[HPforGrownups] Breaking the Rules - Good and/or Bad, Snape in general

[Scott Northrup]

No: HPFGUIDX 50273

Oryomai:
>      I'm not saying that I wish Harry would follow the rules all the
time -
> God knows I don't.  But I feel that Harry *is* Mr. High School in some
ways.
> I'm not saying that he never gets punished, but he gets alot of leinency
> (sp).  And let's be honest: Harry *is* a jock - he's the star of the
> Quidditch team for Salazar's sake.  Harry is just like the quarterback of
the
> football team.
>      I suppose this is more about Snape for me (as is everything).  Anyone
> else know that one teacher who wouldn't break the rules for the jocks - no
> matter what?  That's a part of Snape to me.  I just think Snape
> overcompensates for it by being extra mean.
>      Snape does this to everyone.  Maybe he thinks everyone should be
treated
> the same - no matter what.  He's mean to Neville (whose parents were
tortured
> and are now insane), he's mean to Hermione (she's a fantastic witch, but
> Muggle born), and he's mean to Harry (who was orphaned by the greatest
Dark
> wizard in a hundred years).
>      That's why I love Snape.  He may be a nasty git ... but at least he's
> being fair (IMHO).

Frankly, Harry is not a jock, or Mr. High School.  These people bend rules,
and use their skills for their own advantage, and are generally jerks.  The
ONLY person who gives Harry any leniency at all because of his Quidditch
skills is McGonagall, and that's VERY rare.  We've seen instances, but she's
still very hard on him, and on Gryffindor's in general.  If Dumbledore gives
Harry any more leeway than other students, it's certainly not because of
Harry's prowess on a broom.  Personally, I think Dumbledore has looked the
other way for some of Harry's rule-breaking (and in fact, encouraged some of
it) because he feels it is better preparation for fighting Voldemort than he
would otherwise receive in a classroom.

<rant>
Snape is a jerk.  He is NOT fair.  McGonagall is fair- we've seen nothing
indicating that she treats students from any house any differently than how
she treats Gryffindors (actually, she's easier on other houses, but that
only emphasizes my point).  We KNOW that Snape is nothing but biased against
anyone not in Slytherin, and he very possibly hates Gryffindor more than
Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw (hard to say, I'm not sure we've seen him interact
with students from other houses, outside of the Quidditch match between
Hufflepuff and Gryffindor he refereed in PS/SS, and Gryffindor was getting
an abnormal number of penalties called against them).  I'm not even going to
call up evidence to support this, I'm fairly certain we can take Snape's
pro-Slytherin bias as a given.

Also, I find it ironic that anyone would consider anyone from Slytherin
fair, since it would seem to me that doing anything  to get ahead of the
game (i.e. disregard for the rules) seems to be a prerequisite  for being in
Slytherin.
</rant>

Frankly, (this is a general statement) rules are in place to provide order.
If most people try to follow them most of the time, all the better for
everyone.  However, in my opinion, 'strict observance of  established rules
is likely to prevent attaining a good outcome.'  If everyone followed the
rules all of the time, nothing would ever change, for better or worse.

-Scott
Who will teach his kids to question everything, except of course, their
mother.