Draco's anger (was Snape and Occlumency)

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 121826



> Betsy:
> I think Snape was absolutely correct to chastise Harry, and take away 
> points.  No matter the circumstances, you cannot allow students to 
> curse other students.  Something Harry was perfectly honest about 
> doing.  Allowing Harry to get away with that type of behavior is not 
> being kind to him.
> 
> And in that scene, Snape was actually being nice, for Snape.  No 
> sneering commentary on Harry's character, no excessive point-
> reduction (ten points for an attempted curse seems fairly small to 
> me).  Snape wasn't being mean, he was being a professor. 
> 
> Betsy

Julie says:

I don't know about nice, but I do agree that Snape's nastiness 
was pretty mild in this instance. (Remember, you can't compare
Snape's behavior to a normal person's behavior, only to behavior
that is typical for him). His mild response could even pass for
a brief moment of compassion, *coming* from Snape. He 
could have come down a lot harder and justified it by Harry's
behavior, but he didn't. (And given Harry's mood at the moment, 
he would still view anything Snape did through the darkest lens
possible, for instance, Snape talking "coldly as ever" and his 
"sneering smile").

I also agree that he was being a professor here. What would 
McGonagall do if she came upon Harry attempting to curse
Draco? She would be stern with him and probably take those 
same 10 points away. The difference is she would afterwards 
take Harry aside and offer some measure of sympathy, while
still letting him know his behavior was unacceptable. Snape
won't. The best he'll do is moderate the invective of his response.

Julie,
who finds Snape in OotP the closest he's yet gotten to treating
Harry "nicely"--both in the above confrontation and during the
Occlumency lessons when he said Harry's performance was
passable.


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