Evaluating Snape (was: Re: Lupin's resentment )

[melclaros]

No: HPFGUIDX 94196

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "cubfanbudwoman" 
<susiequsie23 at s...> wrote:
> 
> SUSAN AGAIN:
> Yup, yup, yup, I seem to be guilty of EXTRAPOLATING to a degree 
that > was inappropriate on the grades.  In skimming through the 
books last > evening, it became apparent that, if anything, it 
was "Points Abuse" > even more than "Grade Abuse" that was coloring 
my impressions. :-) 
> Okay, for grins, I'll set out briefly what I found on this 
*general* 
> topic, expanding it to the wider area of Snape's treatment of 
Harry 
> & the Gryffindors.


 
> CHAMBER OF SECRETS:
> "Professor Severus Snape was Harry's least favorite teacher.  
Harry 
> also happened to be Snape's least favorite student. 

Mel
I'd imagine Neville might argue that and would have a good case. 
Harry's decidedly self-centered POV.


SSS:
COS
> [The lesson where Harry's to create a diversion for 
> Hermione.]  "Snape prowled through the fumes, making waspish 
remarks > about the Gryffindors' work while the Slytherins sniggered 
> appreciatively. Draco Malfoy, who was Snape's favorite student, 
kept > flickering puffer-fish eyes at Ron and Harry, who knew that 
if they > retaliated they would get detention faster than you could 
> say 'Unfair.'" [US, p. 186]  [Harry **was** breaking the rules in 
> this lesson!]



Mel:
And don't forget that the trio didn't just break the rules. They 
casued a dangerous explosion and then robbed a teachers's private 
stores. I, personally, don't remember any consequences of this 
action.



SSS:
> Mel said previously that:
> "In *every single* one of those lessons (even the one in which 
SNAPE 
> HIMSELF breaks Harry's sample flask) Harry has screwed up his 
potion 
> due to carelessness, inattentiveness or nosiness."  I would agree 
> that certainly Harry is to blame sometimes, but I would also 
provide 
> this:
> 
> "They had Potions that afternoon, which was an unqualified 
> disaster.  Try as Harry might, he couldn't get his Confusing 
> Concoction to thicken, and Snape, standing watch with an air of 
> vindictive pleasure, scribbled something that looked suspiciously 
> like a zero onto his notes before moving away."  [US, p. 318]  No, 
> we don't KNOW he gave a zero, but we do see that Harry was trying 
> not to mess up.


Mel:
"Try as he might" means what? He did something wrong. We have canon 
evidence that he seems incapeable of following simple directions 
even when written out right in front of him. Usually because he's 
too busy nosing into someone elses business during class. Heaven 
forbid he should ask for HELP. His potion failed. It doesn't say 
anyone elses, or everyone else's did. He got it WRONG.





SSS:
> GOBLET OF FIRE:
> "...Snape--Harry's least favorite person at Hogwarts.  Harry's 
> loathing of Snape was matched only by Snape's hatred of him, a 
> hatred which had, if possible, intensified last year, when Harry 
had 
> helped Sirius escape right under Snape's overlarge nose...." [US, 
p. 
> 175]

Mel
Again Harry's POV. Let's ask  Neville about who Snape's least-
favorite student is again. 



> 
> [Draco & Harry get into a pre-class fight over Draco's comments 
> about Hermione & Ron.  BOTH fire spells which collide & wreak 
havoc 
> on others--Hermione's teeth & Goyle's nose.]  After cruelly 
telling 
> Hermione he saw no difference in her teeth, Snape says, "'Let's 
> see,' he said, in his silkiest voice. 'Fifty points from 
Gryffindor 
> and a detention each for Potter and Weasley." [US, pp. 298-300]




Mel:
Yawn. 


SSS: 
> ORDER OF THE PHOENIX:
> [First lesson of the year--a "difficult, fiddly potion" was 
> assigned.  Harry's didn't look right, and neither did Ron's, 
> Seamus's or Goyle's.]  "At Harry's cauldron, however, Snape 
stopped, 
> looking down at Harry with a horrible smirk on his face.  'Potter, 
> what is this supposed to be?'... [Harry replied, Snape asks if he 
> can read, Harry sees his error.]... "'I forgot the hellebore....' 
> 'I know you did, Potter, which means that this mess is utterly 
> worthless.  Evanesco.'  ...His potion had been no worse than 
> Ron's...or Neville's...yet it was he, Harry, who would be 
receiving 
> zero marks for the day's work.


Mel: According to *Harry* his potion was no worse than anyone elses. 
Rons may have been the wrong color, Goyles might have been 
flammable, but for all we know Harry's was deadly poisonous.




> part one of Strengthening Solution.]  "Determined not to give 
Snape 
> an excuse to fail him this lesson, Harry read & reread every line 
of 
> the instructions on the blackboard at least three times before 
> acting on them." [In his own assessment, it wasn't perfect but 
still 
> good.  He delivered a flagon to Snape.  Again, I point out that he 
> *is* trying.] [US, pp. 309-310]


Mel:
And LOOK! He managed a potion!


> 
> [Part 2 of Strengthening Solution.  Harry allows himself to be 
> distracted by Umbridge's questioning of Snape and his potion 
begins 
> to go bad.]  "'No marks again, then, Potter,' said Snape 
> maliciously, emptying Harry's cauldron with a wave of his 
> hand.  'You will write me an essay on the correct composition of 
> thie potion, indicating how & why you went wrong....'" [US, pp. 
> 364]  [I understand the assignment at the end, but no points for 
> part one? taking the potion away before he was done? *Does he do 
> this to anyone else?*]



Mel:
Why should he get points? Because he did what was expected of him? 
Points are for exceptional work or some such nonsense. Not for 
turning in a barely passable product at the end of a 2 hour lab. We 
can safely assume he got a grade on what he turned in--a grade which 
was not a zero.


SSS:
> [Snape, post-Occlumency ending, ignores Harry in class.  This 
helps 
> Harry, who was pleased w/ his Invigoration Draught.]  "At the end 
of 
> the lesson he scooped some of the potion into a flask, corked it, 
> and took it up to Snape's desk for marking, feeling that he might 
at 
> last have scraped an E.  He has just turned away when he heard a 
> smashing noise....  His potion sample lay in pieces on the floor, 
> and Snape was surveying him with a look of gloating 
> pleasure.  'Whoops,' he said softly.  'Another zero, then, 
> Potter....'" [US, pp. 660-661]
> 


Mel:
Inexcusable behaviour in a teacher--psychological abuse for those 
who are into that. But also one of the funniest scenes in the book.


Point is, I suppose that whether Snape's a good teacher is by now a 
moot point. Harry's had him 5 years and is STUCK with him. He should 
certainly, by now, have learned to shut up and read the 
instructions. He doesn't even have potions every day. There's plenty 
of time to be nosy and inattentive elsewhere. The kid in uneducable.

Mel