The Vulture Hat- Disgusting SHIP of the Millennium- McGonagall the Born Deputy

[saraqael2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 33468

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "pigwidgeon37" <pigwidgeon37 at y...> wrote:
> Cindysphinx wrote:
<SNIP>
So I have to 
> agree with whoever wrote this: It's a bit strange that Dumbledore 
> makes Snape pull the cracker with the vulture hat- he of all 
persons 
> should know that this is not the right way to make Snape discover 
> self-irony.
<snip>

Actually, that's always been close to my take on this scene. I'm sure 
that the entire faculty, including Snape, heard about the story 
within hours of the DADA class. I can easily imagine McGonnagall 
telling Snape about it, even if no one else on the faculty was brave 
enough. 

Dumbledore frequently diffuses a tense moment with humor. When I read 
that scene with the party cracker, I assumed that Dumbledore was 
trying to make the subtle point to Snape that he considered the 
matter to be little more than a harmless joke. Also, I think that 
Dumbedore was hoping that the students would all have one last laugh 
about the matter and then drop it. For the students, much of the fun 
in spreading the story would have been imagining how steamed Snape 
would get if he heard about it. Well, now the joke is over. In a very 
subtle way, Dumbledore even ends up drawing attention away from Snape 
because he puts the hat on himself.