Snape, Hagrid and Animals

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 143797

Irene wrote: 
> Bringing it back to Snape, if we use the same standard, it must be all
> Neville's fault, right? Because Snape's instructions are perfectly
> clear, and Hermione can brew perfect potions from them, so why can't
> Neville?
> Oh, and when Harry deliberately disrupts a lesson, Snape would not
be at fault at all if some children were seriously hurt as a result? 
It's lucky that he's a "sadistic git" then, not another teacher "with
a heart of gold", like Hagrid. I'm not sure Hogwarts could take two.

Carol adds:
I agree. In addition to providing perfectly clear instructions and
leaving them on the board throughout the lesson, Snape always "sweeps"
through the class examining everyone's potions, and he always has the
appropriate antidote on hand, for example, deflating draft for those
who have been splattered by swelling solution. (Harry, of course, is
directly responsible for the splattering, which can in no way be
attributed to Snape.) Snape immediately restores order after each
crisis, Evanescoing spilled potions, sending people to the hospital
wing if needed, and then resuming class. Hagrid, in contrast, is
easily flustered, forgets his lesson plans, and has no bandages or
medicine available in case of injury. Snape is always prepared. Hagrid
isn't. It doesn't occur to him that an "interestin' creature" might
injure a student. (At least, he never used Acromantulas as objects of
study. Maybe they'd have been used for the nonexistent NEWT CoMC classes?)

If, rather than taking the precautions cited above, Snape simply told
the students what to do at the beginning of class (when Ron and Harry
weren't listening), spent his classtime talking to Draco Malfoy as
Hagrid spends his talking to Harry, and made no provisions for
accidents in his classes, he would be at fault for endangering his
students. And I think the same applies to Hagrid. 

Snape challenges his students, presenting them with potions that are
advanced for their year (OoP), but he has carefully prepared them for
these advanced potions by starting relatively simple and always
pointing out where the potion went wrong. Hagrid's third-year students
have never had a single CoMC lesson when he brings in the hippogryffs.
The lesson is completely inappropriate for their level. (Even the
textbooks bite, and there's no indication of their being used after
the students learn how to open them. All references to them disappear
after that first lesson.)

However well-meaning Hagrid may be, he is probably the worst teacher
at Hogwarts, even considering the boring Binns and weirdly ineffectual
Trelawney. Dumbledore's affection for Hagrid seems in this instance to
adversely affect his judgment since a perfectly competent CoMC
teacher, Professor Grubbly-Plank, is available. (Admittedly, the story
would be considerably less interesting. Imagine the students in the
TWT enountering Bowtruckles and Unicorns instead of Blast-ended Skrewts.)

With regard to Draco, who admittedly should have been paying attention
in Hagrid's first class as a matter of common sense if not common
courtesy, it seems to me that his attitude toward Hagrid is roughly
analogous to Ron's and Harry's attitude toward Snape. To quote Ron in
CoS: "Do you think I've got nothing better to do in Potions than
listen to Snape?" (But at least Ron did cut up his daisy roots
"beautifully" in PoA, so possibly he's learned his lesson at that point.)

Carol, who fortunately never had, or met, a teacher whose methods
resembled Hagrid's