

It seemed like JKR was deliberately setting up parallels between these two characters, and also with Tom Riddle/Voldemort, but the similarities between Harry and Snape are the strongest of the three. I was certain that we were going to see some kind of confrontation and rapprochement between them by the end of the series. John Granger, who wrote "The Hidden Key to Harry Potter" (along with a number of other Potter-related books), believed that Snape had been in love with Lily, and that his and Harry's mutual love for her would eventually enable them to work together and respect each other, and maybe even become friends. (I'm paraphrasing, since I seem to have misplaced my copy of the book, but I remember that the author believed there would be a reconciliation between Harry and Snape, once Harry realized that Snape was working on his behalf for Lily's sake.)

The book was written well before the end of the series; I believe it was post-GoF but pre-OotP, so Mr. Granger had good intuition about Snape and Lily, without even having the benefit of the hints laid out in the Snape's Worst Memory scene. He was wrong about there being a true reconciliation, though, since Snape did not live long enough to achieve one.

It's true that Harry almost immediately changed his opinion of Snape after viewing the flask of memories, at least once the shock of learning that he had to sacrifice himself wore off. He defended Snape to Voldemort, loudly proclaiming him to be Dumbledore's man. He named his youngest son partly after Snape, and told young Albus Severus that Snape was the bravest man he ever knew. If you count interviews with the author as part of canon, then we're told that Harry even made sure that Snape got his Headmaster's portrait at Hogwarts.

However, this felt unsatisfying to me, because it's all too easy to forgive and praise a conveniently dead martyr, rather than to have to make peace with the living man, with all his warts (figuratively speaking) and snark. It doesn't really cost Harry anything to laud a dead hero; he doesn't have to acknowledge mixed feelings and old resentments, or awkwardness about the idea of Snape loving Lily. He doesn't have to apologize to Snape for doubting his loyalties or thank Snape for protecting him, and he doesn't have to work at attempting a reconciliation with a Snape who might feel angry and embarrassed about having his private thoughts revealed, and who might not be gracious about accepting apologies or thanks.

There's a hint in the post-DH interviews that perhaps Harry doesn't want to acknowledge any mixed feelings or seek a reconciliation with Snape: JKR says that he never went to speak with Snape's portrait, which seems rather curious to me. Even if the portrait isn't the real Snape, wouldn't Harry want to pay tribute to the man who had protected him and remained Dumbledore's true man by expressing his thanks to the portrait, since he couldn't thank the real man? Didn't he want to learn more about Lily's childhood from Snape? (Although I'm not quite sure how far the portrait's memories and knowledge would extend. JKR said that they're very limited, and yet Phineas Nigellus seems to be very autonomous and capable of independent thought.) And didn't Harry want to confront Snape about the way that Snape had treated him unfairly over the years (whether the unfairness is perceived or real; I think it's a mixture of both) because Harry resembled his father so closely, something that was beyond Harry's control and hardly his fault. Even if he knows Snape is a good guy, long-standing resentments and hurt feelings are not so easily forgotten. With Snape dead, maybe it was easier for Harry to set aside those feelings and not have to look too closely at them. It's easier to see only the good side of a deceased hero when he isn't around to reawaken old grievances with his abrasive personality.

Neither does Snape have to reconcile his hatred for James versus his love for Lily in the single person of Harry. He doesn't have to acknowledge that maybe there is more Lily in Harry than he had thought, and maybe, just maybe, he has developed some fondness for the boy, as Dumbledore suggested.

I really wanted to see that post-war confrontation and/or reconciliation between Harry and Snape, so I felt cheated when I didn't get it. I certainly didn't expect them to hug each other at the end or anything, but I thought there would be a mutual acknowledgement of respect for each other. I could picture Harry awkwardly but earnestly trying to apologize to and thank Snape, who would be embarrassed about Harry seeing his memories, and brusquely brush off Harry's well-meant words. Harry in turn might bristle at this apparent slight of his good intentions, maybe grumble that Snape is still a bit of a git, but nevertheless, he'd do everything within his power to clear Snape's name and see that his heroism was made public. (Whether the public would actually accept this or not is another matter.)

Regarding Snape, I've been wondering ever since reading OotP if he might have some deeply hidden sympathy for Harry. I wondered if he knew about Umbridge's punishment with the quill pen that cut lines into Harry's hand, and if so, what he thought about it. Although he frequently gives his students a verbal tongue-lashing or gives them nasty detentions like bedpan-scrubbing, he never inflicts a physical punishment on them, and it was my gut instinct that he would be angered at this abuse of a child, even a child that he didn't like. I think this is confirmed by the way that he tries to shield Luna, Ginny, and Neville by giving them detention with Hagrid instead of the Carrows in DH. I think that if possible, he would have protected Harry from Umbridge's detention (maybe disguising his intentions by claiming to give Harry a "worse" detention, like dissecting some sort of slimy creature for potion ingredients), but he wasn't able to do so without blowing his cover with the Death Eaters. If that was the case, it must have been frustrating for him, another example of someone he was unable to protect.

And there is the fact that Harry had a miserable childhood in which he was neglected and emotionally abused by his aunt and uncle. I don't know if Snape knew about the exact circumstances of Harry's home life, though I suspect that he didn't. Dumbledore convinced him that he should protect Harry for Lily's sake, so he probably would have objected--for Lily's sake, if not Harry's--if he knew that Dumbledore was letting her child be abused. Still, if he knew that Harry was being raised by Petunia, he could probably figure out that she wouldn't be the kindest of guardians to Lily's child.

Probably he tried not to think about it too much, especially before Harry came to Hogwarts and it was easier to ignore. Dwelling on thoughts of Lily's child would remind Snape of his guilt over the part he played in her death. And after Harry arrived at Hogwarts looking like a young James, Snape probably wanted to have a good excuse to hate him. If he could convince himself that Harry was a spoiled brat instead of a neglected child, he wouldn't have to feel sympathy for the boy.

But deep down, maybe deep enough to be hidden from his conscious thoughts, I suspect he knew that Harry's childhood wasn't really all that pleasant; he just didn't want to admit it. If he ever did confront that realization, I think that he would feel some grudging sympathy, which would in turn make him uncomfortable and resentful because it would again remind him of his guilt (because it's his fault that Harry is an orphan--or so he believes), because he doesn't want to feel sympathy for James's son, and also because it would remind him of his own unhappy childhood.

Even if he did manage to recognize that he and Harry are more alike than he'd care to admit, I don't really see him apologizing to Harry for any past mistreatment; it's just not in his character. I don't see him bonding with Harry over Lily's memory, either. But I can see him giving Harry a grudging acknowledgment of respect, perhaps a simple, "You did well, Potter." And perhaps he'd mask it with a bit of sarcastic humor: "You didn't do too badly for a reckless Gryffindor, Potter." (In one of my fanfics, Snape magnanimously grants Gryffindor five points on Harry's behalf for "saving the world".) By this point, I would hope, Harry would have gained enough perception to recognize the praise as genuine, however grudging or sarcastically phrased, and in spite of his mixed feelings for Snape, he would feel proud that he had finally won that hard-earned praise from his toughest teacher and former enemy. And hopefully he would finally recognize and acknowledge how much Snape had taught him, even if Snape brushed off his thanks.

They would never become bosom buddies (in my fantasy, anyway; you Snarry shippers out there might have a different one ^_^), but they would gradually grow more comfortable with each other over the years. They would continue bickering with and insulting each other, but after awhile, it would take on an almost affectionate air, and they would enjoy having a good argument or debate with each other from time to time.

Of course I didn't expect JKR to follow my vision exactly, but I felt like the series had been leading up to a final confrontation between Snape and Harry, and that portion of the story sort of ended with a fizzle instead of a bang, at least for me. They spend most of the final book far apart from each other, and when Harry finally does see Snape towards the end, he isn't really able to speak with Snape before he dies. He does get to see Snape's memories posthumously, but he's a passive observer, unable to interact with Snape-in-the-past.

Even if Snape had died before he and Harry had a chance to reconcile with each other, I could accept it more easily if we could see Harry's grief and frustration that he'll never be able to resolve things with Snape. I recall reading a fanfic on Ink Stained Fingers that dealt partially with this theme; unfortunately, I've forgotten the title, but I think it might have been a Harry/Draco story. Anyway, in this story, Voldemort discovers that Snape is a traitor and kills him, sending what's left of him (implying that he died a very painful and gruesome death) back to Dumbledore, and both Harry and Draco feel angry and cheated that they didn't know Snape's true loyalties before he died and that they'll never have a chance to confront him about it.

If I could have seen that sort of frustration, that sense of lack of closure in canon, I think the ending of the book would have rung more true to me. Instead, Harry seems to shift immediately from "Snape's a mean, traitorous bastard" to "Snape's a hero because he loved my mum" without any qualms or second thoughts. It feels as if things have been prettied up, Snape made over into a brave and noble hero (and he is a hero, but he's also more than that), and any conflicting feelings that Harry might have were swept under the rug where he doesn't have to deal with them.

And even though Snape died, Harry might still have gotten a measure of closure from Snape's portrait, which presumably would have some of his personality and could give Harry some insights into the real man.

But he doesn't seek out this closure. Maybe JKR never regarded Snape's part of the story with same level of importance as we do, except to illustrate how Harry differed from Snape, in being able to overcome his unfortunate childhood--because he is a Gryffindor, I suspect, although obviously there are a lot of other factors involved. Harry had the protection of his mother's love and the knowledge that she loved him enough to sacrifice herself for him, and he had two loyal and loving friends who stood by him through thick and thin (well, there was Ron's brief defection, but that was caused by the horcrux, and he did later return to Harry's side). Snape, on the other hand, had parents who seemed more interested in fighting with each other than taking care of him (we see no evidence of any love or affection, although we can't definitively say that they didn't love him), and his childhood friend eventually abandoned him--with some justification, it can be argued, given the "Mudblood" incident, but I think it was clear that they were already growing apart and that she was feeling pressure from her Gryffindor friends to drop him.

Or maybe it was just that the author wanted Harry to have his happy ending without any of the complications that coming to a true sense of understanding with Snape would require. Personally, I would have liked to have seen the joy and triumph of winning the war tempered with a little anger and sorrow. I don't think that it would have detracted from the victory, but rather, made it all the more precious by acknowledging that it had been won due to the sacrifices of those who had fallen in battle--and in Snape's case, what essentially amounts to the sacrifice of nearly two decades of his life spent living as a spy and constantly being reminded of his guilt, whether he survived the war or not.