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

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 87760



Alla writes: [ regarding the `Snape delaying Harry and Dumbledore 
getting to Crouch Sr.' scene GoF, Ch 28, p. 484 (UK  paperback 
edition)]

>>>>>>>>>
Alla:
... as far as I remember there is no evidence
that Snape even knew that Dumbledore was in his office.
>>>>>>>>>

Pip!Squeak:
He almost certainly did know Dumbledore was in his office; Snape 
had `just emerged from the hidden staircase behind the stone 
gargoyle' (p.484). That is, he'd just *come* from Dumbledore's 
office.

There's also a negative bit of evidence; when Dumbledore emerges 
from the hidden staircase, Snape is not described as having any 
reaction at all. Maybe he *didn't* react to Dumbledore popping up 
like a Jack-in-the-box. Maybe he was expecting him [grin].

>>>>>>>>>>>
Alla:
I would say that after OoP 'Snape hates Harry because of James" is
pretty much canon . If you could come up with other name for "Snape
discontinuing lessons with Harry because he saw how his father
bullied Snape knowing full well what danger it could be for Harry and
all parties involved", I would love to hear it.
>>>>>>>>>>

Pip!Squeak:

OK, I'll bite. Let's look at the Occlumency lessons, shall we?

[All references are to Order of the Phoenix, UK hardback edition]

First lesson: Chapter 24 pp 467 – 475. Snape sounds distinctly 
pissed off throughout this lesson; especially when Harry keeps using 
Voldemort's name. Snape accesses Harry's memories. He lifts the 
spell the second he realises that Harry has just recognised the door 
to the Department of Mysteries.

During later lessons Harry becomes convinced that his sensitivity to 
Voldemort has increased from the first lesson with Snape [Ch. 25  
p488 – 490 ]

[It's not certain whether this is actually so. His first Occlumency 
lesson starts on the first day of term; he has vivid dreams of the 
corridor during the Christmas holidays immediately preceding (just 
after the Snake incident). 

If Voldemort did become aware that he could affect Harry, Voldemort 
himself would be trying to increase the link between them. It would 
then make sense that Harry's increased sensitivity would start 
shortly after the Snake incident *anyway* – which was at the 
beginning of the Christmas holidays, only a couple of weeks before 
the Occlumency lessons start.]

Anyway, the Occlumency lessons continue without any problems from 
Snape until (guestimate) early March. We then have a lesson (Ch. 26. 
pp 520 – 523 ) where Snape again recognises a dream of Harry's as a 
vision from Lord Voldemort. 

Further on in this lesson, Harry finally accesses some of *Snape's* 
memories.

They seem pretty personal. A child crying as his parents – well, 
possibly argue, or from the body language described, possibly the 
man is hitting or about to hit the woman. A girl laughing at a boy.

So Harry has just seen scenes that are likely to be very personal 
and pretty humiliating to Snape. [Given that the scenes Snape can 
access from Harry are humiliating memories]. And Snape reacts; he 
counter attacks strongly enough that Harry `staggered several steps 
backwards'. Snape is `shaking slightly, and was very white in the 
face'. [p 522]

And does Snape discontinue the lessons at this point? Nope. 
Actually, he gives Harry a very rare compliment ("I don't remember 
telling you to use a Shield Charm 
 but there is no doubt that it 
was effective")

Mind you, he does look at Harry with `loathing' in his eyes. [grin]

Going into April, we have Dumbledore's spectacular exit  from 
Hogwarts (Broomsticks, hippogriffs, portkeys, thestrals, Phoenix 
airlines – who *needs* to apparate?]. The day after Dumbledore 
leaves, Snape gives Umbridge some fake Veritaserum so she can't 
interrogate Harry. The day after that, we have the famous final 
Occlumency lesson. [Ch. 28 pp 562 – 563 and pp. 572 – 573 ]

The lesson starts, Malfoy comes in, Snape tells Harry they'll resume 
tomorrow evening. This is actually the second time he's left Harry 
alone in his office; in the previous described lesson (p. 523) Snape 
swept out of the office to deal with whatever was making someone 
scream (Trelawney, as events turned out) and left Harry behind.

Snape returns to find Harry in the Pensieve. 

Snape is described as being `white with rage'. He grips Harry's arm 
so tightly that Harry's arm goes numb, and later has bruises on it. 
He looks scary: "Snape's lips were shaking, his face was white, his 
teeth were bared." (p. 572)

He shows signs of starting to lose control; he shakes Harry so hard 
his glasses slip down his nose. It's at this point he throws Harry 
away from him (hard). Then he bellows at Harry not to repeat 
anything, and tells him to get out. It's then the jar of dead 
cockroaches explodes.

[The problem with a magical environment is that you can't work out 
whether something is exploding *metaphorically*, as in Snape just 
threw it and it hit so hard it exploded, or exploding *magically*,as 
in Snape's uncontrolled rage made it explode].

So Snape is absolutely, grade A, extremely angry. And pretty 
physical with it. Harry is scared of him; with reason.

Let's look at Snape's dialogue.

"Having fun?"
"So. So
 been enjoying yourself, Potter?"
"Amusing man, your father, wasn't he?"
"You will not repeat what you saw to anybody!"
Get out, get out, I don't want to see you in this office ever again!"

Notice what it doesn't say. Well, for one thing, it doesn't say `you 
stinking little swine, Harry, you are just like your father, and I 
hate you because of that!' [evil grin]. In fact, this is one of the 
rare occasions where Snape *doesn't* compare Harry to James.

And it's one of the occasions where Harry's reaction is extremely un-
James-like. If you look at Snape's dialogue, you can see that there 
is a progression of thought. Snape's first thought is that Harry is 
enjoying watching his humiliation – it's what he says as he pulls 
Harry out of the Pensieve scene, and the first thing he says when 
they get back to the office.

Harry denies this; how far this gets through I don't know but Snape 
moves on from *Harry* enjoying himself, to *James* being amusing (in 
the sarcastic British sense). And Harry, who is upset, continues to 
say that he didn't find anything amusing at all in his father 
bullying Snape.

It's at this point that Snape throws Harry away from him. Hard. 

Now, if this were a violent attack, what you would expect would be 
for Snape to throw Harry to the floor, then step towards him to 
continue the attack.

This isn't actually what the description says. What the description 
*says* is:

"Snape threw Harry from him with all his might."

There is then a full stop (period). Snape *doesn't* throw Harry to 
the floor. Harry falls (that is the word in the text), as a 
consequence of being thrown away from Snape so hard (basically, 
Harry loses his balance, which you will if someone pushes you away 
really hard).

The point where Snape throws Harry from him is the point where 
the `Harry finds this amusing' thought stops.  It's also where Snape 
tries to physically separate himself and Harry; up to this point he 
has hurt Harry by physical contact. Note that once he's thrown Harry 
away from him, he doesn't move towards him in any way. Snape has 
stopped the physical contact.

And the dialogue now moves towards `what happens next'. He tells 
Harry not to repeat what he saw. He tells him to get out. And Harry 
gets (with exploding cockroaches).

So, when Harry says (repeatedly) that he *didn't* find anything 
remotely amusing in his father's behaviour, Snape changes from 
reacting to the scene he's just seen (and treating Harry almost as 
if he had finally got James in his clutches) to keeping Harry away 
from him. Firstly by throwing him from him, secondly, by getting 
Harry the heck out of his office.

Now, the question I would ask myself is; who exactly is Harry in 
most danger from in this scene? Voldemort? Or Snape?

Uh, let me see. Snape has just grabbed Harry so hard he's bruised 
him, shaken him so hard his glasses nearly fell off, and then threw 
him away so hard that Harry couldn't keep his feet and hit the deck.

Compare this with the Shrieking Shack and hospital scenes in PoA, 
where Snape is supposed to be really angry [see 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/39662 for a 
boringly detailed analysis where I cast some doubt on that theory]. 
In *these* scenes, Snape doesn't attack anyone physically.

This, in OOP, is the scene where Snape has truly lost it. He's an 
adult attacking a child, he's a teacher attacking a pupil. This is 
angry Snape. This is a Snape who hurts someone almost without 
realising it.

And the difference? What makes Snape so angry *here*? James Potter, 
not Harry. Harry has seen personal scenes in Snape's life before.  
(See above: OOP Ch. 26 ). Harry has seen Snape being humiliated 
before (see PoA, Ch. 22 ). What seemed to make the difference this 
time is having the humiliation by *James* replayed in glorious 
Pensievecolour.

That is basically what Dumbledore says in Ch. 37 p. 735. `
some 
wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could 
overcome his feelings about your father – I was wrong.'

Snape does not treat Harry as if he were the fifteen year old James. 
Nor does he act like he's the fifteen year old Snape. He acts like a 
responsible adult, who is aware that he can be violent, who loses 
control for a moment. ( I know this sounds weird, but it's true.) He 
very quickly gets Harry *away* from him. 

Do you honestly think that if he had fifteen-year old James in a 
room on his own, he wouldn't have tried to beat him to a pulp?

So, we have the prospect of continuing private, one-on-one lessons, 
with a teacher who has just attacked a pupil. Yeah, this sounds 
really good. He's attacked a pupil because said pupil (largely 
unintentionally) accessed some very traumatic memories, which caused 
the teacher to lose control (and in the four and a half preceding 
years, Snape *never* physically assaulted a student). Fine. 
Continuing the lessons will involve said teacher and pupil being 
left alone to try and gain access to each other's most humiliating 
memories, possibly leading to yet more trauma. Goody.

I dunno. It might be just me, but maybe, just maybe, Snape thought 
that continuing the Occlumency lessons was too much of a risk for 
*Harry*? That maybe, if he'd lost control once, he might lose it 
again? Only this time Harry might fall hard enough to break his 
back, or his neck?

So, no, the discontinuation of the Occlumency lessons do not provide 
canon for `Snape hates Harry because of James.' They certainly 
provide canon for `Snape hates James', and they also show yet again 
that Snape can be very unpleasant towards Harry.

But if Snape actually did lose control in that final Occlumency 
lesson, then he is not trying to harm Harry by discontinuing them. 
He's trying to protect him.

As he has done throughout the books to date.

Pip!Squeak