What's in it for Snape? Finding motive...

[ivogun]

No: HPFGUIDX 97442

Siriusly Snapey Susan wrote:
> broke Harry's potion flask that day when he DID get it right and 
> just AFTER  Hermione had cleaned up his cauldron.  Coincidence?  
> You'll never convince me, not with that sneer on Snape's face...

Motive? Perhaps Snape is trying to prevent Harry from getting into NEWT level 
potions. I have a theory with little proof, but it centers on revenge. 

The Potter family had money, but the Potter family names do not suggest they 
were an old moneyed family like the Malfoys, etc. To me this suggests that they 
were successful business people. It would be the ultimate irony if the Potter 
family had made their fortune and fame with potions. (Well the pharmaceutical 
industry is lucrative for us too.) I could even see them being the ones who 
invented the werewolf potion. They certainly had the motive to do so, and the 
timing would be correct. It's pure speculation of course, but it would anger 
Snape that his nemesis (James) had more fame as a potions master that he had. 
It would the perfect revenge if Harry couldn't follow in the family business 
because he was refused admittance into NEWT level potions. I don't sure that 
Snape could resist such an opportunity. 

> Lots of people have faulted Lupin for the Boggart!Snape thing 
> w/ Neville (I don't). What *I* think was totally inappropriate 
> in that scene was Snape's telling Lupin--in front of the whole 
> class--that he'd better beware because Neville Longbottom was 
> in the class. 

I don't fault Lupin either. Rowling, in one of her interviews mentioned that 
Lupin is a teacher that she would like her own daughter to have. He's supposed 
to be the model teacher, not Snape. The whole Boggart incident taught Neville 
gave Neville a tool in being able to control his panic in Prof. Snape's class. 
I think Neville was on the verge of cracking up under Snape. The Boggart class 
reminds me of music teachers, who right before a recital, tell their panic 
stricken students to imagine the audience sitting in their underwear. 

Ivogun