Comments on: Essay: Harry Potter, Occlumens?

By: Adele

Adele — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 22:50:59 +0000

Thanks. I guess I was drastically mistaken lol

By: John Kearns

John Kearns — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:37:54 +0000

Here's the quote:

“Now, Severus, the sword! Do not forget that it must be taken under conditions of need and valor—and he must not know that you give it! If Voldemort should read Harry’s mind and see you acting for him—”

“I know,” said Snape curtly.

By: Adele

Adele — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:33:45 +0000

I thought Dumbledore meant read Snape’s mind, not Harry’s? But I don’t have the book with me, so I could be missing context

By: John Kearns

John Kearns — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 20:49:34 +0000

Babibell, remember at the end of DH – Dumbledore’s portrait warns Snape that when he gives Harry the sword of Gryffindor, Snape can’t let Harry see him in case Voldemort reads his mind. So it must be able to work both ways, whether Voldemort realizes it or not.

By: Babibell

Babibell — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:31:48 +0000

I thought Voldemort COULDN’T see harry’s POV. Otherwise, think of all the times he could have used this eg to find where Harry was and jut kill him. I thought it was pretty much one way as Voldemort has no part of Harry in him, but the inverse is true.

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 16:28:24 +0000

No matter how much Snape loved Lily and despite his promise to Dumbledore to take care of Harry because of this love, the fact remains that not only is Harry James’ son, but he also looks exactly like him, and I think that that’s something that Snape can never shake off no matter what happens because of his hatred for James, and that it was almost a betrayal in his mind on Lily’s part that they both disliked the marauders, especially James, and so when she ended up marrying James and having his kid it made it that much worse. So no matter how much he is protecting Harry he can’t like him or be very helpful cause he would really love for the James part of Harry to die.

By: Witherwing

Witherwing — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 04:56:51 +0000

Fascinating discussion everyone, and a wonderful essay. Ragnar Dorkins, I think I had similar thoughts as you, that Snape was in fact acting to protect Harry, but I always wondered why Snape never seemed to give poor Harry any pointers or helpful tips; constant bombardment with insults is not a good teaching method, certainly! As I often do when I cannot figure out the reason characters behave a certain way, I begin to ask myself why the author might be laying the story out in this way… So I always assumed the whole Scenario was to allow for Harry to see Snape’s worst memory. And one of my favorite parts of book 5 is when Harry sees his father from Snape’s point of view; it’s shattering for our poor hero! And astounding for the reader.

By: Pam

Pam — Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:19:43 +0000

I don’t think it makes Voldemort any more able to look into Harry’s head, I happen to mostly agree with hazelwillow, but I do want to point out that some part of Harry is in Voldemort at this time, and it becomes very important in Book 7.

By: Rtozier

Rtozier — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 11:28:05 +0000

Don’t want to be too spoilery, but there’s a certain scene in a later book when Snape asks someone if they’ve seen Harry, but is cut off before he can explain why he wants to see him. This suggests to me that Snape was planning to tell Harry everything in a more comfortable environment than the eventual one in which he told Harry the prince’s tale.

By: Kelsey

Kelsey — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 08:45:35 +0000

It drives me crazy that Harry went to so much trouble to contact Sirius in breaking into Umbridge’s office when all he had to do was to have opened the present Sirius had given him and used the mirror. Anyway, I’ve always had a lot of respect for Snape, who can only be seen as a pain in the story but is probably the only person who has ever managed to trick Voldemort into trusting him when he is really on Dumbledore’s side almost the whole time. I think that the reason that Voldemort is unable to see or understand that he is being betrayed is that the reason Snape ever returned to the good side was because of love, the only thing that Voldemort really doesn’t understand. I wonder if Dumbledore put Harry and Snape together hoping to cure them both of their hatred of each other and make them realize that they need to work together. Maybe Snape would finally see the parts of harry inherited from his mother instead of just his hatred of James and harry would understand that Snape was trying to help him, and we all saw just how well that worked out.
Also, at this point in the story I don’t remember there ever being any actual evidence that of Voldemort being able to read Harry’s thoughts or to see what he is seeing. Harry has a part of Voldemort in him that makes him see and feel some of the things that Voldemort does but I don’t think that Voldemort can see or feel Harry’s emotions because he doesn’t have a part of harry in him even if Dumbledore is worried about Voldemort learning of their relationship. He just finds a way to exploit what Harry sees. So anyway, I don’t think that Voldemort would know what was happening in Harry’s life or that Snape was teaching him…but I might just be forgetting something from the story as it’s been a while. I suppose that if you really think about it there are a lot of things in Harry Potter that doesn’t fit with something else but any Harry Potter fan knows that this just makes for more interesting discussions trying to fit things together even if they are just mistakes and it usually works, making everything more intricately woven tan it is really meant to be.