[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape and respect

[Shaun Hately]

No: HPFGUIDX 51027

On 29 Jan 2003 at 23:38, pippin_999 foxmoth at qnet.com wrote:

> --- 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.  

Even if I accept that's true - and I do to an extent - even if I accept that Hermione is a 
soldier, for that to even start to excuse Snape's behaviour, he'd have to be a drill 
instructor.

I don't believe he is. He's a teacher. She is a school girl. A teacher should *never* lose 
sight of that, even if the child does. A teacher can certainly be more than just a teacher - 
but even if they are, it is my personal view that they are not permitted to lose sight of the 
fact that they are a teacher, and they are dealing with a child. That should be at the core 
of every interaction they have with a child in their care.
 
> 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. 

I don't agree. I should stress that all of this is just personal opinion and experience.

I was a wimp at school. I was bullied, but I was also a 'crybaby', a 'wimp'. When people 
teased me I did collapse into tears at times. Even at age 16 or so.

I also jumped in front of a moving train to drag a younger boy to safety (note - this wasn't 
an act of heroism. I knew I could do it, and I knew I had just enough time to get us both 
to safety.) When a fire started in a chemistry lab, I grabbed and operated a fire 
extinguisher and put it out. I stood between the same bullies who terrified me and made 
my life a misery when they attacked me, to keep them away from younger boys and I did 
so without any real fear.

There are times you need to be brave, there are times you need to fight to defend things 
you hold dear. And there are times when it's OK to cry. Times when it's fine to be upset. 
Times in a fourteen year old soldiers life when it's ok to be a little girl.

Hermione has shown her courage. She's done what has to be done when she has had 
to do it. The fact that in a corridor outside a classroom, with teachers around, she was 
upset and hurt, has no bearing on how she will act in a case where she must act. If she 
was untested and untried, it might be a different matter. But she has proven herself, so I 
can't see anything to be gained by Snape's action.

The fact that she is a 'soldier', IMHO, actually makes Snapes actions even more 
revolting. She's a child who has had to become something more than a child. There are 
times in her life, when she doesn't have the luxury to be a normal kid with normal 
feelings. That makes those times when she has that freedom all the more precious, and 
all the more important.

She wasn't fighting for her life. She wasn't in a situation where she had to act or die. She 
was in a school, in the presence of a teacher and she had a *right* to expect to be 
treated as what she had the luxury to be at that moment. A child in distress.

Snape didn't teach her a thing. 

> 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. 

Yes, and as I said, I  can accept everything else, except this particular incident. This is 
the single incident that I cannot see a justification for. I can understand there may be 
real motivations and justifications for most of what Snape does. But not this.

>  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.

I would agree - except for this one incident. I think it goes beyond the pale.

Yours Without Wax, Dreadnought
Shaun Hately |webpage: http://www.alphalink.com.au/~drednort/thelab.html
(ISTJ)       |email: drednort at alphalink.com.au | ICQ: 6898200
"You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in
common. They don't alter their views to fit the facts. They alter
the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen
to be one of the facts that need altering." The Doctor - Doctor Who:
The Face of Evil | Where am I: Frankston, Victoria, Australia