Meta: 'Flight of the Prince: "Don't call me coward!"', from Reddit
Flight of the Prince: "Don't call me coward!"
[Meta source: r/harrypotter, by straysayake]
Harry and Snape's confrontation in Flight of the Prince chapter is unmatched in levels of its conflict and intensity. Harry's rage meets Snape's own despair-laden rage and it creates such a potent scene, it leaps off the page.
There has been discussion surrounding why Snape loses it the second time Harry calls him a coward, because he doesn't react the first time.
"Fight back!" Harry screamed at him. "Fight back, you cowardly--"
"Coward, did you call me, Potter?" shouted Snape. "Your father would never attack me unless it was four on one, what would you call him, I wonder?"
"Stupe-"
"Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!" sneered Snape, deflecting the curse once more. "Now come!" he shouted at the huge Death Eater behind Harry. "It is time to be gone, before the Ministry turns up--"
He is in control here, he is jeering at Harry's rage and his skillset. So what was the difference the second time?
Well for one, Harry tried to use his own spells against him and that sets him off.
"You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them--I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you? I don't think so. . . no!"
Harry had dived for his wand; Snape shot a hex at it and it flew feet away into the darkness and out of sight.
" Kill me then," panted Harry, who felt no fear at all, but only rage and contempt. "Kill me like you killed him, you coward--"
"DON'T--" screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them, "--CALL ME COWARD"
(Keep in mind the bolded lines because they are important for the second interpretation)
My interpretation for his loss of control for being called a coward is the preceding line from Harry: "Kill me then..." where his "like you killed him" could mean both Dumbledore, as well as James (and by extension and what really matters, Lily)
And since it comes on the heels of Dumbledore's death (who Snape killed on Dumbledore's request and Harry is framing it as a cowardly act rather than something that required tremendous amount of bravery and personal sacrifice) - he reacts badly.
The second layer to this reaction is that Harry says this in response to Snape taunting him about his father and at this point, Harry does hold him responsible for his parents' death via hearing of the prophecy and relaying it to Voldemort. The implication that he killed Lily triggers his loss of control. This is supported by his reaction to Lily's death in DH, which is described with similar adjectives:
"and Harry stood in Dumbledore's office, and something was making a terrible sound, like a wounded animal. Snape was slumped forward in a chair and Dumbledore was standing over him, looking grim. After a moment or two, Snape raised his face, and he looked like a man who had lived a hundred years of misery since leaving the wild hilltop."
There was a sneaky Harry - Snape parallel in the book, with regard to their relationship with Dumbledore.
Harry, when he is feeding Dumbledore the potion in the cave: Hating himself, repulsed by what he was doing...
And Snape when he had to kill Dumbledore: There was revulsion and hatred etched in the harsh lines of his face.
Dumbledore and his two abandoned boys indeed.
"DON'T--" screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stuck in the burning house behind them, "--CALL ME COWARD"
This line gets me every single time.
One thing about this scene too, is the way Severus reflets all of Harry's spells calmly, lazily even, until Harry tries to use Levicorpus. Harry tries to use the Cruciatus Spell twice, and Severus is like "non verbal spells Potter, damn it!", as if he's still trying to teach him, and doesn't give a single damn that Harry tried to use an Unforgivable on him twice.
Then, Harry tries to use Sectumsempra, and Severus starts to get angry. Still, it's nothing compared to his reaction to Harry about to use Levicorpus. Severus screams in rage, he's not simply deflecting the spells "with a flick of his wand" anymore.
"Snape’s pale face, illuminated by the flaming cabin, was suffused with hatred just as it had
been before he had cursed Dumbledore."
Nothing, nothing makes Severus more angry and full of hatred than the Marauders, specially James Potter (and Sirius). And to see, in a moment of such emotional distress for him after he just forced to kill his mentor, James Potter's clone use the exact same spell that was used in his "worst memory", I can't even begin to image what thay must have felt like.
