Nice vs. Good, honesty, and Snape: Was Snape, Apologies, and Redemption

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 153241

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at ...> wrote:
>
 
> > Lanval:
> > 
> > My mind's reeling, thinking of what other and possibly MUCH worse 
> > scenarios he might have come up with. He HAD to make him look 
> > ridiculous, right?
> > 
> 
> Pippin:
> No, he did not. A boggart is not limited to one fear, as Molly showed
> us in OOP. Lupin could have suggested that Neville might want to think
> of something else. 
> 
Renee:
Not a very good example. Essentially, Molly's boggart represents one
and the same big fear: the death of any of her loved ones. It may take
various individual shapes, but the fear remains the same. The Neville
equivalent would be Snape looking threatening, Snape shouting, Snape
pointing his wand at Neville, etc. It's not clear from canon if you
can change your boggart at will, and I doubt such a thing is possible.
Fear is an emotion, not a choice. 

If I'm not mistaken, though, Lanval wasn't talking about other fears
Neville may have had, but about different suggestions Lupin could or
could not have made to riddikulise the Snape-boggart. Once the boggart
turned out to be Snape, making fun of him was the only possibility.
Dressing him like Neville's gran definitely wasn't the worst Lupin
could have thought of.

And I fail to see why Lupin should have suggested that Neville think
of a different fear if such a thing were possible (which, as I said, i
doubt). Snape fully deserved what he got after his unprofessional
remark. You simply don't take a student down in the presence of a
colleague. Not Done. It's true that Lupin obviously enjoyed making a
fool of him - definitely Not Nice. But that doesn't make Snape's
action okay, and I've never understood why people seem to think so,
just because his remark backfires and he draws the shortest straw in
the end.

Renée