Wondering.... about Snape & McGonagall

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 116732


> > Dungrollin, previously:
> > Yes, we do agree there, but I'll come back to my original point, 
> > which was that if DD or MM had been present in any of the 
> > situations I mentioned above – e.g. when Snape evanesco-ed
> > Harry's potion, I think they would have said `Steady on!
> > That's not cricket!' (Quidditch somehow doesn't seem to
> > have the right connotations for that phrase...)

kmc responded:
> Snape did not set the tone for their relationship Harry did.  
> Harry assumes that his scar burns on the first night at Hogwarts 
> because Snape is staring at him.  In Harry's first potions class, 
> Harry replies with his "ask Hermione" statement.  Harry doesn't 
> even consider any other person of trying to steal the stone except 
> Snape.  
> 
> Harry snubs Draco on the train when they meet.  Draco is a 
> Slytherin 
> and has a DE father.  Harry takes potions with the Slytherins so 
> natural Snape is going to be tougher on Harry than Draco.  Even 
> though he evanesco-ed the potion, does that mean he really gave 
> Harry a zero or just told the class that Harry got a zero?  I know 
> Harry thinks Dumbledore made Snape change his the potion grade but 
> again that is Harry's viewpoint.  
> 
> IMO Harry's potion grade is truely the mark that Snape assigns.  
> During the second term, Snape knows Harry is the OWLS matter not 
> the potion class grade.  DD has known since Harry's first year 
> that he and Voldemort have a mental link and eventually Harry will 
> have to learn Occlumency from Snape. 

Dungrollin:

Sorry, but that was not the point I was trying to make - I've read 
enough discussion about this subject already, to know that I don't 
want to get caught up in it...

The original question was what McGonagall thought or didn't think 
about Snape's fairness.  Whose fault the state of the relationship 
between Harry and Snape is, was not the issue I was attempting to 
address. 

IMO McGonagall and Dumbledore know that Snape can be a bit partisan, 
but they don't see the full extent of his unfairness - that only 
manifests itself when the adults whose opinions matter to Snape are 
not present.  I was suggesting that *had* McGonagall been present in 
the first potions lesson of OotP, (when Snape vanished the contents 
of Harry's cauldron, while allowing others who had made far worse 
mistakes to take samples up for marking,) *she* would have 
disapproved.

Dungrollin