Lupin is Ever So Evil, Part One -- The Prank (LONG)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 130304

Potioncat:
> I think JKR wrote this chapter to cover several things at once. We
saw 
> how to counter a Boggart, JKR got to stick it to Snape without
really 
> sticking it to Snape, and she created some comic relief, for us and
for 
> the characters.

Pippin:
We also got to see how different teachers deal with a colleague
who upset their class. Not that I didn't enjoy boggart  Snape as much
as anyone, but I would love to have seen McGonagall deal with
the poisoned toad trauma..."You will be relieved to know, Mr. 
Longbottom, that Professor Snape has been threatening to poison
someone or something ever since he came to this school. There
have been no casualties [beat] so far."

McGonagall lets her Gryffindors know her opinion of Trelawney,
as one family member to another, with the skillful use of 
praeteritio (I'm not going to tell you that that's a pretended
omission for rhetorical effect) <g>. 

She also lets them know that it would reflect badly on *her* 
if she were known to be badmouthing a colleague. That 
seems to keep the gossip down; at any rate we
don't hear that McGonagall's opinion of Trelawney is 
the talk of the school. (If it were, everyone would already know 
that Sybil's a fraud.) Unlike the situation between Snape and 
Lupin.

Nora:

I think it's a hypothetic that Snape wouldn't have found some reason
and/or way to become aggravated with Neville. He does it so very
well.

Pippin:
I suppose this is essentialism, which I don't understand anyway.
Are you saying that if Harry hadn't had the aggravations he did 
in OOP, he'd have found some other reason to be 
CAPSLOCK!Harry?  Or does this fixed in the groove 
thing apply only to certain characters?

Pippin