![[info]](https://www.insanejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
Several different lines of argument are used to explain why Severus is behaving in ways that Harry takes as hostile. One is that Severus had to act this way to maintain his cover as Death Eater: That when Voldemort returned Severus could point to his treatment of Harry as evidence that he remained a true DE and was never influenced by Dumbledore's agenda (and this would be supported by the testament of sons of DEs in his class if needed). A different argument is that Severus has strict and demanding standards (both academic and behavioral) as a teacher and Harry repeatedly fails those, thus bringing upon himself sarcasm, wrath, loss of points and detentions, as the case may be. And of course the argument more common among non-fans of Severus, that from the moment Severus saw the physical resemblance between Harry and his father Severus started taking on Harry his unreconciled enmity towards James (whether consciously or unconsciously).
This relationship becomes mutually hostile and results in Harry and his friends mistrusting Severus time and again - when they thought he was cursing Harry's broom and trying to steal the Philosophers' Stone, in the Shrieking Shack in POA, when they went to the Ministry in OOTP despite having already delivered him what should have been a sufficient warning to the Order and when Harry suspects Severus is a party to Draco's plot in HBP (well, he was in a way, but not how Harry expected). Severus' outburst in the Shrieking Shack ("... I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee!...") shows that Severus was offended by this state of affairs, he really expected to be trusted by Harry.
If Severus' behavior was strategic, intending to act the DE part - why would he expect Harry to trust him? Or is it that since their relationship already had a hostile start (whether because of Harry's conduct as a student or because of Severus' unsettled account with James) Severus decided to use it as part of his justification to Voldemort and the DEs (as we see him do with Bellatrix in HBP)? Did Severus expect Harry, perhaps with the aid of more trusted authority figures such as Minerva or Albus, to see the protection beyond the wrath and snark?
How does Albus fit in? In the early books he contributes to the distrust between the two - in PS he says Severus saved Harry so he could hate James' memory in peace, in POA he blames Severus for the need to make a daring rescue of Sirius. But later Albus reassures Harry that Severus was never suspected with any Dark activity since the first war (GOF), tells him how Severus warned the Order and searched for Harry and his friends in the forest, refrains from mentioning Severus' part in the matter of the prophecy until Harry learns of it himself (OOTP vs HBP) and tells Harry again and again that he trusts Professor Snape (HBP). Yet in OOTP he also says he expected Severus to have gotten over the past enough to teach Harry Occlumency successfully. So did Albus initially think he was supporting Severus' cover story but changed gears when he saw things were going badly? Or was he deliberately preventing the reconciliation of undesired hostility because it served his own plots?
This relationship becomes mutually hostile and results in Harry and his friends mistrusting Severus time and again - when they thought he was cursing Harry's broom and trying to steal the Philosophers' Stone, in the Shrieking Shack in POA, when they went to the Ministry in OOTP despite having already delivered him what should have been a sufficient warning to the Order and when Harry suspects Severus is a party to Draco's plot in HBP (well, he was in a way, but not how Harry expected). Severus' outburst in the Shrieking Shack ("... I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee!...") shows that Severus was offended by this state of affairs, he really expected to be trusted by Harry.
If Severus' behavior was strategic, intending to act the DE part - why would he expect Harry to trust him? Or is it that since their relationship already had a hostile start (whether because of Harry's conduct as a student or because of Severus' unsettled account with James) Severus decided to use it as part of his justification to Voldemort and the DEs (as we see him do with Bellatrix in HBP)? Did Severus expect Harry, perhaps with the aid of more trusted authority figures such as Minerva or Albus, to see the protection beyond the wrath and snark?
How does Albus fit in? In the early books he contributes to the distrust between the two - in PS he says Severus saved Harry so he could hate James' memory in peace, in POA he blames Severus for the need to make a daring rescue of Sirius. But later Albus reassures Harry that Severus was never suspected with any Dark activity since the first war (GOF), tells him how Severus warned the Order and searched for Harry and his friends in the forest, refrains from mentioning Severus' part in the matter of the prophecy until Harry learns of it himself (OOTP vs HBP) and tells Harry again and again that he trusts Professor Snape (HBP). Yet in OOTP he also says he expected Severus to have gotten over the past enough to teach Harry Occlumency successfully. So did Albus initially think he was supporting Severus' cover story but changed gears when he saw things were going badly? Or was he deliberately preventing the reconciliation of undesired hostility because it served his own plots?
Severus: What's My Motivation?
The Doyleist explanation is that every school story has to have a resident Mean Teacher, and Severus fills that role. However, if we're going to treat these characters as real people...
1) I don't see why maintaining his cover as a DE would require Severus to treat Harry badly. I mean, the guy's a Slytherin! They're supposed to be sneaky, right? What could be sneakier than buttering Harry up, making friends with him--and then handing him over to Voldemort! That would be much more evil than being consistently nasty to the boy, thus putting him on his guard. As the old song says, "Your enemy can't do you no harm/'Cause you know where he's coming from." (The Undisputed Truth, "Smiling Faces" That could be Dumbledore's theme song.) http://www.lyricsdownload.com/undispute
2) I think Severus is a strict and demanding teacher, although not unreasonable, particularly since he's teaching a complicated and potentially dangerous subject. (People who think Snape is mean should have had my kindergarten and fifth grade teachers. They make Snape look like--well, maybe not Gandhi, but certainly Alan Alda.) Harry is not attentive or well-behaved; in fact, he's a dumb jock. They were bound to come into conflict sooner or later.
As an aside, I'd love to see Harry's records from his previous school. Did he get in trouble there, too? And how did the other Hogwarts teachers see him? The only reference we have is when Dumbledore tells Snape they liked him, but that's not testimony directly from the teachers themselves, and DD was trying to jerk Severus around in that scene, anyway.
I do think Severus was taking out some of his ire towards James on Harry, whether he intended to or not. I also think there's a strong element of self-hatred there, since it would have been impossible, at least at first, for Snape to look at Harry and not think about his own role in the deaths of Harry's parents, particularly the Sainted Lily. Guilt often makes people act nasty toward those they have wronged.
3) I do think Severus is one of those people who has trouble judging how he comes across to other people. In his mind, he's being strict but fair; in the minds of Harry and certain others, he's being an unreasonable prick.
4) In the POA scene, there's another angle to be considered: As far as Snape knows, Sirius is a ruthless traitor who killed the Potters. He doesn't know Harry has just been told Black is innocent (of that particular crime, anyway) and instantly changed to a Sirius supporter (in a completely unrealistic instant conversion, IMO). Severus must be thinking something like, "I just rescued these dumb kids from a ruthless mass murderer--who killed Potter's parents, no less!--and a werewolf who's about to transform. Yet they're still being obnoxious and disrespectful to me! Why are they not thanking me?! Why are they not down on the floor kissing my feet in gratitude?! Can they really be so stupid they don't realize the danger they're in? I know they're Gryffindors, but still!"
Re: Severus: What's My Motivation?
Does Severus have 'buttering up' someone he doesn't genuinely admire or at least like in his acting repertoire at all? Also, since he was not planning on betraying Harry to Voldemort at any moment (until he learned that was Albus' plan all along) wasn't it risky to be known as Harry's supportive adult figure? Wasn't there the risk that one day Voldemort would wonder why his agent never made use of his relationship with Harry to lead him into some trap? After Harry's repeated escapes - in GOF and in OOTP this was no longer a concern because Voldemort decided to kill Albus first, but from the vantage point of PS wasn't this an unacceptable risk?
Re: 2: Sorry about your teachers, particularly kindergarten. My brother had a 1st grade teacher that had her class quaking in silence. It wasn't a good year for him. Fortunately we moved at the end of that year or he would have had her for 2 more years.
Re: Severus: What's My Motivation?
As for fanfic-type scenarios in which Severus is publicly harsh with the boy but secretly his mentor: 1) Dumbledore likely would have done (did do) all he could to nip such a relationship in the bud, and 2) given the series of misinterpretations, bad reactions, and so on that colored literally their every interaction from the get-go, there isn't really a moment where such a relationship could get started well, even if Severus had planned on it. I also wouldn't be surprised if Dumbles had been priming Severus to see the boy negatively before he even arrived, as a counter to any such plan, but that's supposition.
Re: Severus: What's My Motivation?
true, but i think harry was influenced by remus lupin's behaviour towards sirius - whom he trusted. by that time harry disliked snape so much that he didn't want him to be right - very much like snape who hated sirius so much he didn't want him to be innocent.
unreasonable, but maybe a typical teenage behaviour.