Harry Potter: Wondering about a few things

[kerravonsen]

Yeah, I know HP canon is full of holes, but that won't stop me from trying to fill them in, or extrapolate from what we know. So in the aid of my insatiable curiosity (and perhaps in aid of fic), here are a few ponderings and questions. Please help me with them!

In canon, Snape hates Harry on sight. I can't remember if Snape ever said in canon that he considered Harry to be a spoiled brat, but if so, whatever gave him that idea? He already knew that Petunia was a spiteful bitch, so why would he think that Petunia would have spoiled Harry? Did he assume that Harry had been brought up by his grandparents the Evanses and that they'd spoiled him? Did he take one look at Harry and short-circuit his brain, thinking Harry == James == spoiled? Did he spend ten years nursing his hatred of Harry for having lived when Lily died? Or what?

I've seen Snape come around in Abusive!Dursleys stories when he comes to deliver Harry's letter and observes the abuse himself... but I'm not writing an Abusive!Dursleys story. So, given Snape's apparent rampant prejudice, and the requirement for a more subtle approach, is there anything that would actually convince Snape that Harry wasn't a spoiled brat?

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Ollivander said that the wand chooses the Wizard. Would there be more than one wand that might suit someone equally well? What if Harry had a slightly different childhood, one where he wasn't abused so much, one where he had a modicum of control over his accidental magic? How likely would it be that Harry ended up with a different wand than in canon?

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Harry's curse scar is the visible sign of the fragment of Voldemort's soul that got attached to Harry when Voldemort tried to kill him as a baby. In canon, that curse was broken, the fragment of soul destroyed, when Harry gave himself up to be killed by Voldemort. Dumbledore was certain that it had to be Voldemort himself who killed Harry, and that Harry had to be willing to die. But what if that wasn't the only way to remove that piece of soul? After all, Dumbledore wasn't a curse-breaker; he could be mistaken. He assumed that Harry was a Horcrux - what if he was mistaken about that too?

What other ways might there be of removing that fragment of Voldemort's soul from Harry?

Comments

[jedibuttercup]

I'd think it should be possible to turn Snape around at any point before the firework in the cauldron incident -- and especially the Sirius/Whomping Willow/etc. incident -- in third year. Because Harry, on his own, hadn't done anything particularly egregious yet; it was all follow-on negativity from James and from Lily choosing James and from Lily dying to protect Harry.

The problem is that Snape is naturally sour, and starts off acting like the bullying types Harry has been oppressed by all his life; and Harry has never been a wilting violet. In canon, he mouths back, even when he shouldn't, during the summer. So his simmering at Snape is as his rebellion against his aunt and uncle, much like his flaming instant resentment for Malfoy &co. is as his detestation for Dudley and his gang. It's certainly not one sided; their instant resentments reinforce one another.

Take away Harry's side by actually improving his home life, so that maybe he just thinks "ok, so Aunt Marge was OK once she saw me from the right angle, and the Dursleys were OK once the right pressure was put on them, how have I got to treat Snape for similar results?" -- and anything might happen. Perhaps once his ability to justify his hatred via Harry's attitude (which he probably got an eyeful of on a semifrequent basis with all that 'glittering' AKA Legilmancy) is kicked out from under him, Snape would lighten up without any outside force applied.

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anyway. I don't know how to advise you on the wands; but I've seen a story that used a Dementor sucking the extra soul-piece off rather than sucking Harry's soul to get around the Horcrux issue. Not sure how helpful that idea might be. =)

[kerravonsen]

Thank you, this is very helpful!

[tree_and_leaf]

What if Harry had a slightly different childhood, one where he wasn't abused so much, one where he had a modicum of control over his accidental magic? How likely would it be that Harry ended up with a different wand than in canon?

I assumed that the wand responded to Harry because it saw a bit of Voldemort in him, more than the similarities in his experience to Tom's (because apart from being an orphan and unhappy, they weren't that similar; Harry isn't perfect, but he doesn't have Tom's gratuitous cruelty. The only times Harry is cruel, it's when he's lost his temper).

[jthijsen.livejournal.com]

I don't think Snape was all that interested or even informed about Harry's upbringing. He had, however, spent the last ten years having to listen to other wizards gushing about that wonderful boy-who-lived. I'd think that the link from 'famous boy' to 'spoiled brat' is a fairly easy one to make.

[kerravonsen]

True.

[astrogirl2.livejournal.com]

I suspect Snape just automatically assumes any kid who isn't him is spoiled, because nobody could have had it as bad as him. And of course anybody named Potter must automatically be everything bad. Plus, everybody thinks Harry is just the greatest thing ever, when all he did is randomly not die, while Snape himself labors in obscurity, hated by all, and if that doesn't count as being spoiled, what does?

Basically, I think his mind's made up, and he has no desire to be confused with the facts. :)

[kerravonsen]

But I want to confuse him with the facts!

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

Did he take one look at Harry and short-circuit his brain, thinking Harry == James == spoiled?

That's what I've always assumed.

Did he spend ten years nursing his hatred of Harry for having lived when Lily died?

But that is also very plausible. Perhaps it's a mixture of the two.

[sixpence-jones.livejournal.com]

Everyone says that Harry is the image of his father. Perhaps Snape was never able to let go of super-imposing a bullying arrogant James over a child about whom he knew nothing (other than being the evidence that the woman he loved chose another man).

Perhaps another, more controlled, way to remove the horcrux would be to flatline Harry under medical conditions with OotP/Healer supervision rather than chancing his luck to a battle. So he would effectively "die". Then revive him (paddles, adrenaline, a rather spiffy Enervate or what not). I suppose this would mean that the horcrux would go wailing off into the ether?

Wandwise: I think that as long as Harry was a horcrux, the wand holding Fawkes' other feather would have chosen him.

[dreamflower]

Did he take one look at Harry and short-circuit his brain, thinking Harry == James == spoiled? Did he spend ten years nursing his hatred of Harry for having lived when Lily died?

Most likely those two factors. Plus, as a couple of other people mentioned, Harry's fame. That can be poisonous for some people-- I know that I very much resent the current celebrity culture in which someone is famous for being famous, rather than for actually doing something. Yet every now and then someone I have dismissed as being one of those shallow types surprises me by doing and accomplishing something admirable.

Would the wand be different if Harry was different by having a different upbringing? I suppose that would be the Wizarding-world equivalent of a "nature vs. nurture" question. Which would be more important: the physical and genetic identity of Harry or his psychological identity?

As to the last question, I am afraid I don't have a solution. Though the whole "reviving him" scenario presented above might work. (Reminds me of the BtVS ep in which Buffy is killed by the Master, and though Xander revived her with CPR, it still activates a new slayer down the line.)

[jaxomsride.livejournal.com]

Firstly, Snape may be feeling guilty every time he looks at Harry, a reminder of Lily with those eyes.

Secondly, Snape despises those who are famous that haven't really earned it. Hence his animosity/ contempt for Lockhart.

Thirdly, Harry's responses to his questions in the first Potions class might have been read as arrogance rather than ignorance. Snape would expect the students to have read some of the material before term starts. Harry of course didn't have the opportunity to do so. Snape with his experiences of James to colour his expectations assumes Harry couldn't be bothered.

Combine those and you can see why he didn't like Harry.

So if he bothers to read up and can actually answer the questions respectfully, perhaps it may help.


Re killing Harry. One drawback is that to "kill" the Horcrux requires a Killing Curse, Gryffindor's sword, Basilisk fang or Fiendfyre.

A more mortal/ normal way of killing him wouldn't work, it would have to be magical.

Out of those, hitting him with an Avada Kedavra did of course work. He came back to defeat Voldy again.

Of course that does have the drawback of severing the connection. No inside track on Voldemort. It also is highly chancy, did it require Voldy to do it or can anyone do it?


The wand chooses the Wizard.
Harry's connection with Voldemort may have influenced that, yes. Other character traits would be less important than the magical connection, I would think. (Curses trump character)