Snape's first lesson (Was: Harry's bias again)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 140933

Potioncat wrote:
> Snape isn't associated with DEs until GoF. Even then, in the middle
of GoF, Black says he'd never heard of Snape being accused of being
one. By the first class, the readers and Harry have very little
information about LV or DEs. <snipped the quotes I would have used to
make the same point it Potioncat hadn't beaten me to it. ;-)> 
> So Harry goes into Potions thinking that Snape dislikes him for some
reason. He has the pain in his scar and the forgotten dream in the 
back of his mind. <snip>
> We aren't told what Snape was thinking. Nor do we know what he
knew/knows. At that time, did he know about Lily's magic or about the
blood magic DD put in place? Could he have thinking that Potter could
be a Dark Wizard? Could he have suspected there was a Bit Of Voldy in
Harry's  head? 
> He did know that the Purebloods, or at least the DE-related ones,
believed The Boy Who Lived was a Dark Wizard. He saw the celebrity
that was being bestowed on Harry by the school. He had the memory of
Famous James Potter. 
> So, Snape was certainly biased. Whether he was testing Harry,
punishing Harry or if he always started a class like that, I cannot say.

Carol responds:
I can't see how questioning Harry about bezoars, asphodel and
wormwood, etc., can in any way be construed as "punishment." It does,
however, serve several purposes, whether or not Snape intended it to
do so. First, it establishes that Harry cannot have deliberately
vaporized Voldemort at age fifteen months, since he seems to have no
knowledge at all of magic. It consequently diminishes the likelihood
that he's a Dark Wizard in the making (as Draco and Lucius seem to
have half-suspected given Draco's initial overtures to Harry). I think
that Snape is still not entirely satisfied on this point and that his
suspicions are again aroused when he discovers that Harry speaks
Parseltongue in CoS, but the questions are (IMO) intended to test the
waters. 

Once Snape discovers that "our new celebrity" really doesn't deserve
his celebrity status, having clearly done nothing intentional to earn
it, he does sneer at Harry ("Thought you wouldn't open a book"), but
he also takes care to provide him (and the entire class) with the
answers to his questions and then asks why they're not all taking
notes. That question in itself indicates that he has just conveyed
some very important information (as we discover in HBP when a bezoar
saves Ron's life). Perhaps, as Potioncat suggests, he always opens the
first lesson with these questions. Or perhaps he intended to make the
first lesson memorable to Harry in particular anticipating that he
might just have a need for a bezoar (or for the Draught of Living
Death). It's impossible to say, but if he's DD'sMan, I suspect the latter.

At any rate, he doesn't punish Harry for his ignorance. He only
deducts a single house point for Harry's "cheek" in suggesting that
Snape call on Hermione. That response seems to establish in Snape's
mind that Harry resembles his father in more than appearance, an
impression reinforced in SS/PS by Harry's sneaking around at night and
in CoS by his disrupting the class to enable Hermione to steal
supplies. (Harry knows that Snape suspects him in both instances, not
without grounds.)

It's possible that Snape is trying from the outset to keep Harry from
being treated as "a pampered little prince," fearing that such
treatment will go to his head and turn him into a second James (and I
for one think it's a good thing for Harry and the WW at large that
Harry doesn't share James's cockiness.) It's also possible that Snape
wants to establish Harry's genuine ignorance and apparent mediocrity
in front of the Slytherins (who will report it to their parents, some
of whom are DEs) so that they will underestimate Harry's importance
and abilities. Regardless of his intentions, the Slytherins certainly
do look down their noses at the Boy Who Lived at this point: Malfoy,
Crabbe, and Goyle are "shaking with laughter" at Harry's responses (SS
Am. ed. 137.) BTW, the narrator indirectly reinforces Harry's
ignorance by having him think that he can find out what a bezoar is by
looking in "1,000 Magical Herbs and Fungi," an unlikely place to find
information on stones that form in the stomachs of goats.

Having asked some questions, provided the answers (at least one of
which will later prove crucial in HBP), and established that Harry
knows no more about Potions than a Muggle, Snape shifts his focus from
Harry and puts the class to work on a simple potion. He praises
Draco's work (partly favoritism, partly reinforcement for doing it
right), then has to deal with Neville's incompetence--which is *not*
IMO caused by fear of Snape, who has not yet paid him any attention,
but by his own lack of self-confidence (his family regards him as an
almost-Squib and he shares their view--see CoS). Harry perceives this
incident as further discrimination against Gryffindor, but it's more
likely intolerance for "dunderheads." The point that Harry loses for
Gryffindor for not helping Neville is just Snape's nastiness, but the
interrogation at the beginning of the class is probably something
entirely different.

At the time of this lesson, Snape knows about the first part of the
Prophecy (although the reader doesn't). He almost certainly knows that
Voldemort was not killed at Godric's Hollow and that he will come
back. (He may already suspect Quirrell's connection with LV.) He's
curious about Harry (I think does a bit of long-distance Legilimency
when he first sees him in the Great Hall) and he tests him out at the
first opportunity. He comes away from that encounter with what seems
to be a rather contemptuous view of the Boy Who Lived, which Harry,
having seen Percy's remarks about Snape favoring the Slytherins
validated (and perhaps misled by the scar incident) interprets as hate.

As Potioncat says, we don't know Snape's thoughts, but we do know that
in SS/PS at least he's actively opposed to Quirrell and questions
Quirrell's loyalties, not to mention that he saves Harry's life and
tries to do so again by refereeing a later Quidditch match. He tries
throughout the whole book to keep Harry and friends away from the
third-floor corridor, which he knows from his own painful experience
is very dangerous (especially to someone with at little magical
experience and expertise as eleven-year-old Harry). We also know that
the narrator is setting us up from the scar incident onward to think
that Snape is the villain of Book 1. It may be that for some readers,
the suspicion carries on into later books--and possibly that's what
JKR wants us to think. 

>From the standpoint of SS/PS alone, Snape's behavior in the first
lesson is a red herring, intended like the pain in the scar to make
the reader (and Harry) distrust Snape. From the standpoint of the
series, the encounter probably has greater significance. Almost
certainly it's Snape's attempt to figure out who and what Harry is,
both in terms of abilities and attitude. It may be Snape's attempt to
impart valuable knowledge to Harry, which Harry fails to realize or
acknowledge. It may also be a successful attempt to get the Slytherins
to underestimate Harry and to create an impression of his own contempt
for the Boy Who Lived in anticipation of his double agent role if and
when LV returns. The antagonism and contempt may be real, but IMO
Snape is exaggerating them at this point for his own reasons. 

By the end of the lesson, the illusion of enmity has been established.
 Harry believes that Snape hates him. Unfortunately for both
characters (assuming that Snape is loyal to Dumbledore), this
perceived enmity becomes more real as each behaves in ways that
reinforce the initial impression. Long before HBP, Snape is convinced
that Harry is arrogant, dishonest, and mediocre; Harry is convinced
that Snape is not just unfair and unpleasant but evil. 

But in the first Potions lesson, all this is in the future. IMO, Snape
 knows or suspects that Harry is "the One with the Power to destroy
the Dark Lord" and is trying to sound him out without revealing to the
Slytherins in the class--or to Harry himself--that he and Harry are on
the same side. What this lesson is not, I'm almost certain, is
pointless bullying or mere resentment of James projected onto Harry.

It serves Snape's purpose (to discover the extent of Harry's
knowledge), but like everything else in the Potterverse, it has
unintended consequences that extend at least six years into the
future. I expect to see further consequences, perhaps something
related to the Draught of Living Death (not to mention the culmination
or resolution of their mutual antagonism), in Book 7.

Carol