The Bullies You Know, The Bullies You Don't
I've been feeling weirdly disconnected recently. I'm reading my flist, and I keep hitting reply and then winding up not replying. It must be the time of year or month or something. I'm just having trouble opening my mouth. So here I am forcing myself--for the good of the world or something.:-) Because I did find myself thinking HP thoughts today, mostly due to a conversation I was reading about whether or not there would be someone revealed as ESE! in book 7. The point was made, and I agreed, that the bigger mystery for Book 7 seemed to lie in hidden allies rather than enemies, with Harry getting to know himself by coming to a new understanding of people he hated. That made me think about
JKR has said that HBP is in many ways a big set up for Book 7, so much so that they are two parts of the same story. Therefore it's hard for me to believe that the main storyline of HBP, which involved Harry taking an interest in Slytherin villains, will just be dropped, even though I suspect that where HBP is a sort of intimate book Book 7 will open out to tie up the many different plotlines.
In the case of Tom Riddle it seems like Voldemort himself is the one who's drawing the parallels to Harry, and I must say that Tom's back story in HBP really didn't seem to resonate with Harry. I'm sure Voldemort will eventually make a speech explaining just how he sees himself in Harry, but I don't know if it will click with me so much. Maybe something about Harry having the blood of good people in his veins and a mother who died to protect him and Voldemort coming from bad blood and a mother who died rather than protect him.
The two that Harry is more connected to are, obviously, Draco and Snape. I was thinking about how Dumbledore in PS/SS draws the parallel between H/D and J/S as shorthand for describing how Snape and James hated each other. He's got good reason to see the parallel that year, since that is the year Draco seems to be at his most Snape-like in spying on the Trio and trying to get them in trouble, just as Sirius claimed Snape always did. (And Snape was still doing this as he got older, though Draco is not.) Yet obviously history has not repeated itself, despite Harry and Draco hating each other. In Snape's eyes this generation's Snape/James is probably Snape/Harry. Where H/D *is* a parallel to J/S is perhaps that since they were both schoolboy rivalries there were misunderstandings and hurt on both sides. We've seen evidence of Snape being hurt by James, of Snape feeling bullied and humiliated. This doesn't translate into his relationship with Harry since Harry just doesn't have the power to do that. I've also just realized that arguments that try to project too many misunderstandings onto the H/S dynamic tend to ring false to me.
Not that they don't ever misunderstand each other; they do. But I don't think it's a situation like two boys who want friends and are sensitive. Snape may have wanted to be friends with James at one time, to be admired by him...but I don't think that's the way he is with Harry.
So what is the connection between them? I think HBP hits the point several times. Harry and Snape are more connected through personality. There's the obvious moment when Hermione says Snape sounds like Harry at a moment when Harry thinks he's at his worst. Harry instinctively feels an understanding with the Prince. He sounds like a kid Harry thinks is really cool. Although we're told Snape had a gang of friends in school when we see him in the past he's got a lot of markers of the social misfit and he's alone. Harry himself has friends and is very popular, yet he's also isolated in fundamental ways, prickly, feels misunderstood. Everyone is a potential enemy, etc.
Harry's relationship with the Prince ultimately does develop into something very intimate, as if the Prince is part of himself. Slughorn, of course, literally confuses the two in taking the Prince's work for Harry's. But there's also things like Harry's being better at reading the Prince's handwriting and Harry's defense of the Prince later in the book, as if he understands what this guy is like just by reading his notes: he can tell he's a boy, he explains the Prince's motivation in writing the Sectumsempra note, he defends his intentions towards others and towards Harry. Of course the Prince himself doesn't really need defending. He hasn't done anything. Harry is really defending himself in all these scenes.
I think this suggests that what will be important with Snape in Book 7 is for Harry to recognize these things they have in common personality-wise. Some of the things he hates in Snape he will see in himself and he will be able to understand Snape's motivations where others can't, even if he doesn't want to.
Draco is a whole different situation, I think. Harry and Draco immediately get off on the wrong foot back in first year not because they are the same but because they are different. Draco's way of relating to a strange boy in the robe shop is completely foreign to Harry and so Harry sees nefarious motives in it (he's reminded of Dudley). Through the series Harry is often annoyed by Draco's behavior even at a distance. I don't just mean times when Draco is provoking Harry, but times when he's just behaving. He tells long stories about being chased by Muggles--I think clearly Harry finds this pathetic and stupid. He puts on shows for older kids, he acts the clown, he mimes, he calls attention to himself. I don't think there's a single time in canon that Harry has observed Draco where Draco's actions didn't seem to be suspect just in themselves, or calculated to bug Harry.
Obviously much of the time Draco's actions are suspect but I think it's more than that. I think Harry reacts first not to Draco's beliefs at all but his personality. Snape Harry can understand. Draco I don't think he does because he's just such a different kid. So what is there to understand? Well, here I think again HBP kept hitting it for us. It's not that Harry has to see Draco as like him (though there are things he can relate to), it's that HBP keeps placing Draco in his own context and says yes, this kid is totally different from you but he, too, has a circle of people who care about him and about whom he cares. In observing Draco and trying to figure out what he's up to Harry is forced to concede this, forced to see Draco as having friends and allies just as he has. This after years of qualifying that idea--yes, Draco has Crabbe and Goyle but they are bodyguards, Pansy is a hanger-on, Snape is someone to whom he sucks up.
In HBP Harry keeps being confronted not just by Draco acting differently but with different people who see him differently than Harry does. First there's Narcissa who identifies Harry-without irony-as the boy who's always beating up her son. This, of course, gets into many a fandom discussion about how Draco can be the bully when he's beaten up so much, and here that question seems asked in the text. Narcissa isn't being Petunia here and claiming Dudley's been bullied because he cut his knuckle punching someone else. Yes, Draco has provoked the fights he's been in--but then, so do many kids who get beaten up. She's honestly responding as a mother to her son's attacker.
In the train car Harry is still certainly eyeing the motives of all the Slytherins with suspicion, but we still get a different view of Draco there. Yes, Pansy is looking at him with awe, but I'm sure Hermione often looks at Harry the same way when he reveals some amazing thing he's done or has to do. Blaise Zabini is added as a friend who isn't a minion, who speaks to Draco as an equal and can disagree with him. We also for the first time see that Draco has a relationship with Theo. Later we get hints of a Vincent Crabbe who can argue with Draco, seemingly, imo, out of concern. Harry for the first time finds himself trying to figure out a Slytherin's behavior by comparing it to his own friends, offering Draco advice on lookouts and wondering if Crabbe and Goyle have drifted apart like Ron and Hermione. He wonders at Draco's angry tone with Snape, which means admitting Draco had always liked Snape before (rather than just assuming, as some fans do, that since Draco's liking of Snape was fake he's just showing his true colors now). Finally, there's the OTT pair of Myrtle and Kreacher, two Draco fangirls gushing over him. That's Myrtle, Kreacher and Pansy who all seem to think that Draco's side is an enviable place to be and might choose Draco over Harry as a companion. Pansy and Narcissa who vilify Harry for attacking Draco. Myrtle, too, describing Draco as "bullied."
And then, of course, the one thing that Draco and Harry do seem to have in common, feeling honor-bound to avenge or protect their family, something Snape himself is not connected to. Previously in canon I think there was one time when Harry and Draco were on the same page apart from others, and that was when Draco says that if Sirius Black had caused his parents' deaths he'd want revenge. In HBP he rather proves this isn't just talk. Harry and Draco are rather paralleled in being very sensitive about their own families, and sometimes showing it by disparaging the other's family. Harry perhaps connects with Snape through the part of him that's a lonely orphan while when he connects with Malfoy it's through the part of him that is a son and a friend.
So to contrast the two, Snape seems to offer a chance for Harry to recognize things in himself that he denies. More and more Snape has been handy as a person upon which Harry can shove all uncomfortable feelings about himself. Snape is to blame for Sirius' death, he lured Sirius out of the house with his taunts, getting angry at Snape is a distraction post-Sectumsempra, etc. Malfoy offers the chance for Harry to accept something wholly foreign to himself. HBP deals with the one thing Harry and Malfoy do have in common, the desire to protect and avenge loved ones. Through that one thing in common Harry is perhaps able to start to see other ways in which Malfoy isn't so alien.
I think this maybe keys into the way no one listens to Harry about Malfoy in Book 6. Pre-HBP Harry has just never gotten Malfoy. He tends to think he's behind things that he isn't behind or being more involved than he really is because he's never really seen Malfoy acting in a logical way. He just sees him always out to get him. He doesn't need a motivation beyond being Malfoy and being evil. So Harry is rarely able to provide a convincing motive for what Malfoy is doing, even when he's right. For instance, when Hermione points out that the cursed necklace was bound to fail so why would a killer use it Harry simply says, "Since when is Malfoy one of the world's great thinkers?" when in fact there is a motive there (shades of Snape's "I can't be expected to know how a werewolf's mind works!" from PoA)--he doesn't really want kill anyone. Harry has the correct culprit but is unable or unwilling to really understand his motivations, and so can not convince his friends. (Hermione later even hints at what Harry's missing when she suggests the killer must be especialy ruthless because he doesn't care that his plans could go awry, never guessing he's shooting to miss.) Harry's line about Malfoy not being a great thinker reminds me of nothing more than Snape in the Shrieking Shack when confronted with a flaw in his ESE!Lupin theory: "Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works." It's basically the same argument, and it doesn't hold up either time.
Snape, I think, has never been alien. He's always been all to much what Harry expects him to be. So I get the feeling that confrontations in Book 7 between these three, if there are any, may feature Harry and Snape flinging accusations about personal character or and Harry being shocked to realize these things are also true of him. With Malfoy I think it might more be about Harry being shocked by a completely different pov from his own that sees things he never even considered. For instance, I suspect Malfoy's perspective of their first two meetings would completely surprise Harry, if he could allow himself to believe it is was truly Malfoy's experience.
JKR has said that HBP is in many ways a big set up for Book 7, so much so that they are two parts of the same story. Therefore it's hard for me to believe that the main storyline of HBP, which involved Harry taking an interest in Slytherin villains, will just be dropped, even though I suspect that where HBP is a sort of intimate book Book 7 will open out to tie up the many different plotlines.
In the case of Tom Riddle it seems like Voldemort himself is the one who's drawing the parallels to Harry, and I must say that Tom's back story in HBP really didn't seem to resonate with Harry. I'm sure Voldemort will eventually make a speech explaining just how he sees himself in Harry, but I don't know if it will click with me so much. Maybe something about Harry having the blood of good people in his veins and a mother who died to protect him and Voldemort coming from bad blood and a mother who died rather than protect him.
The two that Harry is more connected to are, obviously, Draco and Snape. I was thinking about how Dumbledore in PS/SS draws the parallel between H/D and J/S as shorthand for describing how Snape and James hated each other. He's got good reason to see the parallel that year, since that is the year Draco seems to be at his most Snape-like in spying on the Trio and trying to get them in trouble, just as Sirius claimed Snape always did. (And Snape was still doing this as he got older, though Draco is not.) Yet obviously history has not repeated itself, despite Harry and Draco hating each other. In Snape's eyes this generation's Snape/James is probably Snape/Harry. Where H/D *is* a parallel to J/S is perhaps that since they were both schoolboy rivalries there were misunderstandings and hurt on both sides. We've seen evidence of Snape being hurt by James, of Snape feeling bullied and humiliated. This doesn't translate into his relationship with Harry since Harry just doesn't have the power to do that. I've also just realized that arguments that try to project too many misunderstandings onto the H/S dynamic tend to ring false to me.
Not that they don't ever misunderstand each other; they do. But I don't think it's a situation like two boys who want friends and are sensitive. Snape may have wanted to be friends with James at one time, to be admired by him...but I don't think that's the way he is with Harry.
So what is the connection between them? I think HBP hits the point several times. Harry and Snape are more connected through personality. There's the obvious moment when Hermione says Snape sounds like Harry at a moment when Harry thinks he's at his worst. Harry instinctively feels an understanding with the Prince. He sounds like a kid Harry thinks is really cool. Although we're told Snape had a gang of friends in school when we see him in the past he's got a lot of markers of the social misfit and he's alone. Harry himself has friends and is very popular, yet he's also isolated in fundamental ways, prickly, feels misunderstood. Everyone is a potential enemy, etc.
Harry's relationship with the Prince ultimately does develop into something very intimate, as if the Prince is part of himself. Slughorn, of course, literally confuses the two in taking the Prince's work for Harry's. But there's also things like Harry's being better at reading the Prince's handwriting and Harry's defense of the Prince later in the book, as if he understands what this guy is like just by reading his notes: he can tell he's a boy, he explains the Prince's motivation in writing the Sectumsempra note, he defends his intentions towards others and towards Harry. Of course the Prince himself doesn't really need defending. He hasn't done anything. Harry is really defending himself in all these scenes.
I think this suggests that what will be important with Snape in Book 7 is for Harry to recognize these things they have in common personality-wise. Some of the things he hates in Snape he will see in himself and he will be able to understand Snape's motivations where others can't, even if he doesn't want to.
Draco is a whole different situation, I think. Harry and Draco immediately get off on the wrong foot back in first year not because they are the same but because they are different. Draco's way of relating to a strange boy in the robe shop is completely foreign to Harry and so Harry sees nefarious motives in it (he's reminded of Dudley). Through the series Harry is often annoyed by Draco's behavior even at a distance. I don't just mean times when Draco is provoking Harry, but times when he's just behaving. He tells long stories about being chased by Muggles--I think clearly Harry finds this pathetic and stupid. He puts on shows for older kids, he acts the clown, he mimes, he calls attention to himself. I don't think there's a single time in canon that Harry has observed Draco where Draco's actions didn't seem to be suspect just in themselves, or calculated to bug Harry.
Obviously much of the time Draco's actions are suspect but I think it's more than that. I think Harry reacts first not to Draco's beliefs at all but his personality. Snape Harry can understand. Draco I don't think he does because he's just such a different kid. So what is there to understand? Well, here I think again HBP kept hitting it for us. It's not that Harry has to see Draco as like him (though there are things he can relate to), it's that HBP keeps placing Draco in his own context and says yes, this kid is totally different from you but he, too, has a circle of people who care about him and about whom he cares. In observing Draco and trying to figure out what he's up to Harry is forced to concede this, forced to see Draco as having friends and allies just as he has. This after years of qualifying that idea--yes, Draco has Crabbe and Goyle but they are bodyguards, Pansy is a hanger-on, Snape is someone to whom he sucks up.
In HBP Harry keeps being confronted not just by Draco acting differently but with different people who see him differently than Harry does. First there's Narcissa who identifies Harry-without irony-as the boy who's always beating up her son. This, of course, gets into many a fandom discussion about how Draco can be the bully when he's beaten up so much, and here that question seems asked in the text. Narcissa isn't being Petunia here and claiming Dudley's been bullied because he cut his knuckle punching someone else. Yes, Draco has provoked the fights he's been in--but then, so do many kids who get beaten up. She's honestly responding as a mother to her son's attacker.
In the train car Harry is still certainly eyeing the motives of all the Slytherins with suspicion, but we still get a different view of Draco there. Yes, Pansy is looking at him with awe, but I'm sure Hermione often looks at Harry the same way when he reveals some amazing thing he's done or has to do. Blaise Zabini is added as a friend who isn't a minion, who speaks to Draco as an equal and can disagree with him. We also for the first time see that Draco has a relationship with Theo. Later we get hints of a Vincent Crabbe who can argue with Draco, seemingly, imo, out of concern. Harry for the first time finds himself trying to figure out a Slytherin's behavior by comparing it to his own friends, offering Draco advice on lookouts and wondering if Crabbe and Goyle have drifted apart like Ron and Hermione. He wonders at Draco's angry tone with Snape, which means admitting Draco had always liked Snape before (rather than just assuming, as some fans do, that since Draco's liking of Snape was fake he's just showing his true colors now). Finally, there's the OTT pair of Myrtle and Kreacher, two Draco fangirls gushing over him. That's Myrtle, Kreacher and Pansy who all seem to think that Draco's side is an enviable place to be and might choose Draco over Harry as a companion. Pansy and Narcissa who vilify Harry for attacking Draco. Myrtle, too, describing Draco as "bullied."
And then, of course, the one thing that Draco and Harry do seem to have in common, feeling honor-bound to avenge or protect their family, something Snape himself is not connected to. Previously in canon I think there was one time when Harry and Draco were on the same page apart from others, and that was when Draco says that if Sirius Black had caused his parents' deaths he'd want revenge. In HBP he rather proves this isn't just talk. Harry and Draco are rather paralleled in being very sensitive about their own families, and sometimes showing it by disparaging the other's family. Harry perhaps connects with Snape through the part of him that's a lonely orphan while when he connects with Malfoy it's through the part of him that is a son and a friend.
So to contrast the two, Snape seems to offer a chance for Harry to recognize things in himself that he denies. More and more Snape has been handy as a person upon which Harry can shove all uncomfortable feelings about himself. Snape is to blame for Sirius' death, he lured Sirius out of the house with his taunts, getting angry at Snape is a distraction post-Sectumsempra, etc. Malfoy offers the chance for Harry to accept something wholly foreign to himself. HBP deals with the one thing Harry and Malfoy do have in common, the desire to protect and avenge loved ones. Through that one thing in common Harry is perhaps able to start to see other ways in which Malfoy isn't so alien.
I think this maybe keys into the way no one listens to Harry about Malfoy in Book 6. Pre-HBP Harry has just never gotten Malfoy. He tends to think he's behind things that he isn't behind or being more involved than he really is because he's never really seen Malfoy acting in a logical way. He just sees him always out to get him. He doesn't need a motivation beyond being Malfoy and being evil. So Harry is rarely able to provide a convincing motive for what Malfoy is doing, even when he's right. For instance, when Hermione points out that the cursed necklace was bound to fail so why would a killer use it Harry simply says, "Since when is Malfoy one of the world's great thinkers?" when in fact there is a motive there (shades of Snape's "I can't be expected to know how a werewolf's mind works!" from PoA)--he doesn't really want kill anyone. Harry has the correct culprit but is unable or unwilling to really understand his motivations, and so can not convince his friends. (Hermione later even hints at what Harry's missing when she suggests the killer must be especialy ruthless because he doesn't care that his plans could go awry, never guessing he's shooting to miss.) Harry's line about Malfoy not being a great thinker reminds me of nothing more than Snape in the Shrieking Shack when confronted with a flaw in his ESE!Lupin theory: "Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works." It's basically the same argument, and it doesn't hold up either time.
Snape, I think, has never been alien. He's always been all to much what Harry expects him to be. So I get the feeling that confrontations in Book 7 between these three, if there are any, may feature Harry and Snape flinging accusations about personal character or and Harry being shocked to realize these things are also true of him. With Malfoy I think it might more be about Harry being shocked by a completely different pov from his own that sees things he never even considered. For instance, I suspect Malfoy's perspective of their first two meetings would completely surprise Harry, if he could allow himself to believe it is was truly Malfoy's experience.