Snape and Hermione (non-SHIP post)

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 56530

I can actually understand why Professor Snape gets irritated with Hermione
wanting to answer _all_ the questions and (from his POV) hog the limelight.
When he's trying to get someone else to come out with an answer, it would be
distracting, at least, to have Hermione bouncing up and down with eagerness
to answer.

However, I think he's approaching it the wrong way.  Were I in his boots
(horrors!) I'd wait until Hermione had been particularly show-offy and
know-it-all, and ask her to stay after class for a private talk.

Once we had some privacy, I would gently explain to her that I _know_ she
has, or probably has, the answers.  I would then go on to explain that what
I'm trying to do is to get _other people_ to answer questions, and that's
difficult at best with her bouncing around like a Mexican jumping bean on
meth.  I think that a lot of her showing off and "know-it-all" behavior is
based in deep insecurity about whether she _really_ belongs at Hogwarts---so
I'd explain to her, in words of few syllables, that barring _extreme_
rule-breaking, she can count on not being expelled.  Her tenure at Hogwarts
is secure, so she could relax a little and let me try to deal with some of
her classmates, who, to judge from their behavior, have joined a religious
order that has had them take a vow of utter silence on all subjects having
to do with potions.

Matter of fact, if it were me and not Snape in charge of that class, I'd
probably put some of Hermione's energy to use by assigning her to see to it
that Neville Longbottom gets through without failing his course.  If she's
busy helping Neville, she won't be quite so eager to answer every possible
question, and Neville would find her a much less frightening person to deal
with than Snape.

--That said, one thing Hogwarts could really use would be some sort of
gifted-and-talented program.  (Yes, the Ravenclaws have the reputation for
studiousness, but I tend to the theory that the Hat selects based on what
the student really, really values, and it's possible to value studying and
learning without being gifted, just as Hermione is highly gifted but values
friendship and bravery more than all the studying in the world.)  Come to
it---if there had been such a program in place when Professor Snape was a
student, Back In The Day, would he have become embittered enough to join the
DEs?