...what a tale my thoughts could tell...

[rj_anderson]

dr_c has just reminded me, in a comment to the previous post, of another point I had noticed but forgotten -- and how could I forget this one, since it immediately generated a massive plot bunny in my brain, I cannot imagine --

Harry has a horrible feeling that Snape can read minds.

This may just be Harry's youthful paranoia, generated by his fear that Snape is evil and working on behalf of Voldemort, but it did strike me (and obviously dr_c as well) as an unusual thing for JKR to say.

Could there be some truth to it? Obviously it can't be as simple as Snape really being a mind-reader or Harry would never get away with anything; but could he have some limited kind of prescience or telepathic ability? If so, where did he get it from?

And if Snape has some idea -- even a general one -- of what people around him are thinking, might this be part of the reason he's so nasty and bitter all the time?

Comments

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Not to mention that in the movie of PS/SS we have that scene where Snape appears to be able to see Harry through the Invisibility Cloak and even makes a grab for him ("Shout-out!" thought I gleefully -- but I'm not silly enough to think the scriptwriter had really read IWS 6).

Of course I realize the movies aren't canon, but given the level of consultation Steve Kloves had with JKR, and/or the top-secret stuff JKR told Alan Rickman about Snape, maybe there is something to that...