First potions lesson/Harry getting special treatment

[lagattalucianese]

No: HPFGUIDX 146001

>
...
> 
> My initial reaction was to be horrified that a teacher would so 
unfairly
> single out a first time student in such a way and humiliate him.  
in fact,
> it makes me cringe, every time I read it.  That has nothing to do 
with what
> i think of Snape now, but like Harry, it set me off against him 
from the
> beginning.  And the entire lesson goes on the same.  Even though I 
never
> thought Snape was the one after the stone in that book, I still 
understood
> why the trio might think so.
> 
> Sherry
>
La Gatta Lucianese:

I think this may be a case similar to that of the bouncing ferret: 
Our initial reaction is altered by subsequent knowledge, in this case 
of Snape's backstory with James and the Marauders, and his position 
vis-a-vis Dumbledore and the Death Eaters.

Alternatively, it can be argued (though I'm not entirely comfortable 
with this) that the level of sophistication in the books increases 
steadily from PS/SS through HBP. I'm not sure whether JKR set out to 
write a series of children's books and found that it had gotten away 
from her (Snape goes from being the eleven-year-old's idea of a 
teacher from hell to something much more complex and tragic), or 
whether our view of Snape developes from book to book to match 
Harry's own growing level of awareness.