Snape and respect

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51023

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Shaun Hately" 
<drednort at a...> wrote:
You know, I might have been able to accept the idea that Snape 
isn't just cruel or mean, except for one thing.
<snip>
> Then he lost me. Page 263 of Goblet of Fire (Australian 
printing). The incident with Hermione's teeth.
>

I agree the incident is revolting, if you think of Snape as the 
teacher of a  a fourteen-year-old school girl. But Hermione made 
herself something else when she followed Harry past the 
Trapdoor in Book One. Hermione is a fourteen year old soldier.  

She shouldn't have to be. But she is...and if something like that 
happens when she's facing an adult Death Eater, she'll die while 
she's covering her teeth and snivelling.  What Snape did was 
cruel--but if it saves her life, it will be worth it. 

Most people in the wizarding world treat Harry, and probably 
Neville, too, with kid gloves. If Snape weren't harsh with them, 
they would probably think that every adult in the wizarding world 
was their friend. 

 Unfortunately, that's not true. They have enemies, and those 
enemies are at pains not to appear "less than fond of Harry 
Potter," to quote Lucius Malfoy.

So I think Snape is just as harsh as he appears to be, but not 
without purpose.

Pippin