Levels of Wizardry and Snape's style

[Bart Lidofsky]

No: HPFGUIDX 175572

Ken:
>I guess I see things far differently. The good guys are acting with extreme
>restraint. The bad guys are throwing AK's around as fast as they can say
>the words (and non verbal spells seem to have gone almost entirely out
>the window haven't they?) 

This is an interesting aspect of the books. There are definitely levels of skill of wizardry, but they don't seem to QUITE match up to a bell curve. We have a few super-geniuses, like DD, Morty, Grindy, and Snape (yes, Snape; DD comes to him for advice on things he can't handle, you have the HBP notebook which shows a tremendous understanding of the underlying theory of magic, something which does not seem to be heavily taught, he is the only one of the DE's who picks up the ability to fly without a broom, just to name a few items. Also note that DD, when Snape comes to him, treats him with a harshness that we have never seen DD use against another DE, a kind of harshness generally reserved for when we see ourselves in others, and don't like it). 

Professor Snape is quite obnoxious in his teaching style. However, one might look at it in a different light. One of my own experiences comes to mind. I went to what might be called a public high school for nerds (there are three of them in New York City). My first year there, I had a math teacher who had a reputation quite similar to that of Professor Snape. Yet, with my class, he was often in a good mood, and seemed like a rather nice fellow. I later found out why: my class was exceptional (I was one of the lesser students in the class, and dropped mathematics after 3rd semester calculus in college). Several of the students in my class became some of the top mathematical minds in the country (one leads the human genome project). 

What I see is that, in the WW, on levels above those like Hermoine, or the Weasley twins, or Mad-Eye Moody, there is a gap. You have super-wizards, and you have excellent wizards, and not much in between. Professor Snape, although he often goes overboard, has a style where he expects all the students to be as good as he is. With some students, it works (take a look at Harry, who received an E on his OWLS in spite of hating Potions). When teaching DADA, Snape is no different. What he is teaching is not the basic OWL level; he is trying to teach the students to be at HIS level. Harry, for an ordinary wizard, is on the top of the DADA class, yet he is far below Professor Snape. Considering what stumblebums the Snatchers are, one wonders why wizards weren't setting traps, and saying "Voldemort", whacking the Snatchers when they show up (me, I would have had a few pounds of dynamite ready to go, say "Voldemort", and apparate right out of there; there's plenty of evidence that wizards are quite vulnerable to physical damage unless prepared). Or, perhaps a few OOP members in a wide circle, with a house-elf in the center with instructions to say, "Voldemort" and vamoose (I say house-elf because they seem to be capable of reflexive apparation). When the Snatchers show up, batter them with AK's, cut them into pieces, and send the body parts via owl mail to Malfoy Manner. Hell, for all we know, JKR envisioned this happening, she just doesn't write about it. 

The best of the ordinary wizards, working in concert, can't even touch DD, Morty, or Grindy (Snape was smart enough not to make himself a target). One notable result of the DH is that all the super-wizards are dead by the end, which is probably just as well, because there seems to be a tendency on the part of the super-wizards to try and use their power to take over (note that DD and Snape were only stopped by the fact that their actions resulted in the death of a loved one; I will admit that I interpret Snape's love for Lily not as a romantic love, but as a love for the  only real friend he ever had). But Snape's teaching style is to have too-high expectations of the students, and using negative incentive to convince them to try to meet them. He did it in potions, and he does it in DADA. 

Parenthetically, in the realm of "what if?", has anybody ever noticed that people whom everybody loves tend to choose as best friends people who are, at best, very hard to like? A couple of better known cases that occur to me are Benjamin Franklin's deep friendship with John Adams, and, getting more modern, the late Isaac Asimov's devotion to the talented but thoroughly obnoxious Harlan Ellison. I've seen it happen close-up, and it is logical (the reason why somebody is well-loved is frequently because they can see people for who they really are, and obnoxiousness is very often a defensive shell around a very sensitive person). I could see what might have happened had Snape considered his friendship with Lily more important than acceptance by the DE's ("Aren't we inviting Lily to the party?" "But then she'll bring Severus!" "Yeah, but Lily's worth it!" "Oh, alright!"). Even among the OOP, the only reason why Snape seems to be accepted at all is because he's DD's best friend. 

Bart