SNAPE the baby-sitter?

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 119335


Chrusotoxos wrote:
 
> Was just wondering, we know that Snape favours Slytherin students 
(it's not  only Harry's point of view; Percy tells him so his first 
night in Hogwarts, 
> and we see the evidence of it) but what is intriguing me is why.
> 
> We're told that favouring the students of own's house is not 
common;  McGonagall doesn't do that, and I don't see Snape as 
someone less strict  than she is. We can assume that Sprout and 
Flitwick are nice to everybody.

<snip of examples of the very un-Slytherin Slytherins of canon>

> > So why the hell Snape, so rigid and demanding, is supporting a 
group of idiotic teenagers when nothing compells him to?
<snip>
> So why is Snape baby-sitting them?


Hannah: Why is Snape babysitting them?  Because he is head of 
Slytherin house and it is his job.  Snape is very conscientious.  He 
will do things even if he really doesn't want to if he thinks it is 
his duty to do them.

Consider: brewing Wolfsbane for Lupin.  He hates Lupin, and wants 
the man's job, and even has reasonable grounds to suspect he may be 
involved in criminal activity.  Yet he keeps his mouth shut about 
Lupin's little problem with lycanthropy.  Not only that, but he 
brews up the wolfsbane potion for him monthly.  And then, when Lupin 
forgets to take it one night, rather than going 'oops, what a shame, 
looks like old Remus will be shown the door tomorrow' he actually 
pours a cupfull and takes it along to the man's office to make sure 
he drinks it.

All through the books we see Snape doing things he'd much rather not 
do (or at least, that is how it appears) because he considers it to 
be his duty.  I can't believe that Snape has a great deal of respect 
for Malfoy, Crabbe, Goyle, or any of the pathetic, two-dimensional 
Slytherins we have been shown so far.  But he is head of Slytherin 
house and so he sees it as his duty to stand up for them, and to 
Snape, that probably does mean being favouritist.  

And to be honest, I don't think Snape is really exceptionally nice 
or kind to them.  He might be *nicer* to them, and not hand out 
punishments when he should, and award them housepoints when he 
shouldn't, but I don't really see him as being caring or kind to 
them or to anyone.  

Hannah