What does Snape owe Harry?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 97055

Potioncat quotes GoF, chapter 18, pp 300-301 (American Edition??):
> This is just after the incident with Hermione's teeth.
> "Antidotes!" said Snape, looking around at them all, his cold black 
> eyes glittering unpleasantly. "You should all have prepared your 
> recipes now. I want you to brew them carefully, and then, we will be
selecting someone on whom to test one..."  Snape's eyes met Harry's 
> and Harry knew what was coming.  Snape was going to poison *him.*
> 
> Harry was particulary angry at this point, he'd had the fight with 
> Malfoy, Hermione had been insulted by Snape, Harry and Ron were given 
> detention and now he expects to be poisoned. We don't know if that 
> was true (sure seems like it) or just as importantly, whether Snape 
> tested the antidotes on another student. But Snape spends a lot of 
> time teaching Harry to "work well under pressure" and this may have 
> been one of those times. <snip>

Carol:
I snipped most of your post before and after the quote because I
essentially agree with you and would just be repeating your arguments,
but I wanted to highlight the quote because it's a perfect example of
the "Harry *knew*" strategy JKR is so fond of. True, Harry had good
reason to *suspect* that Snape wanted to poison him--Snape's speech
and that meeting of the eyes--but he didn't *know* any such thing. I
think you're right that it was a pressure tactic (and Snape, IIRC, was
also particularly angry with Harry because he suspected him of having
robbed his office to steal boomslang skin), but I think it's extremely
unlikely that Snape would really poison any student, particularly
Harry, whose importance he recognizes and whom he has actively tried
to save more than once. If he tested a student's potion, IMO it would
be one he knew was not deadly. It might not even have been a poisonous
potion--he may have only been saying that to be sure the students got
it right.

In any case, Harry can't read Snape's mind or anyone else's, and I
suspect that Snape had no real intention of poisoning Harry. Almost
any time Harry *knows* something with that degree of certain, Harry is
wrong, and this incident is a case in point.

Carol