My current opinion of Snape (Longish) / Re: Clues to Snape's Loyalties

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 171070

Sherry wrote:
> 
> I see Hermione's support of Snape in a completely different way. 
and just to be clear, I felt this before I was convinced of what a
horrible person he was, inside and out after he murdered Dumbledore. 
Hermione strikes me as one of those people who just blithely believes
a person in authority is good and is right, just because the person is
in authority.  I don't get the impression that she actually *thinks*
about whether or not Snape is all the things Harry believes him to be.
 But to her, Snape is a teacher, and therefore, he must be good and he
must be right.  Maybe Harry's reactions are often emotional and
perhaps not always right.  but Hermione appears not to think at all
for herself in situations like this, but just to accept authority
figures on faith because of their position, never really considering
if they deserve that or not.

Carol responds:
Sherry, I know how you feel about Snape, so I'll leave him out of this
post (for the most part) and just respond to the general point about
Hermione and authority figures. I don't agree that she "blithely
believes that a person in authority is good and is right." For
example, she pretends not to like Professor Grubbly-Plank's lessons so
that she won't hurt Hagrid's feelings but she and the boys know
perfectly well that Grubbly-Plank is a model teacher and Hagrid isn't.
More to the point, perhaps, she's immediately suspicious of Umbridge's
remarks on "progress for progress' sake must be discouraged" and
"pruning wherever we find practices that ought to be prohibiited,"
correctly concluding that "the Ministry's interfering at Hogwarts"
(OoP Am. ed. 214). She objects in class to Umbridge's course aims and
textbook for the very good reason that both are designed to avoid
teaching the students to use defensive spells (242). Earlier, she
objected to the whole subject of Divination, criticizing Trelawney for
seeing "that ridiculous Grim again" (this time in the crystal ball)
and walking out of that class when Trelawney tells her that her mind
is too "hopelessly mundane" to master "the noble art of Divination" (208).

In contrast, she never talks back to snape (the closest she comes is
pointing out that they're supposed to be starting hinkypunks in
Lupin's DADA class). While she sometimes complains outside of class
that Snape is unfair or sympathizes with the boys when he gives them
detentions, she always does excellent work in his class and on his
essays, even the werewolf essay that he assigned as substitute DADA
teacher (which no one else wrote). With the exception of Professor
Lockhart, whom Hermione as a little second-year had a silly crush on,
she seems to be an excellent judge of teachers. (She's right about
Umbridge, Grubbly-Plank, Hagrid, and Trelawney.) Her praise of Snape's
first DADA lesson, echoed by the Hufflepuff Ernie Macmillan, surely as
impartial a student as we're likely to find with regard to Snape, is
therefore, IMO, not to be taken lightly.

Carol, broiling in Tucson but happy to have her computer back with its
power supply stabilized, knock on wood!