Whoa Nelly! Lots of Snape, was Harry in NEWT Potions Class?

[jwcpgh]

No: HPFGUIDX 87721

<snip> 
> Laura writes:
<snip> I keep remembering how dear Severus reacted when Harry was 
frantically trying to get help for Crouch Sr in GoF.Snape toyed with 
him as long as possible despite Harry's obvious distress. <Snip>

> Pip!Squeak:
<snip> 
> It is JKR's most superb bit of misdirection. Snape doesn't delay 
> Harry getting to Dumbledore at all. Harry gets to Dumbledore a lot 
> sooner than he would have done *because of Snape*.
> 
> It's all in two lines just before Snape's entrance:
> "Perhaps Dumbledore was in the staff room? He started running as 
> fast as he could towards the staircase –" [ie the staircase to the 
> *staff room*, *away* from Dumbledore's office].
> 
> It's at that point that Snape sees Harry running at high speed 
away from the entrance to Dumbledore's office, and *calls him back*.
> 
> We then get seven lines in which Snape is pretty nasty, before 
> Dumbledore also appears out of the doorway to his office. It's 
these seven lines, plus Harry's later assessment of the scene (Ch. 
29 p.491) that fix the idea in the reader's mind that Snape delayed 
Harry.
<snip>

Laura replies:
Pip, I have to agree with your analysis of this scene, and it only 
confirms my belief that Harry would have been most reluctant to go 
to Snape for help after seeing Sirius being held captive by LV.  
Snape follows the letter of the law-DD has (presumably)instructed 
him that he is to keep Harry safe and he does so.  But anything 
short of actual physical harm is Hary's problem, even if it comes 
from Snape himself.  

If Harry had asked Snape for help in OoP, you can imagine the 
reaction he would have gotten.  "Surely you don't believe your dear 
godfather would have disobeyed Professor Dumbeldore's orders and 
left Grimmauld Place?  And if you'd done your lessons as you were 
instructed, you'd never have had this vision in the first place.  
Get back to Gryffindor Tower, Potter, and stop bothering me with 
your fantasies."  Of course, then Snape would have done what he had 
to do, which was to ascertain Sirius's whereabouts.  But he wouldn't 
have done it in front of Harry, not only to torment him further but 
because he wouldn't want Harry to see how he communicated with Order 
members.  

Laura, who would love to have heard the conversation if Snape, 
rather than Harry, had ended up talking to Kreachur