Snape's writing

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 136922

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Cathy Drolet" <cldrolet at s...> 
wrote:
> OotP: "So, Snape had to be fifteen or sixteen, around Harry's own 
age.  His hand was flying across the parchment; he had written at 
least a foot more than his closest neighbours, and yet his writing 
was *miniscule and cramped.*"
> 
> Now, I can't find, if it's there, where the writing in Advanced 
Potion Making is described as miniscule and cramped but Hermione 
does say "It might have been a girl.  I think the handwriting looks 
more like a girl's than a boy's."  

Marianne:

In the US edition, on page 195 it says "Harry....saw something 
scribbled along the bottom of the back cover in the same small, 
cramped handwriting as the instructions that had won him his bottle 
of Felix Felicis..."  This is after their first Potions class, where 
Harry has had trouble trying to squint and decipher the 
handwriting.  

CathyD: 
> But the question is, why doesn't Harry recognize the writing in 
the book as Snape's when he's seen Snape's handwriting at the time 
when Snape would have been writing in this book?  Even if Snape's 
writing now, when he writes on the blackboard, is different, Harry 
has seen the 15 yr-old Snape's writing before.  
> 
> Any ideas?  Is Snape taking credit for his Mother's work?

Marianne:

I don't think it's surprising that Harry didn't recognize the 
handwriting as Snape's.  He only had the one glimpse in SWM of 
Student!Snape's writing, although I immediately made the connection. 
But, I can't recall any other character's handwriting as being 
described as cramped.  I seem to recall handwriting being descripted 
as sloped or spiky, but Snape's was the one that stuck in my mind 
as "cramped."  Maybe if Harry made a pensieve memory of his walk 
through Snape's memory (can one do that?) he'd pick up that extra 
detail. 

Plus, I think when Harry wandering about in Snape's memory, he 
quickly realized that his father would also be somewhere in the room 
taking that same test.  That glimpse into the past was more 
important to Harry than in concentrating on whatever Snape was up to.
And certainly, Snape's writing on the blackboard in his class would 
have to be different in order for people to read it.  That does make 
me wonder - when Snape grades students' papers, does he simply 
indicate the grade, or does he make written comments about what has 
been written?  If the latter, what does that handwriting look like?

I don't think Snape is taking credit for his mother's work because I 
believe that we and Harry see Snape's comments written in the 
Advanced Potions book, not his mother's.  It would seem odd if Snape 
is suddenly revealed to be the same sort of "pretender" to Potions 
excellence that Harry is. 

Marianne