[HPforGrownups] Re: The Continuing Tragedy of Severus Snape: Reflections on Books 1-5

[TrekkieGrrrl]

No: HPFGUIDX 164557

Cassy:
So you don't subscribe to the view that it is Lily's *Potions* talent
inside that textbook? I find it curious that Slughorn (who taught them
all) repeatedly equates Harry with Lily (specifically mentioning her
creative brilliance), but compares him favourably to Snape:

`But I don't think I've ever known such a natural at Potions!
Instinctive, you know  like his mother!  Well, then, it's natural
ability! I don't think even you, Severus ` `Really?' said Snape
quietly, his eyes still boring into Harry, who felt a certain
disquiet.' (HBP15)

In other words, Lily demonstrated the sort of imaginative instinct as
a Potioneer that even Snape lacked. And I think Hermione could be
right about a female mind at work, though wrong about the handwriting,
if Snape copied Lily or they collaborated in Potions. This is what
IMHO lends some retrospective poignancy to Snape's initial
interrogation of Harry in PS/SS, as if Snape was trying to find out
whether Harry was his mother's or his father's son. But as you say,
it's not canon (yet!)

Trekkie:
I see this more as Snape *knowing* that it wasn't really Lily who was 
the star pupil, rather than himself. And Snape even replies *quietly* - 
which isn't all that usual for him when he's feeling in the wrong.

The "just shove a bezoar down their throat" rings for me so much of 
Snape. Typical Snapish sarcasm here. And *if* someone other than himself 
wrote in the book (of which I'm not at all convinced, he has changed 
many things about himself over time, why not his handwriting? MY 
handwriting is definitely VERY different from how I wrote when I was at 
school) - it could have been Snape dictating to Lily. Which doesn't mean 
that Lily came up with it all, it could well have been Snape's ideas all 
the time - and Lily taking the credit.

And yes, some pupils CAN take the credit for other people's hard work 
for years, without the teacher ever noticing, especially if that teacher 
has said pupil as "pet pupil" already. I know. I did so myself when I 
was at school.

I do think that the initial barrage of questions Snape submitted Harry 
to, in the very first Potions Class is a mix of the two. He's probably 
testing Harry's klnowledge, both of Potions in particular but also of 
the WW in general, and is probably apalled to find that Harry knows 
*nothing*. Snape dislikes what he deems to be stupidity, and he sees 
Harry as ignorant. At this point most likely without knowing Harry's 
background. He sees a James-clone walk into his classroom and is 
convinced that Harry has no redeeming qualities (like a knowledge of 
Potions) whatsoever. Unjust for sure, but then, Snape *is not* a nice 
man. IMO he's without a doubt DDM!Snape, but that doesn't make him into 
a nice fluffybunny - quite the contrary.

~Trekkie