CHAPDISC HBP 15, The Unbreakable Vow

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 152134


Carol earlier: 
 
> 10) Clearly, Crabbe and Goyle are not taking NEWT DADA with Harry
and Draco. Might they be repeating fifth-year DADA (rather than taking
no DADA class at all), and could they, theoretically, repeat their
DADA OWLs as Snape implies? What, if anything, does this detail tell
us about Snape's attitude toward DADA? Is he really concerned about
Crabbe's and Goyle's DADA OWLs? What is he trying to accomplish by
putting them in detention?
>

Carol again:
Since almost no one resonded to this question, I'll explain what I had
in mind. On the one hand, it seems obvious (correct me if I'm wrong!)
that Snape put Crabbe and Goyle in detention to keep them away from
Draco, and just possibly to try to get information out of them (a
futile attempt, if he did so, because they don't know what Draco is up
to). 

But it also suggests that, despite failing their DADA OWL, Crabbe and
Goyle are taking some sort of DADA class from Snape. Either he's
giving them remedial DADA lessons or they're repeating fifth-year
DADA. (Surely he wouldn't talk about their repeating their DADA OWL if
they weren't taking any DADA lessons at all.)

So what does this situation tell us about Snape? We know that he
didn't want anyone except the very best students in his Potions class,
but DADA seems to be different. In the first place, he doesn't take
only O students. If he did, his NEWT DADA class would probably be
limited to Harry. (Even Hermione got an E rather than an O in DADA;
so, probably, did Ron and the other D.A. members. It's even possible
that there are students in the class who received A for Acceptable.)
And he's even, apparently, willing to make special arrangements for
students who failed their DADA OWL, which he certainly would not have
done for students who failed Potions.

I can think of only two reasons for this attitude. One is that he has
no patience with people who dislike Potions and are no good at it; he
has no desire to pamper dunderheads. But that could hold true for DADA
as well, even though he's dealing with misfiring spells rather than
Potions disasters. The other, which I think is more likely, is that he
really thinks DADA is important, especially now that Voldemort is
returning to power, even for dim-witted students who failed their OWLs
the first time around. Granted, these are students in his own House,
and we don't see him doing such favors for other students, but then
Crabbe and Goyle are probably the dumbest kids in their year, and the
Slytherins didn't have the advantage of D.A. lessons from Harry.

At any rate, whether DADA is really his favorite subject or not, and
whether he has really wanted the position all this time despite the
so-called jinx on it (I think it's more of a curse), he certainly
doesn't share Draco's view that DADA is "a joke" and "an act." I think
he realizes that DADA is probably at this point the most important
subject in the school and he's making sure that as many people as
possible learn it.

I think it's significant that he's teaching *about* the Unforgiveable
Curses without casting them, that he's focusing on nonverbal defensive
spells as the most important skill they can learn, and that he has an
alternate means of dealing with Dementors for people who don't have
Harry's experience in casting Expecto Patronum while their happiness
is being sucked out.

So, IMO, Snape really is giving Crabbe and Goyle detention because of
their dismal marks in remedial DADA, but he's doing so with the
ulterior motive of thwarting Draco's mission. Possibly he's showing
favoritism to the Slytherins by allowing them to repeat the class
(though he certainly would not have done so if the class were
Potions), but it's because, IMO, of the importance to them all of DADA
this year. IOW, he emphatocally disagrees with Draco's statement that
"*we*" don't need protection from the Dark Arts.

Thoughts, anybody?

Carol