[HPforGrownups] "A" Teacher's Personality WAS: Lovely Snape

[An'nai Jiriki]

No: HPFGUIDX 110453


--- caesian <caesian at yahoo.com> wrote:
> The Connection  12 October 1999
> What about Snape?
>   Snape is a very sadistic teacher, loosely based on
> a teacher I myself 
> had, I have to say. I think children are very aware
> and we are kidding 
> ourselves if we dont think that they are, that
> teachers do sometimes 
> abuse their power and this particular teacher does
> abuse his power. 
> Hes not a particularly pleasant person at all.
> However, everyone 
> should keep their eye on Snape, Ill just say that
> because there is ...

I had a disturbing thought.  In this, JKR never says
"Snape" misuses his power, and is not a pleasant
person, directly.  My first reading was she was still
talking about her teacher, and grammatically, the last
person she was talking about was her teacher. 

I think Snape does misuse his powers and is not
pleasant, but unless I am missing vocal inflection
that cannot come through print, I do not think she was
talking about Snape in those lines.  

It is also possible that DD (who I believe is ESE)
gave Snape the power, however directly or indirectly,
to abuse his classes like that.  We also don't know if
it is only Harry's class:

Example: In PS/SS, when Percy tells Harry about Snape,
he never says anything about his personality, only
that he is into Dark Arts. 

Example: In OotP, there is a high level of desire to
pass into NEWT Potions, otherwise Snape would not put
a cap on the amount of students is his class (a matter
of statistics, here). I also do not believe at 15,
most students know enough about their future to
purposely torture themselves with Snape, just to take
an additional class.

Example: Never, anywhere in the books, do students
outside of Harry and Ron badmouth Snape by calling him
'evil' or 'greasy'. 'Unfair', yes, but McGonnagal
(sp?) is called that as well.

Obviously, we are missing something outside of Harry's
perspective.  

Also, I do believe that Harry saw an abnormal amount
of inspections during Umbridge's reign.  It could be
passed off as she was inspecting NEWT classes, or she
was after Harry, but I do not think this is the case.
I think she inspected every year and Harry saw some of
the first inspections (McGonnagal & Trelawney). 

As evil as Umbridge was, I do not think she would have
let a bad of a teacher as Snape is to Harry
continuously harass the students in every class. It
would be devastating to the Ministry she is so
attached to; no potion lovers exiting Hogwarts, no
potion masters/experts entering the Ministry. This
case would be a selfish 'saving our own neck'
scenario.

In conclusion, Snape is sadistic and misuses his
powers. However, he only 'lets go' around Harry, and
is tempered in the rest of his classes.


=====
"You irritate me. Kill me now." ~Javert, Les Miserables


		
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