[HPforGrownups] Snape fair to Hermione?!

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 71880

  owlery2003 Said:
  >>> Re-reading CoS I noticed that Lucius comments to Draco in Borgin &
  Bourkes that Hermione did better than him in all his classes. This
  would suggest that Snape gave her higher marks than Draco in
  potions. Of course, Hermione is brighter than Draco (certainly in
  the academic sense), but as far as Snape is concerned, you'd think
  he'd come up with some way to mark Draco up, or mark Hermione down.
  He seems to find reasons to dock Harry. But in this respect, at
  least Snape gives Hermione her due. Never thought I'd be giving
  Snivellus any credit, but there it is!<<<

  And why WOULDN'T Snape be fair academically?  Draco's not going to get
very far in life thinking that he's brilliant in a subject that he's really
not, or thinking that he's automatically going to be given top honors just
because someone likes him.

  A lot of people criticize how Snape treats his students, but look at it
from more of a logical, teaching standpoint - Snape is NOT looking at the
students as developing, emotionally-fragile beings who could be permanently
psychologically damaged by one teacher being a personal ass to them.  He is
looking at them as people, who in the world they're growing up in could live
or die for their lack of skill or inattentiveness.

  To quote one of Professor Snape's more oft-quoted speeches, which is just
as often dismissed as egotism and picking on Harry:



  Sorcerer's Stone, American paperback edition, Pg 137:

  -----"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly
believe this is magic.  I don't expect you will really understand the beauty
of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate
power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind,
ensnaring the senses...I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even
stopper death -- if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually
have to teach."

  More silence followed his little speech.  Harry and Ron exchanged looks
with raised eyebrows.  Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and
looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead. -----

  Right here, Professor Snape has clearly told his entire class, in a
nutshell, how potions work, the power they can have over a person, and the
attention to intricate detail that is required to work with them.  Of course
it went right over Harry and Ron's heads, as they had already a
pre-conceived notion of what Snape was like.  Hermione hung on every word,
and understood them - it's no wonder she's brilliant in potions.  Snape also
summed up that he knew the predisposition that most first years had toward
potions as well, and that he expected their reactions - including Harry and
Ron's indifference.  There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that he noticed
their reaction as well as Hermione's and the other students', which led
right into the next bit.



  Pg 137-138:

  ----- "Potter!" said Snape suddenly.  "What would I get if I added
powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

  _Powdered root of what to an infusion of what?_ Harry glanced at Ron, who
looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air.

  "I don't know, sir," said Harry.

  Snape's lips curled into a sneer.

  "Tut, tut -- fame clearly isn't everything."

  He ignored Hermione's hand.

  "Let's try again.  Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a
bezoar?"

  Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without
leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was.
He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with
laughter.

  "I don't know, sir."

  "Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?" -----



  Here we see that Professor Snape was demonstrating, in a very blunt
manner, that just because someone is famous or well-liked doesn't mean they
have all the answers.  After all, "Harry Potter" was "The Boy Who Lived",
"The Boy Who Defeated Voldemort", "The Boy Who Lived Through Something That
Killed A Skilled Witch and Wizard".  People expected that he was great, that
he knew things, that he was an "awesome" wizard - here, Snape demonstrates
that he actually has less knowledge and ability at that time than some other
first years.

  After all, he didn't NOT SEE Hermione's hand, he IGNORED it.  He knew full
well that she knew the answers, and that was why he didn't call on her.
Hermione had clearly prepared herself for the situation before coming to
Potions class for the first time - Ron and Harry, along with any others who
had been forewarned about Professor Snape, still had not made the effort to
prepare themselves that Hermione had made.  It's a life lesson that they
NEED to learn to survive with Voldemort out and about.



  Pg 138:

  ----- Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand.

  "What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"

  At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretched toward the dungeon ceiling.

  "I don't know," said Harry quietly.  "I think Hermione does, though, why
don't you try her?"

  A few people laughed; Harry caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked.
Snape, however, was not pleased.

  "Sit down," he snapped at Hermione.  "For your information, Potter,
asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potion so powerful it is known as the
Draught of Living Death.  A bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a
goat and it will save you from most poisons.  As for monkshood and
wolfsbane, they are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite.
Well?  Why aren't you all copying that down?" -----


  Five paragraphs and Harry has let his righteous indignation try to
undermine Snape's authority, Snape brought his authority back in check, and
in the process gave Harry, and everyone else, instructions that could save
their life later on.  Also, though Harry wasn't to know it for two more
years yet, Snape knew Harry had a connection to someone who would absolutely
need a person who could use wolfsbane for a potion.  There was likely no
doubt in his mind, especially after he first laid eyes on Harry and made the
mental connection between him and James, that Harry and Remus would meet up.

  His classes are "advanced" as one other person had pointed out, because
they HAVE to be.  Snape KNOWS that Voldemort is not gone for good.  He KNOWS
that these students will have to be BETTER than most to survive - and when
it comes time for survival, there is very little time for molly-coddling
emotions or bruised egos.

  -Lady Macbeth


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