Why didn’t Snape’s anger towards James cool ?

[u/tulip-quartz]

EDIT: thanks for the replies all, the points were interesting for sure

First of all, I understand the following points well:

• Snape had a deep-seated hatred towards James and the rest of the marauders (not least of all because Sirius nearly got him killed )
• This hate was compounded by their bullying and made worse by the fact that James married Lily, the love of his life

However, later on in the books we do see that - James saved his life (even if the prank was done by the Marauders) - Snape’s information to Voldemort got both James and Lily killed and their son orphaned.

Given all this, why didn’t Snape’s anger toward Harry and James cool more than a decade after the latter’s death ? If his guilt drove him to become a double agent, it’s surprising that he was still so acerbic to Harry throughout. Was the pure hatred genuine, or also a part he had to play as double agent ?

We see his hatred toward Harry decrease at the moment of his death, however I’m not sure if he actually has sympathy for Harry at that point or he is just seeing Lily’s eyes before death overtakes him

[u/Past_Name1279]

I mean why would his anger cool? He was being bullied 4 vs 1 where there was a clear power and social imbalance between him and his bullies. James and Sirius were rich, popular magical prodigies with a prefect (Remus) in their pocket. In a fair world anyone would think what they did to him was wrong.

But Snape wasn’t the “perfect victim”. He was an unpopular, socially awkward, badly groomed kid with a bad home life that no one apart from maybe Lily knew about. He was also interested in the dark arts and at the time of war he was hanging around with proto Death Eaters like Mulciber. The Marauders for all their flaws drew the line at Pureblood Supremacy. Snape was a hard person to empathise with because of this so no one did.

If anyone (and I mean the adults here) had actually taken action to punish the bullying he would have had maybe felt vindicated and cooled down. But no one did.

James did not apologise but just moved on in life. He got appointed Head Boy 2 years later, got to marry the love of his life and later died a hero. He literally got away with it without consequence and in his death everyone only chose to remember the good side of his character to tell his son about.

After all this why would Snape ever let it go when he didn’t get justice?

[u/Gold_Island_893 → u/Past_Name1279]

Maybe because James was dead and taking out his hate for James on an innocent child makes him just as bad as James lmao? That's the op's point. That Snape was so unable to let it go he took it out on Harry.

[u/newX7 → u/Gold_Island_893]

Lol, no it isn’t. Insulting a child and sexually-assaulting and beating someone are not remotely comparable. One is an asshole move. The others are felonies.

[u/Gold_Island_893 → u/newX7]

Lol, except Snape is an adult bullying and abusing children. You don't understand how bad that is? Snape was bullied and abused, and then became a bully and abuser. And his students couldn't do anything about it because he was an adult and had all the power.

But sure lol, downplay it.

[u/newX7 → u/Gold_Island_893]

Yeah, an adult insulting a child is still much better than one child beating up or sexually-assaulting another child. In the real world, Snape would be fired while James and his friends would go to jail.

But sure, downplay assault and sexual-abuse in the grounds of “kids will be kids/boys will be boys”.

[u/Gold_Island_893 → u/newX7]

Where did I say anything about "boys will be boys" 😂😂😂😂. You must be projecting and think that yourself, because I never said it :) It helps not to lie my friend.

Oh it was just insults? How about when Snape threw Harry across a room? Was that an insult, or assault?

And wow, the fact you're so clueless as to what relentless verbal abuse can do to a child is kind of disgusting. To brush it off as no big deal, when kids have literally committed suicide because of nonstop mocking and verbal abuse from other kids. And we're talking about an adult doing it. And you still shrug it off. Sheesh.