Draco's anger (was Snape and Occlumency)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 121907


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:
> 
><SNIP> 
> Carol responds:
> Unfortunately, grief is no excuse for bad behavior, whether for 
Draco
> or for Harry. And Harry admits, quite calmly, that he was 
considering
> what hex to hit Draco with. Snape as a teacher can't let this go. He
> has to follow standard procedure and deduct house points.

Oh come now, what a weak argument.  Had Draco been the instigator 
Snape most certainly would have found a way not to enforce the 
standard punishment.

> 
> We then get the nice little scene in which McGonagall returns, Snape
> welcomes her back with what seems like genuine good feeling,

And where do you see that?  I see no sign of good feeling on Snape's 
part whatsoever.  He greets her with no indication of good will or 
joy, and seems from my reading to be quite annoyed that she walks in 
on one of his tirades.

 she add
> house points (including, with some reluctance, fifty for Ravenclaw),
> and then *herself* deducts the ten points for Harry's misbehavior 
even
> though she, like Snape, is almost certainly aware of Harry's loss. 
And
> Snape quietly accepts the 250 points she has added for Gryffindor.

He does no such thing.  He pretends not to hear at first and then 
gives in with poor grace and signs of bitterness.

His
> behavior on his occasion either exhibits remarkable self-control or 
a
> genuine recognition that the Gryffindors (and Luna) deserve those
> points. None of which takes away from the fact that Harry, having
> broken the rules, deserves the standard punishment. Moreover, Snape
> would have had to explain to Draco and the Slytherins why Harry 
wasn't
> punished for an overt infraction of the rules.

And yet he feels no compunction to explain to the Gryffindors why he 
allows Draco to go unpunished for HIS numerous infractions in potions.

> 
> As someone else said, this is the WW, and the rules don't change if
> you've lost a godparent.

No excuse whatsoever.  What is called for here is for Snape to act 
like a decent human being, a task at which, as usual,he utterly fails.

 (I once had a student who pleaded the loss of
> her grandmother as a reason for plagiarizing a paper. I failed the
> paper--but chose not to have her expelled, as I could have done.)
> 
> A teacher who bends the rules out of sympathy for a student,
> especially uncharacteristically as would have been the case with
> Snape, is likely to lose the respect of students who expect the 
rules
> to be enforced.

In many years of teaching, I have never found this to be the case.  
But I acknowledge that everyone has different experiences.

 Snape would have his hands ful with unruly Slytherins
> had he allowed Harry to go unpunished. And it wouldn't have 
increased
> Harry's respect for him to do so, either.
> 
> Carol, who thinks that Snape is a product of his upbringing and that
> we can't reasonably pass judgment on him for not being a modern 
Muggle
> teacher brimming with concern for students' self-esteem

Being a product of one's upbringing is no excuse whatsoever.  Snape 
fails in almost every test of being a decent human being, and thus 
fails in almost every test of being a "good" human being -- saving 
Harry's life notwithstanding.


Lupinlore