Snape makes the first move

[resonant]

There are a lot of HP stories where Harry gets up from the table at the Leaving Feast and blows off a chance of the party of the decade in order to go down to the dungeon, shout, "I'm not your student any more," and fling himself at Snape.

Sometimes Snape is expecting this, and sometimes he's as shocked as Warner Bros.' lawyers. Sometimes he accepts Harry's offer, and sometimes he nobly sends him away to get old enough to be interesting gain Useful Experience and Perspective so that he can Make An Informed Relationship Decision.

What I want to know is, why is it always Harry who makes the first move?

Because, really, can't you see it the other way around? After the Leaving Feast, Snape comes up to the Gryffindor common room and sends everybody scattering, and he talks for a while to Harry in private and then sweeps away, and the rest of the Gryfs come cautiously back in:

"What'd Snape want, Harry?"

"Probably wanted one last chance to assign him a detention."

"Er, Harry? I really think it's not terribly healthy to be casting Scouring Charms at your lips ..."

And then Harry goes off into the world to get old enough to be interesting gain Useful Experience and Perspective and Enough Distance To Become Intrigued.

But meanwhile, Snape's despairing of Harry's ever changing his mind, since Harry didn't say "No thank you" or "I'm flattered, but" or "It's not you, it's me" -- he said "Wha -- aaaaagh -- no, no, no, make it stop, make it stop --, god, the nightmares, where's my wand ..."

That's a story I would really like to read.

Comments

[mzcalypso.livejournal.com]

Apologies for butting in... not my fandom, but the issue's interesting. I'm not into HP/anybody *or* Snape/anybody (sorry--any man with access to soap & water who can't bother to wash his hair is a slob.) (Aragorn, Boromir, & Faramir are exempt, since they did't have access... hop in the bathtub, darlin! ;-9 )

Harry making the first move, after graduation? It's the power/ethic of it, I think. A teacher who preys on students is a fuckhead (and it *is* predation even if the student lusts after the teacher, because *kids in lust are not thinking clearly.*) It's the same reason a doctor or therapist who puts the moves on a patient/client can have their license yanked. What is coerced love really worth? What damage does it do?

Relationships are a tricky balancing act at best. When one person's a lot older and the other isn't yet quite sure who s/he's referring to when s/he says "I am," it means the subordinate one may have to wait til middle age to actually grow up. Even if you're talking dominant/submissive, how real is surrender if the power structure is already built-in? (Or when any reversal just looks like a childish fantasy of 'getting even' with a nasty teacher?)

Kinks aside -- a Snape with integrity would not hit on kids. (Easy for me to say, of course, as I find kids cute but not all that interesting; my partner's my own age.)

[resonant8.livejournal.com]

Well, as I said up there (http://www.livejournal.com/users/resonant8/44481.html?thread=489409#t489409), there are a lot of factors that make Harry and Snape's relationship more complicated than a simple student/teacher relationship. And the writer could certainly make things happen to push them in the direction of something more equal.

For instance, if Harry saves Snape's life a couple of times -- or if the Death Eaters get wise to Snape as a spy, and he has to hide, and Harry becomes his Secret Keeper and hence the person directly responsible for his safety -- or even if they just fight a couple of battles back to back -- in any of those cases, the power equalizes considerably.

It's also a personal conviction of mine that if you had a real culture in which people routinely lived to be 120, that culture would be a lot more accepting of age differences than ours is.

Try thinking of Harry as Emma and Snape as Mr. Knightley!