The student reaction to the tooth incident

[Sydney]

No: HPFGUIDX 70814

Sorry too take so long to reply-- you wait like a day around here and
it's ancient history already!

Darrin wrote (all subsequent quotage is Darren as well):
> Concepts like in loco parentis, where the adults in a residential-
> school are, because of the absence of parents, responsible for 
> matters such as safety, are what I know. 

Still not getting the saftey angle, sorry.  You guys can argue till
you're blue in the face, but the "failed to get medical attention for
an injured student" thing I'm just not buying.  McGonnegal (who is my
ideal), would have said something like, "Pull yourself together, Miss
Granger.  Go see Madame Pomfrey!"  Snape said "I see no difference",
partly the way you would slap someone being hysterical, and partly
because he's a jackass; and in another two seconds would have followed
it up with, "Well, hospital wing, you idiot girl!"  
> 
> So, where shall I turn to for help with this cultural divide? How 
> about to the kids themselves?

By all means, lets go by the judgement of 13-year-olds!  Free candy
for Gryffindors!  Unless -- *pauses suddenly, a thought striking*--
this is then internet after all... you're not ACTUALLY thirteen, are
you Darrin?  In which case I can be a lot more sympathetic to your
"It's not fair!  Somebody's daddy should do something!  Death to mean
teachers!" angle.  *anxiously scans post for inappropriate language*.  


> But when have we ever seen Harry and Ron, or other students, snap and 
> yell at Snape like this? 

Well, there's the time he took over Lupin's class: "It was a mark of
how much the class loathed Snape that they were all glaring at him,
because every one of them had called Hermionie a know-it-all at least
once, and Ron, who told Hermionie she was a know-it-all at least twice
a week, said loudly, "You asked a question and she knows the answer! 
Why ask if you don't want to be told!"

Or, there's the summary here:  "Harry didn't answer.  He knew Snape
was trying to provoke him; he had done this before.  No doubt he was
hoping for an excuse to take a round fifty points off Gryffindor
before the end of the class".
 
> But Harry and Ron's reactions indicate sheer and total outrage, which 
> I submit comes at least partially from shock that Snape would stoop 
> even this low.

> Harry "pictures horrific things happening to Snape" and actually 
> dreams of doing the Cruciatus curse. He dreams of breaking a potion 
> over Snape's head.
> 
> Again, I ask, when have we seen these kids react like this before to 
> Snape's taunts, or unjust point-taking? 
> 
> After three years of Snape, one would think they would be used to 
> things like this, if it were part and parcel of their experiences 
> with him.

I think it is precisely because it's part and parcel of their
experiences, that they are so angry.  If this was out of character for
him, they would be more shocked than angry.  But they start yelling
right away.  If Rowling wanted to say they were shocked, she would
have... said they were shocked.  Maybe it's just me, but that sort of
seething rage is something I get when I'm thinking "isn't that JUST
LIKE HIM..."

And I think the Cruciatus curse thing is supposed to indicate to us
that Harry's going a little over the top here.
> 
> Clearly, this is something worse to the kids, which indicates to me 
> that it is new ground for Snape.
> 
No one says, "let's go to Dumbledore!" they way they did over
Umbridge's pen.  They are shaking with IMPOTENT rage.  There's nothing
they can do because everyone knows Snape is a mean git and he did
nothing in this scene that was against the Hogwarts rules.

Dumbldore is a headmaster that allows eleven-year-olds to go through
life-threatening experiences because he wants to give them a chance to
prove themselves.  I don't think he'd give the time of day to students
who were such wusses as to snitch out a teacher just for being mean.

This thread started, I believe, by your contention that Hermionie must
have been told the Snape-Trust-Thing because otherwise she would
have... what?  Told her parents, who would have, uh... filed a lawsuit
in muggle court?  Taken her out of school? The only time we see
parental involvement over teacher negligence was the Buckbeak
incident, where Lucius Malfoy is on the actual board and is an
unusually malicious person, and even he couldn't get Hagrid fired
(despite the fact that, nice as Hagrid is, this is DEFINITELY an
actual student endangerment situation).  All the following year Hagrid
has the blast-ended skrewts directly and seriously threatening the
children with physical damage, and nobody thinks of doing anything
about that.

I'm sorry, I think Snape was a jackass here, as he is pretty well all
the time he's interacting with children;  if it was my child I'd
probably go around and yell at him (though I wouldn't do something as
pusillanimus as filling out a complaint form).  But Snape never does
anything to the kids that they couldn't overcome just by learning to
suck it up, which is always a valuable lesson.  Hermionie was
panicking over a situation that wasn't really dangerous, which she
used to do all the time;  but Hogwarts has made sterner stuff out of
her by OoP.  

JKR shows us what she thinks of beaurocratic, infantilizing officials
that write up reports on teachers and treat children like hothouse
flowers.  I think Umbridge would just thrive on your lawsuits and
schoolboards and post-traumatic stress councelling reaction to the
tooth incident.  One five second event with no harm done, and  it
would give her yet another whip-hand to hold over her staff, preserve
Hermionie in her proper place as a trembling ninny who needs an adult
to help her with every crisis, and generally make hay for controlling
beaurocrats everywhere. 

No thanks.  

Sydney