[HPforGrownups] Re:Hermione and Snape

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 37545

Marina:
> I think one of Snape's problems is his tendency to project his own 
> mindset on other people.  Take his reaction to the Prank: Snape 
> would never have set someone up for a werewolf encounter unless he 
> actually meant to kill them; so he can't believe Sirius could've 
> done it without meaning to kill *him*.  In Hermione's case, he's 
> convinced that her behavior in class indicates a desire to show him 
> up and make herself look important, because that's why *he* would've 
> done it when he was a student.

Yes. I see this tendency of Snape to project his own mindset onto other 
people as a major personality trait. In fact one of the things I've been 
meaning to do when I have time is to go through the books interpreting his 
utterances in this manner to see what light it sheds on what's going on in 
his mind.

Related to this is what I see as his immature tendency to jealousy. This 
relates to what Porphyria has talked about in her posts. He really wants to 
be the centre of attention, doesn't he? Where McGonagall or Lupin can take 
pleasure in the achievements of a student, Snape sees only someone stealing 
his limelight. He doesn't enjoy teaching dunderheads, but in a way, I do 
think he sees Hermione as a bit of a threat (*pace* Marina, Porphyria), not a 
professional threat, but  to an extent a psychological threat, someone who 
reminds him that he's not the biggest fish in the sea, that there are other 
people as clever as he is. Chiefly,however, she is a threat to the atmosphere 
he creates in his classroom. No, she can't be the first intelligent student 
he's had, but she may well be one of the few who's been quite as up front 
about it, whose need to show off is as great as his own. Back to projection 
again. 

That, I think must account for the immediate antipathy (she wasn't really 
associated with Harry until after Hallowe'en, was she?) Just think of the 
impression he was trying to create - *was* creating - in that first potions 
lesson. The waxing lyrical, the humiliation of Potter, and then that dreadful 
little know-it-all ruining everything with her hand stuck in the air all the 
time to answer those questions that they weren't supposed to be able to 
answer and which were supposed to push Harry and the others into a stunned 
realisation of their ignorance and their dependence on him as their teacher.

Without realising it, she is extremely disruptive to his style of teaching. 
We are told that he is a teacher who can keep a class quiet without effort. 
In a way, her hand constantly hovering and her desire for attention 
interrupts that. Also, she takes on a *teaching* role, particularly with 
Neville. More interference. Whatever his feelings for Neville, I'm sure Snape 
doesn't like an eleven year old girl teaching him more successfully than he 
does himself.

After Hallowe'en, particularly since Snape was one of the ones who found the 
trio together with the unconscious troll, she must have been indelibly 
associated with Harry in his mind and therefore additionally disliked by 
extension.

But as Porphyria points out, it is Hermione's literal mindedness, her 
blindness to the games Snape is playing with her and the other students that 
allows her to be objective. It is largely through Hermione's eyes that, until 
the bombshell of the pensieve, we first begin to realise that Snape isn't all 
bad. Harry has much bigger problems internalising this. For him the issues 
are personal.

Eloise


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