Sadistic Teachers (was:Re: Teaching Styles)

[quigonginger]

No: HPFGUIDX 148063

> Neri:
I suspect that when Harry had to
> cut his own hand with a magic quill in Umbridge's detention, he was
> actually suffering much less than Neville when he had to cut and
> disembowel a barrel full of toads in Snape's detention (GoF, Ch. 
14).
> And of course, Snape knew that Neville's pet is a toad and that
> Neville would come out of this detention "in a state of nervous
> collapse". Subtlety here means knowing your victim's personal
> vulnerabilities and exploiting them to hurt him the most, something
> that Umbridge really weren't very good at, if she thought to break
> Harry by making him cut his hand.  

Ginger:
I actually agree with your general assessment of Snape being more 
subtle that Umbridge, but I wanted to point out that Neville had to 
disembowl horned toads (Phrynosoma, aka horned lizards) whereas 
Trevor is a toad (Bufonidae).  They're not the same animal.  The 
horned toad is actually a lizard.  Not that disembowling is so much 
more pleasant on lizards, but at least it isn't his pet.

I can't take credit for this.  Someone pointed this out once upon a 
yesteryear and it stuck in my head. 

Isn't it great all the things we learn here?

Ginger, who would rather Snape had given Neville detention 
disembowling toad-like DADA teachers, but, alas, it was one book too 
soon.