Teen Conflict (was: "Lapdog" and "snivel")

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 116105


Carol wrote: 
snip
> 
> And if James were so concerned with the upcoming battle against
> Voldemort (which again is not mentioned in this scene), shouldn't 
he take his DADA exam seriously? Instead, he is tracing the letters 
LE on his exam book. His mind is not on the subject that ought to be 
of great concern if he is already, at fifteen or sixteen, concerned 
with the battle against Voldemort. 

Potioncat:
I don't think we can judge too much by test taking skills.  I 
assumed James had finished the test and was passing the time.  Some 
students are more concise than others. (Which of course is different 
from finishing early because you didn't know anything.) 

Carol:
He's preoccupied with the girl he has a crush on. And as far as 
schoolwork is concerned, his efforts so far have been focused on 
Transfiguration, not so he can fight Voldemort or even so that he 
can do well on his OWLs, but so that he and his friends can 
transform themselves into animals and run around with a werewolf. 
(That, just possibly, could account for McGonagall's memory of him 
as a brilliant student. She remembers him in her classes. She never 
saw him in any other class.)

Potioncat:
Well, he is 15.  I can say as a mother of a 15 year old...never 
having been one myself...they know everything and they are 
invincible.  

Aren't we told somewhere that James was the top student?  I mean 
more than McGonagall saying he was the brightest student?  Or have 
we all presumed that from several comments in canon?  But you bring 
up a good point.  The teachers don't know everything that we do.  
Draco is careful not to challenge Harry near a teacher, just close 
enough that Harry would get caught if he retaliated.  And Fred and 
George get away with a lot of misdeeds. I wonder how much of James' 
behavior McGonagall knew about.

Carol:
> And if Severus is so enamored of the Dark Arts, and again it's 
Sirius
> who says that he was, why is he so intent on his exam in *Defense
> Against* the Dark Arts? Clearly he knows the subject inside out; 
his answers to the questions are so detailed that he has to write in 
a minuscule hand to get them in. Clearly he cares about the subject 
(and his mark in it) or he wouldn't be obsessively studying the exam 
sheet when the test is over. The adult Snape's desire to teach DADA 
is not some whim. He cares about and knows about this topic. It 
would be very surprising if he did not get an O ("outstanding") on 
both his OWL and  his NEWT. An intense fascination with DADA is a 
very odd trait in a future DE, and yet there it is. It's Severus, 
not James (or Sirius) who's studying the one subject that the future 
opponents of Voldemort must master in order to fight him.

Potioncat: 
 He is taking it very seriously.  I'll bet that Severus did the same 
in all his tests.  He seems a lot like Hermione.  I wonder how close 
in marks he and James were? 

As far as DADA vrs Dark Arts goes, I would think DADA would be an 
important part of Dark Arts.  Afterall, if you want to learn Dark 
Arts, you want to learn how to defend against them as well.  And, 
for that matter, Dark Arts are a part of DADA.  It could have been 
the closest to Dark Arts that Severus could get at Hogwarts. 


I hope we get the full back story to Snape joining the DEs and 
whether he really was up to his eyeballs in Dark Arts at 11.