Snape, Potions and DADA

[Hannah]

No: HPFGUIDX 126475


 "chrusotoxos" <heos at v...> wrote:
> > My question is: will Harry be allowed to follow Snape's lessons
> and/or have his grades 
> > artificially upgraded (very wrong IMO), or he'll never be able to
> join the Aurors Academy (a 
> > life lesson, but very depressing) or...now that the danger is 
high,
> DD will finally give in and 
> > give the DADA lessons to Snape - finding another teacher for 
Potions
> and thus allowing 
> > Harry to continue it? 

Kels replied: 
> That's what I've been thinking. I do not think that Harry did good
> enough on the exam to take potions from Snape, and if all of a 
sudden
> the rules change just for him, I'd be mad. 
<snip>
 OR..
> how about Harry just training to be a DADA teacher instead.. I 
mean it
> is the only subject he is good at really. 

Hannah:  I think that Harry will get an 'O' for his Potions, and 
that Snape will teach him.  The other theories are interesting, but 
in my opinion, that is what JKR has set up in OotP.  The interaction 
between Harry and Snape is an important part of the books, and 
enjoyed by most readers.  She's going to have him teach Harry 
something.

If JKR intended to make Snape DADA teacher, why did she go to all 
the effort of explaining (via McG) that Harry would *have* to take 
Potions the following year?  And then dropping all those hints that 
he could achieve the required standard (his feeling that both exams 
had gone well, the hints that Snape marks more harshly than the OWL 
examiners, the stuff from Umbridge about the class being 
advanced...) If JKR was going to have him as DADA teacher, she'd not 
have bothered with that.  Instead, she'd have set Harry (and us) up 
to think 'great, no more Potions, no more Snape' and then given him 
a very nasty surprise at the start of term feast.

There are things that DD can teach Harry, and I hope he will teach 
him, or at least offer him some sort of guidance (the book covers 
seem a good indication), but I don't think Potions is one.  I think 
DD will have far more interesting and important things that he can 
teach Harry about defence, and about himself.  I would say DD's 
likely to teach Harry Occlumency next year, rather than Potions.

I've never liked the theory that Harry might become DADA teacher 
himself.  How is he supposed to teach NEWT level stuff when he's 
still only a 7th year?  How could he hope to keep control of the 
Slytherins, and the older students - and even the younger students?  
And finally, how can Harry possibly do his own NEWTs when he's got a 
full time teaching schedule?  

JKR tries to show that Harry is, in essence, a normal kid.  Although 
he's at Hogwarts, and has the prophecy and all his adventures, he's 
still somehow 'just like us.'  It's part of what makes the books, 
and the character, so appealing.  Whatever else is happening, Harry 
still has to go to lessons, do his homework, struggle to learn new 
spells, pass notes with his friends... if Harry was made into some 
sort of junior teacher, then that normalcy, the very thing that 
readers young and old identify with, is taken away.

Oh, and JKR has said that she doesn't think Harry is suited to an 
academic career ie. he's not going to be a teacher.  Harry has the 
DA, that's where he gets to do his bit of teaching.  He doesn't need 
a more official role to go with it.

Hannah