His reactions bespeak someone who's been getting this shit from these people a LOT

And now he has to be all supportive of the son of one of his chief tormentors, said son showing every sign of following in Dad's footsteps. It's a wonder Snape didn't poison Harry in Potions Class Day 1. "My word, Headmaster, I have no idea how he got hold of the monkshood-bubotuber pus elixer. Stupid boy."

said son showing every sign of following in Dad's footsteps.

How so? I'm curious because I've never seen that much of James in Harry, aside from looks and what Snape infers.

I don't think Kate visits Bitches, and I'm a-scared of Natter, so congratulations, Kate!!

Hey, thanks! And good call; I'm hardly around either Natter or Bitches these days, and Literary seems a pretty appropriate place for this.

Fay, when Snape is giving Harry the Occulemency (sp?) lessons, he takes memories out of his own head and stores them in the Pensieve. Then Snape gets called away and Harry looks in the Pensieve, and sees a wee Snape cringing in a corner while his father abuses his mother. (I think the abuse was implied, and the scene was the father yelling and the mother cringing).

That is actually not in the Pensieve memory - it was a memory that Harry picked up from Snape when he (for the only time) fought back during an Occlumency lesson. The Pensieve memory was all one continuous memory.

One point I've stumbled across in my re-reading - In Goblet of Fire, it was stated that Snape became a spy for Dumbeldore before Voldemort's downfall. So theories that Snape's "change of heart" is due to his (unrequited) love for Lily and his regret for causing her death rests on shakier ground.

I'm curious because I've never seen that much of James in Harry, aside from looks and what Snape infers.

General snottiness and as much as Harry can get away with towards a professor without being summarily expelled.

General snottiness and as much as Harry can get away with towards a professor without being summarily expelled.

I see the genereal snottiness - most teenage boys have it in spades. But the only professor I really see him pushing the envelope with sometimes is Snape, who, well, kind of started it. He's pushed McGonagall a couple of times, but not in a classroom situation, that I remember.

My favorite thing about these books - how differently people that read the books and are fans see each character so differently.

That is actually not in the Pensieve memory - it was a memory that Harry picked up from Snape when he (for the only time) fought back during an Occlumency lesson

I thought I might be mis-remembering as I wrote that, but I couldn't be arsed to check. I need a Remembrall!

Yeah, what Aimee said about Snape pretty much starting it. Though I'd say that it's not just the teen boys with spades of snotty. Hell, I had it, damn it. (I've mellowed in my old age.)

According to my mother, there was a big deal for grade and high school graduations in America when she went to school back in the early-mid 20th century because it was not uncommon for that to be the end of any schooling that a person received.

My mother was her graduating class. No ceremony, which she's still cranky about over 50 years later, just a diploma on her desk and a see-ya. It was considered extraordinary that of the five sisters, four of them graduated and the other made it to grade 8 before dropping out to work.

The only graduation we had was high school, and anything else doesn't make sense, even as a parent.

It was considered extraordinary that of the five sisters, four of them graduated and the other made it to grade 8 before dropping out to work.

My mom mentioned that she was one of only a few women she knew who graduated high school in her neighborhood. Many of her girl friends never made it past grade school, and some did not finish then. There was no money due to the Depression and no real thought to women getting an education as a matter of course.