Snape and respect

[kiricat2001 <Zarleycat@aol.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51058

> I REPLY:
> I have to disagree with that. There's a theme 
> in that first day in the classroom. Snape mentions 
> it twice by different names.
> 
> (During roll call:)
> "Harry Potter.  Our new - celebrity." 
> (PS/SS 136)
> 
> (When Harry can't answer the question:)
> "Tut, tut - fame clearly isn't everything." 
> (PS/SS 137)
> 
> Snape has issues with the idea that celebrities 
> get off easy. He had issues with that quality in 
> James Potter, and I believe that Snape is making 
> an example of Harry in front of the class for two 
> reasons: 

> 1) To let HARRY know, in no uncertain terms, that 
> no matter how many professors pander to him and 
> let him get away with whatever he wants because 
> he's "famous Harry Potter," HE, for one, won't 
> be doing that.

Yikes!! It was their very first Potions class at the very beginning 
of the school year.  How was Snape to know that anyone might pander 
to famous Harry Potter?  Is he amazingly prescient? Is he, in his oh-
so-caring way, trying to save Harry from getting a puffed-up view of 
himself? Doubtful. 

Pure and simple, Snape went after Harry in that class like a shark 
scenting blood in the water.  He brought up Harry's fame and then 
proceeded to show how little Harry knew. I read that scene as a 
deliberate attempt to humiliate Harry. 

And, if what Snape truly wants to make sure that Harry realizes Snape 
will not show him any favoritism because of his fame, why confront 
him and show him up at the very beginning of class? Why not take him 
aside, privately and say, "Potter, I don't care what you may have 
done or what powers you have.  In my class, you toe the line."


> 2) To let the other kids know the same thing. 
> I'd bet that Snape probably wasn't a very popular 
> student when he was at school. And I'll bet that 
> he probably didn't get away with the stuff that 
> the Marauders did. Why? Because he wasn't popular 
> and on the Quidditch team.

So, are you saying that adult, authority-figure Professor Snape is 
justified in verbally beating up on Harry without provocation in that 
first class because Snape *may* have been unpopular when he was at 
school? That, to me, shows Snape in a most unsavory light.

Why do you think Snape was unpopular? Even Sirius, who we know can't 
stomach Snape, tells the Trio of the other students Snape hung around 
with. If Snape was truly friendless, I would think Sirius would not 
hesitate to tell the kids that Snape was so horrible even his 
housemates couldn't stand him.  Yet, he doesn't.  

And, why do people assume that the Marauders got away with 
everything? McGonagall talks about what trouble-makers James and 
Sirius were in the Three Broomsticks scene in PoA.  To me that 
implies that they were caught a fair amount of times. Did they always 
get away with no punishment?

Or did the problem arise because, in Snape's eyes, they weren't 
punished often enough or severely enough? And, if that's the case, 
since we don't have definitive canon on that sitiuation, doesn't 
Student!Snape's view of being the victim of favoritism parallel 
Harry's views with regard to how Snape treats the Slytherins in his 
class?

Marianne