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

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 97537

> > Potioncat: 
> > I'm not sure when I caught that phrase, but I remember being 
> > surprised there had already been assignments.  Although that's 
the way I understood it. 

 
Alla wrote:
> Could you please, please provide a quote? I am under very stron 
> assumption that there were no assignments yet before they started 
> Hogwarts. Why would it be? I would say that at least Muggle-born 
> children are not expected to know anything about magic yet.


Potioncat:
I think you are right.  The quote is "Thought you wouldn't open a 
book before coming, eh Potter?"   Shortly after that quote he gives 
the answers and chides the class for not writing it down.

Given the description of Harry looking at his books and finding them 
interesting back at Privet Drive, I no longer think there were 
assignments. 

But I will add this for what it's worth.  I do think Snape was trying 
to deflate an ego we know Harry didn't have.  I think Snape fully 
expects Harry to be like James and at this point people were 
already talking about Harry Potter. Snape is certainly the type of 
man who thinks he is always right.  And when he's wrong....he's right.

Back to the banquet.  Snape only looked at Harry.  There is no 
description of any expression at all on Snape's face.  There is a 
sharp hot pain across Harry's scar.  He yells "ouch" and clasped his 
hand on his forhead.
(Who knows what that grimace of pain looked like to Snape?  I once 
thought a co-worker was mad all day, only to discover later that she  
had a migraine.) Does Snape expect Harry to arrive at Hogwarts 
knowing that his father and Snape were enemies?  Did he hear from 
Hagrid that Harry Potter had been kept in the dark about the magic 
world?

"Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the 
teaher's look--a feeling he didn't like Harry at all."

At this point all of us think the pain was caused by Snape.  Maybe it 
was LV who didn't like Harry at all.

So the first day of class, no mean looks, but Snape taunts Harry as a 
celebrity and asks him questions he doesn't know.  He taunts him for 
not knowing the answers, although it's unlikely no one else does.  I 
have to wonder if the Slytherins knew.  They were laughing at Harry 
as if they didn't expect to have to answer or as if they knew the 
answer.

Harry is chided later when Neville melts a cauldron.  He loses two 
points during the class.  Ron warns him that Snape can get nasty and 
that he takes points from the twins all the time. So at this point, I 
almost have to wonder if Snape is the type to have a target in each 
class? (Not the twins, I can easily imagine they would deserve to 
lose points.)

While Snape wasn't nice to Harry, OK, Snape was pretty mean to Harry, 
he wasn't giving him evil looks. 

But I'm not sure what my overall point is at the moment.
Potioncat who has confused herself.