First potions lesson/Harry getting special treatment

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 145961

Sherry:

> Are we viewing this incident now from the point of view of having 
read five
> more books since SS/PS?  After all, in that very first lesson, we 
didn't
> know about James and Snape.  we didn't know Snape hated Harry's 
father.  we
> didn't have the never ending good/bad Snape debate yet.  Did anyone 
read
> this first potions lesson the very first time and think, yeah, he's 
just
> being a tough teacher, impressing on the class how Harry is nothing 
special,
> keeping up his death eater role or anything else?

Ceridwen:
My initial reaction was that Harry was concentrating on what he was 
doing (taking notes) and possibly lagging a bit (the mouth is faster 
than the quill) that he didn't notice the teacher had turned his 
attention to him, and so the teacher came down hard.  Harry had 
already had an unpleasant reaction with his scar that he thought was 
because of that teacher, so I understood his displeasure.  And I've 
had teachers who prefer you to watch them when they speak, so the 
teacher's reaction didn't surprise me a bit.  It was only when the 
text validated Harry's anger and feeling put-upon that I was 
surprised.

Sherry:
*(snip)*
> Even though I never
> thought Snape was the one after the stone in that book, I still 
understood
> why the trio might think so.

Ceridwen:
I enjoyed the mystery and the chase for what it was worth.  I had my 
doubts that the person initially fingered as the culprit would end up 
actually being the thief.  But, some writers do like to toss double 
red herrings, so I didn't discount the possibility.  I was reading 
PS/SS aloud to my youngest, and purposely kept my private opinions to 
myself so she could think it through on her own and enjoy it better.  
I was also hoping that a good story like HP&theSS would get her 
interested in reading, since she was pretty lackadaisical about it.  
I'm happy to report that she did get interested, and has been reading 
HP and other books, since.

Ceridwen.