Question of the Day!

I think it is that now they're more mature, adult, "powerful" than back when they were traumatized (toxic parents/family or partner)... and now they can react in the way they always fantasized about while beating themselves up for not having done it immediately.

It takes time to realize that Voldemort has turned into the usual stupid, narcissistic S–, and always has been, and that "lashing out" immediately might have cut them short immediately (or a lot earlier), and a lot of trauma wouldn't have happened, which we have to deconstruct like a pile of debt.

Okay, it doesn't excuse jumping a stranger in the face who doesn't even know what they said to "deserve" that... but it might be the explanation for it.

I often felt the same, too, and often bit my tongue, balled fists, or excused myself to the bathroom or left entirely if it was possible so no one saw my warped condition.