boggart-fighting (was: Hermione and Snape).

[Karen Barker]

No: HPFGUIDX 128440

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "a_svirn" <a_svirn at y...> wrote:
> 
> > 
> > Pippin:
> > We have canon that Snape is a better teacher for Hermione, in
> > the sense of helping her reach her potential, than Lupin. Lupin
> > doesn't  teach her to fight her boggart. 
> 
> a_svirn:
> 
> An interesting point about this boggart of Hermione. Just WHY 
Lupin 
> didn't let her tackle the boggart? It couldn't have been anything 
> other than deliberate. And I don't buy the story she made up about 
her 
> boggart being McGonagall telling her she's failed everything. For 
one 
> thing, she couldn't have been THAT much worried about her results, 
for 
> another – a blood-curdling cry is not a likely reaction to such 
news. 
> She must have encountered something really horrid out there and 
for 
> some reasons felt compelled to conceal what it was. I wonder what? 
> 
> a_svirn

I beg to disagree here!  

Don't forget that this was not a lesson, it was an exam.  Part of 
the exam was to confront a boggart and in this part Hermione 
failed.  No teacher would say "Never mind, Dear, I'll show you how 
and you can have another try" in an exam.  Would you expect Snape to 
give Neville a second chance at a failed potion in an exam, or 
McGonagall to give Dean another shot at changing a hedgehog into a 
pin cushion?  

I also think a hysterical scream is a very typical *Hermione* 
reaction to the news that she had failed all her exams.  I don't 
believe that McGonagall is the significant part of the boggart, it 
is the news that is significant.  To Hermione, who values intellect 
and learning above any material thing, failure of exams would be a 
total catastrophe.

IMHO!

Karen