[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape and respect

[Michael Broadwater]

No: HPFGUIDX 51247

On Thursday, Jan 30, 2003, at 17:40 US/Eastern, Irene Mikhlin wrote:

> > Are you insinuating that Snape is psychic?  He didn't know that
> > Hermione had committed the first two of those three crimes.
>
> Didn't he? When he confiscated the book from Harry, he saw this
> famous blue fire, speciality of Hermione. I think he put two and two
> together.

Nothing in canon shows that he did.  The burden of proof is yours.  
And, if we're going to go on what we "think" happened, then I feel that 
out of the 1000 supposed students at Hogwarts, Hermione is not the only 
one who can create fire, giving a much larger pool of suspects.  It's a 
huge leap to go from "Hermione can create flame" to "Hermione set me on 
fire even though she was sitting in another part of the stadium and I 
never saw who did it."

>  When Hermione was in the hospital wing, it's quite probable
> that Madame Pomfrey sought his opinion, or at least mentioned the
> incident in the teachers room.

Which incident and hospital visit was that?  And why would Pomfrey seek 
Snapes opinion on anything?  She's shown that she doesn't like other 
teachers interfering with her patients.

>  He might be a right bastard, but he is
> not stupid.
>
Very true, and I never said that he was.  However, you are presuming 
that Snape is in possession of information that we are never shown that 
he has.  If he did "know" that Hermione had stolen from him, he would 
have punished her with at least detention and loss of house points.  He 
would do the same if he had found out that she had set him on fire.  
Snape has never shown an unwillingness to punish students.

Mike

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