Snape and Neville (Was: Re: Snape's grading may not be fair, but..._

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 74939

Marina wrote:
> 
> Neville did not give up and fade into the background in Sprout's 
> class, or in Lupin's, or in Harry's DA sessions.  In fact, the only 
> time we've ever seen Neville attempt to give up on anything, it was 
> potions -- he tried to dtop the subject, but wasn't allowed.  In 
> other instances, from schoolwork to dealing with his parents to 
> getting a date for the Yule Ball, Neville's behavior is 
> characterized by dogged persistence and nearly infinite patience.


I really have to rack my brain for canon on this, I only have GoF at
the moment, but I thought it was pretty established that Neville did 
badly at all his classes, except Herbology-- that's why everyone keeps
bringing it up Herbology as the exception, rather than 
Potions.  Even McGonnegal gets pretty shirty with him:  "Longbottom,
kindly do NOT reveal you cannot even perform a simple Switching Spell
in front of anyone from Durmstrang!"

I certainly agree though that Neville would get better grades under a
kindler, gentler teaching style than either McGonnegal or Snape
though... mind you, Flitwick's totally laid-back method didn't seem to
work either.  I think Neville just needs a particularily dedicated
sort of teacher like Lupin to bring him out by focused, gentle attention.

Herbology I think suits him because it doesn't pressure him to do
spells, or at least it doesn't seem to involve spells;  just nice
gardening stuff (albeit with man-eating plants).  Attention to detail,
care-taking, and independent pottering-around suit him right down to
the ground (no pun intended).  Off the top of my head, a scary thought
though-- perhaps taking care of plants is some sort of displacement of
taking care of his parents, who are also in a sense in a vegitative
state.  Yikes!  Wish I hadn't though that... 

I have to say OoP disappointed me in Neville's development-- not that
it's not great to see him start to blossom, it just wasn't very...
bangy, I think the work is.  Steady, patient maturation and
development?  How boring is that! I wanted fireworks!  Repressed
memory explosions in Potions class!  Strum und drang!  Sigh...

Marina:

> Look, I think Snape is fantastic.  I admire the hell out of him for 
> having the courage to reject the DEs and turn spy.  I'm very sorry 
> he was bullied as a kid, and his home life probably sucked.  I 
> respect his loyalty to Dumbledore, and his continued willingness to 
> fight for the right side, even when the right side is composed 
> almost entirely of people he hates.  More power to him.  But I 
> really don't see why it's necessary to find a hidden virtuous motive 
> for every nasty thing he does.


LOL!  The Snape-polarizing effect getting you down?  For my part, I
think when Snape is given a job, he wants to win at it-- and if that
means dragging his students through passing grades by the hairs of
their heads, that's what he'll do.  It doesn't seem likely that he
WANTS to be a crap teacher-- I think he wants to be a good teacher,
but, lacking the necessary people skills, resorts to trying to
browbeat his kids into success.  It's a personal pride and duty thing.
 I don't know if that counts as a hidden virtuous motive though!

Sydney