Lupin's resentment : An inside to Snape's resentment

[jmgarciaiii]

No: HPFGUIDX 94592

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:

> Oy! You're right about Neville's gran and about Boggart's 
reflecting
> actual fears.

Being right is a sill fetish of mine. :-)

> But my point was that Snape may have assumed that the
> boggart would be a DE (as IMO it logically should have been, but 
fear
> isn't logical) and warned Lupin so that Lupin could avoid having 
such
> a fearsome boggart appearing to Neville and his classmates.

This is the actual quote from PoA:

<<He got to his feet and strode past the class, his black robes 
billowing behind him. At the doorway he turned on his heel and 
said, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains 
Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with 
anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions 
in his ear."

Neville went scarlet. Harry glared at Snape; it was bad enough that 
he bullied Neville in his own classes, let alone doing it in front 
of other teachers.>>

While your hypothesis is certainly possible, IMO, I consider it 
unlikely. Lupin had not addressed the subject of the day's exercise 
when Snape exited.

> That's why
> Lupin *asked* him what he was most afraid of rather than merely 
having
> him take his turn.

While that's possible, I think that he did so to illustrate, in a 
step-by-step manner, how a boggart ought be faced.

> Had it been a DE, he might have decided to work
> with Neville privately just as he did with Harry (who was not even
> allowed to face his boggart with his classmates).

But in order for this to be the case, not only must've Snape made a 
veiled warning, but Lupin must have also understood it and 
extrapolated therefrom that Nevilles boggart would be a DE. Notice 
his "2nd choice" was (presumably) his Gran, not a DE either, so said 
extrapolation would have been way off base, as opposed to Lupin's 
guess about HP, which was only mildly wrong (HP thought briefly 
about LV at first, but then the Dementor sprang to the fore.)

> Instead, Neville's
> boggart turns out to be the very person who had just tried to warn 
him
> about Neville's potentially disturbing boggart. (Poor Snape!) But
> Lupin is now stuck dealing with a boggart that looks like his
> colleague and has no choice but to make him look ridiculous or 
leave
> Neville unable to deal with a boggart. I'm trying to say that the 
way
> I read it, neither Snape nor Lupin is at fault in this scene. 
They're
> both trying--one covertly, the other overtly--to help Neville to 
deal
> with his boggart.

I agree with the ultimate assessment, that neither Lupin nor Snape 
were at fault, but for me the notion that Snape was attempting 
covertly to help Neville remains in the realm of somewhat improbable 
conjecture.

-Joe in SoFla