I See No Difference (was Re: Draco is quite the wizard

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 160797

Alla wrote:
> <snip>
> So what I hear you saying is that we are back to justifying Snape's 
> behaviour as in he is not really a jerk, he is just pretending to be
one to train Trio?
> 
> Okay then :) <snip>

Carol responds:
I'm not sure why you think that after OoP, this idea is "meritless"
<from your snipped sig line>. It actually *could* explain quite a bit
of Snape's conduct as the teacher of various subjects in all six
books. He wants his Potions students (especially Harry and Neville) to
follow directions carefully, as indicated by his specifying exactly
what they did wrong each time he criticizes their potions, and he
brings bezoars and the Draught of Living Death quite memorably into
the first lesson, combining them with a lesson in humility for "our
new celebrity." (I know you don't like his methods, but maybe he wants
to be sure that Harry remembers what he's teaching without any
affection developing between them, which would seem suspicious to the
Slytherin half of the class.)

In the Occlumency lessons, he acts in loco inimici (in the place of
the enemy, meaning Voldemort.) "You are handing me weapons!" he says
when Harry allows him to see the memory of Cedric's death. If Harry
can't deflect Snape's Legilimency spells, preferably using his mind
rather than his wand, how is he going to resist Voldemort's
Legilimency when he encounters him in person (or stop having those
visions Voldemort is, at this point unwittingly, placing in Harry's
head)? IMO, Snape must put himself in the place of the enemy to
prepare Harry to confront his real enemy. When Harry actually succeeds
in stopping the effects of the spell, he gets praise from Snape along
the lines of "That was not as bad as bad as it might have been," which
translates to "not bad!" or even "Exceeds Expectations," considering
Snape's expectations for the "mediocre" Harry.

We see the same tactic in Snape's DADA class when Ron is struggling to
cast a nonverbal hex or jinx and Harry is waiting, seemingly forever,
to cast a nonverbal Protego to deflect it. Snape steps in, appearing
to intend to cast a nonverbal hex himself, trying to provoke Harry to
cast a nonverbal Protego on him. Instead, Harry casts a verbal one and
is reprimanded, not for hexing a teacher, but for not doing it
nonverbally. And, of course, Snape is still shouting instructions,
worded as if they were insults, in his duel with Harry at the end of
HBP, a duel which could have ended with Harry bleeding on the ground
from Sectumsempra or dead from an AK, or stunned and kidnapped.
Instead, he's told "No Unforgiveable Curses from you!" and "Shut your
mouth and close your mind" ("Occlumency and nonverbals, you moron!")

Carol, pretty sure that Snape has taught Harry more than Harry knows,
the HBP's Potions book aside, including bezoars and Expelliarmus, and
that much of that teaching was done in the guise of Harry's enemy for
reasons best known to Snape himself