Favorite Snape Scenes - He's such a lovely professor, no really.

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 122556


Inkling wrote: 
> 
> In fact what bothers me about his teaching style in Occlumency
> lessons is that it differs so much from his style in Potions. (Snip, 
> snip)
> 
> It is in character for him to be supremely self confident and in
> control.
> 
> It is not in character for him to appear "unnerved" and "agitated."
> 
> Now, Snape exhibits all of these strange behaviors in the first
> lesson, long before Harry looks in the pensieve or flips him with
> the Protego charm. Which leads me to say again (at the risk of
> sounding like a broken record) that the personal drama that unfolds
> between the two in the course of the lessons, while it is
> compelling, does not shed light on what Snape's agenda was when he
> set out to give the lessons in the first place.
> 
> Tonks replied:
> 
> This is why I suspect that it was not a teaching lesson at all. That 
> Snape was given the job to find LV in Harry and separate him out so 
> that whatever comes next can happen. If it was a lesson, it is 
> possible that it is something that can not be taught the same way as 
> Potions. He might be using a more Eastern approach. Also there was a 
> reason DD thought it would be too dangerous for Harry to be taught 
> by DD himself. This all points to the *lessons* as being more than 
> they appear to be, IMHO. <snip>

Carol responds to both:
Inkling, great contrasts between Snape's teaching styles in Potions
vs. Occlumency. But I want to mention two things. First, it was not
Snape's idea to teach Harry Occlumency. He did it because Dumbledore
wanted him to. So if there's an agenda, it's Dumbledore's. And second,
notice exactly *when* Snape becomes "unnerved." Harry has just
remembered walking down the corridor to his hearing with Mr. Weasley
and realized that it's the same place he's been seeing for months in
his dream of the closed door. Snape at this point doesn't know about
the dream. So Harry's question hits him like a load of bricks:

"He looked up at Snape.

"'What's in the Department of Mysteries?'

"'What did you say?' Snape asked quietly, and Harry saw, with deep
satisfaction, that Snape was unnerved" (OoP Am. ed. 537).

Snape is unnerved to realize that Harry knows something that he and DD
don't want him to know, something that must have been planted in his
mind by Voldemort. Harry tells him about the dream and his deduction
that Voldemort wants something from it.

Snape is momentarily sidetracked by Voldemort's name (IMO the Dark
Mark hurts him when he hears it but that's irrelevant here), but
Snape's agitation as he and Harry stare at each other more likely
relates to what Harry has said about the dream and Voldemort than by
the name itself. He speaks again, sounding as if he's "trying to
appear cool and unconcerned," telling Harry that what's in the
Department of Mysteries doesn't concern him (537-38). He's lying, but
clearly he *is* concerned, and as we know, he reports the dream to
Dumbledore.

So I think that Tonks may be right. Aside from the nature of
Occlumency lessons involving the probing of the students' mind by the
teacher, very different from the impersonal and methodical preparation
of potions, which would require a different teaching method, I suspect
that one reason DD wanted to Snape to teach Harry Occlumency is to
find out how far Voldemort has succeeded in invading Harry's mind and
exactly what images he has planted there. Notice his focus in the next
lesson we see on the image of Rookwood kneeling in the middle of a
darkened room (590), though for the moment he's in control (the
Potions Master approach). Moments later he turns white and is slightly
shaken when Harry breaks into his own memories with a Protego, but he
remains calm and actually tells Harry that "that was certainly an
improvement" and that "there is no doubt that it [the Shield Charm]
was effective" (592)--praise from Snape, whose mind has just been
invaded! But the next memory is the dream, which Harry makes no effort
to stop--he *wants* it to continue. He gets as far as the room with
the blue candles and wakes to find Snape standing over him in a fury.
"POTTER! Explain yourself!" He is angry that Harry is still having the
dream, not only making no effort to stop it but *willing* it to continue.

So, as I see it, the anger and agitation have nothing to do with
Occlumency per se or with the antagonistic relationship between Harry
and Snape and everything to do with the danger in which Harry is
placing himself by continuing to have the dreams. And Snape can't tell
him why he's angry because Harry isn't supposed to know about the
Prophecy. So Snape's agenda *seems* to be to get Harry to stop having
the dreams, but DD's may be to find out what's in Harry's head.
Unfortunately we don't get to find out any more about it. The next
lesson we're shown is interrupted by Draco and the lessons are ended
because of the Pensieve incident.

At any rate, Snape is calm when we would least expect him to be and
praises Harry on the rare occasions when he does it right. And if it
hadn't been for the Pensieve incident, the lessons would have resumed
the following evening. And again, the agenda for starting the lessons
in the first place is Dumbledore's, not Snape's. As we know from the
long conversation between DD and Harry near the end of the book, Snape
tells DD that the lessons have been cancelled, and why. DD does not
order him to resume them. Either it's too late--LV is already too far
into Harry's head to be stopped through Occlumency, or the lessons
have served their purpose, telling DD what he wants to know.

Carol