I haven't heard the Snape-Neville interaction explained to my complete satisfaction. We had a very interesting #snapesupport chat on the subject once, the link to which is here.
It seems to me that Snape has learned to become an aggressive, preemptive bully, simply to avoid being trod on himself. When the target fights back, as with Lupin in this chapter, he turns in on himself and stews. When the target shows weakness, as with Neville, he goes after them ever more savagely as a way of demonstrating his power. The weaker they look, the worse he gets. I don't know that Snape does hate Neville -- it may just be that Neville is an easy target, and makes himself a ripe opportunity for Snape to assert his dominance.
There's also the theory that Snape is ticked off because Neville isn't the child of the prophecy, and essentially blames Neville for allowing James's child to become so important.
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Date: 2004-05-06 09:22 pm (UTC)I haven't heard the Snape-Neville interaction explained to my complete satisfaction. We had a very interesting #snapesupport chat on the subject once, the link to which is here.
It seems to me that Snape has learned to become an aggressive, preemptive bully, simply to avoid being trod on himself. When the target fights back, as with Lupin in this chapter, he turns in on himself and stews. When the target shows weakness, as with Neville, he goes after them ever more savagely as a way of demonstrating his power. The weaker they look, the worse he gets. I don't know that Snape does hate Neville -- it may just be that Neville is an easy target, and makes himself a ripe opportunity for Snape to assert his dominance.
There's also the theory that Snape is ticked off because Neville isn't the child of the prophecy, and essentially blames Neville for allowing James's child to become so important.