Two scenes for most everyone

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 144267

> Amiable Dorsai:
> Here I'm forced to disagree.  I read this as McGonagall finally
> voicing doubts that she had long suppressed out of respect for
> Dumbledore.  She, and the others in the room, certainly took 
Harry's
> word for Snape's guilt very quickly.  No one suggested that Harry
> might have been mistaken, or mentioned any of the plethora of ways
> that a wizard might be framed.  No, they take Harry's unsupported 
word
> for it.

Magpie:

But isn't this because he was a Death Eater?  I don't think 
McGonagall would have said any such thing if Snape were just the 
teacher she seems to have had a friendly rivalry going with for 
years.  She means, I think, that everyone wondered why Dumbledore 
was so confident in saying Snape switched sides way back when or why 
she would hire a kid that at school was probably openly bigoted, not 
to mention a creepy little weirdo (McGonagall was totally charmed by 
MWPP remember), not that she's been watching Snape's behavior and 
thinking he shouldn't be around students.

I think Lupin and McGonagall, generally considered good teachers, 
have made their opinions of Snape pretty clear.  Both of them take 
certain opportunities to correct him or teach him a lesson--Lupin 
with Neville and the Boggart, McGonagall by making Snape agree that 
the other houses deserve points for the battle at the MoM.  But 
Lupin, at least, also says flat-out that he doesn't like him or 
dislike him (which I don't see as strangely unemotional at all), and 
tells Harry to call him Professor Snape.  I think McGonagall expects 
the same respect for him.  And I also agree with whoever pointed out 
that McGonagall's treatment of Neville is pretty OTT as well--the 
narrator even calls him "poor Neville" as he's waiting out there 
humiliated every night, locked out of his own house, with all the 
other kids included in the punishment by not being allowed to tell 
him the password.  This all for something that was stolen from him.  
Not to mention, why on earth would you blame the 13-year-old for the 
breakdown of security at the school?  If all that's standing between 
the murderer and his victim is the memory of a forgetful 13-year-
old, there have surely already been several bigger failures of 
security before then!  That seems like the most humiliating thing 
that ever happens to Neville in canon, unless I'm forgetting 
something.  It goes on and on, constantly making the point that he 
can't be trusted with simple things because he's inept.  I would 
definitely say after 6 books that McGonagall seemed to respect Snape 
just fine as  a professional--unlike the way she thought about 
Lockhart and Umbridge.

quick_silver71:

People point to the "big"
things that Snape has done for the side of the "Light," and it's
true that Snape has done many things to help Harry, but the face
that Harry sees far more often is Snape as the nasty, annoying,
biased grit. Relationships between people are built as much on the
little things as the big things and Snape certainly has made it
difficult for Harry to "like" him or even "trust" him.

Magpie:

Yes!  To me this is a big point of Snape's behavior.  Snape has 
absolutely contributed to many breakdowns throughout the books, 
sometimes ones that drove him up the wall.  You asked if he was 
passive-aggressive about it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it 
wasn't something like that.  I think he does take every snarky 
remark of Harry's as a sign of his inherent disrespect when 
obviously Harry is responding to Snape's own behavior.  Harry walked 
into his classroom ready to respect him and Snape threw that away.  
He would see Harry as disrespectful regardless of how Harry behaved, 
but Harry's not the type to be respectful to him anyway.  So Snape 
lives in an alternative reality.  If he's DDM he's making things 
worse for himself all the time.  If he's ESE, well one could say 
he's a lot smarter, perhaps, because he's intentionally sabotaged 
things between Harry and himself when he's sometimes supposed to be 
guarding Harry.  But otoh, if he's ESE it would probably have done 
him a lot more good if Harry liked him and so did whatever he wanted 
until Snape stabbed him in the back.  Though I tend to think that 
very few of Snape's emotional reactions, if any, are part of a plan.

-m