DD trust in Snape again. WAS: Evil Hermione

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154764

Amiable Dorsai wrote: 
A Potions class worth of students who could all testify to Snape's
antipathy to Harry, his own record as a Death Eater (Many people seem
to have believed Dumbledore's testimony only reluctantly), and the
fact that, of the small group of people present who could be expected
to have the knowledge and power to hex a broom, he was the most likely
suspect.
> 
> And then, there's the fact that Harry was playing against Slytherin.
 ;-)

Carol responds:
I hope that the wink in your signature line indicates that you're
being facetious here. But if that's not the case, let's look at this
incident realistically, shall we?

Evidently only two people realized that the broom was being hexed,
Snape (who muttered the countercurse) and Hermione, who saw Snape's
lips moving and leaped to the conclusion that he was hexing the broom.
Neither McGonagall nor Flitwick seems to have done anything more than
watch, horrorstruck, like the other spectators, and yet surely they,
too, would know the proper countercurses considering that they
stripped down the Firebolt that Sirius Black sent to Harry to detect
and remove any hexes he might have placed on it. And note that hexing
brooms doesn't seem to be an uncommon skill at all, since they
suspected Black of doing it, and many brooms are equipped with
anti-jinx charms.

Suppose that Harry had fallen and been seriously injured or killed
(not likely since someone, perhaps McGonagall, would have slowed his
fall, and besides, we've seen many falls in Quidditch and not one
death at Hogwarts or the QWC). Suppose that *someone* suspected Snape.
All they'd have to do is check his wand to determine whether it had
recently cast a broom hex. Either the wand would show that he'd cast
the countercurse, or, if he were ESE! and had just let Harry fall, it
would show nothing related to the broom hex--exactly like McGonagall's
and Flitwick's and everyone else's.

IMO, if a hex was suspected, *Quirrell's* job would be on the line
because he, as DADA teacher, would be expected to detect it and thwart
it, just as it was Lockhart's job to deal with the monster in the
Chamber of Secrets (however badly he botched that job).

At any rate, if we examine motive, means and opportunity, all of the
spectators had the opportunity to cast a hex (hundreds of people were
present and no one would be watching them), and many of the adults and
older students had the means (not only their wands but a knowledge of
 hexes). Any Slytherin or former Slytherin in the stands would have
had a motive if being a Slytherin supporter counts as a motive. 

And if being sarcastic to a student who demonstrates ignorance of his
subject is evidence of intent to murder that student, the WW's justice
system is worse off than we thought.

At any rate, I seriously doubt that OFH!Snape would have been thinking
along these lines. He would have let him fall to rid himself of the
rule-breaking brat. And ESE!Snape would have aided Quirrell rather
than thwarting him and questioning his loyalties. (Merely keeping
"unworthy Quirrell" away from the stone, as Snape tells Bellatrix he
was doing, does not explain his thwarting Quirrell's attempt to kill
Harry, who at that point did not seem likely to defeat Quirrell or
even get inside the door.)

As for Snape's record as a Death Eater, he had been cleared of all
charges by Barty Crouch Sr. himself and had risked his life to spy on
Voldemort and the Death Eaters. It's most unlikely that he would have
been suspected of trying to kill Harry given that background, nor
could it have been used against him in court. (Also, as I've stated in
other posts, Snape's DE background does not seem to have been common
knowledge.)

You refer to "the small group of people present who could be expected
to have the knowledge and power to hex a broom" and "he [Snape] was
the most likely suspect" as "facts." Neither is a fact. Both are your
opinions, and the second is the point you're trying to prove. Calling
your thesis (main point) a fact is begging the question (taking the
point you're trying to prove for granted)--which, of course, I know
you didn't intend to do. The part about Gryffindor playing against
Slytherin is indeed a fact, but it hardly makes Snape the most likely
suspect, especially if Lucius Malfoy and other former Slytherins who'd
pleaded Imperius to charges of being DEs were in the stands. And for
all we know, Quirrell himself was a former Slytherin, who would be
expected to know both the curse/hex and its countercurse. If there's a
"most likely suspect," surely it would be p-poor, stuttering Professor
Quirrell"?

Carol, who hopes that disliking a student does not make a person a
murder suspect even in the WW