Snape as Neville's teacher / JKR's sexy men roll call

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 168504

> Shaun:
> <snip>
> > It seems to me that the people who expect a 100% success rate as 
> the only measure of being a good  teacher they will contemplate, are 
those who want to condemn the  teaching of Severus 
> > Snape. They are the people who keep raising specific examples of 
> his supposed failures with  individual students as if they prove he's a 
bad teacher.
> <snip>
> 
> Dana:
> The problem is this argument is used both ways because according to 
> many his *individual* treatment of Neville and Harry IS what is 
> claimed to be Snape success as a teacher. They claim Snape was 
> successful on an individual level for treating these students bad and 
> making them succeed because of it. 

Pippin:
In my case at least, that's not quite it. It's more that the qualities
which make Snape give Harry and Neville a hard time in
potions are the same qualities that enable him to save their lives,
and other students', when they're threatened by Voldemort. 

Snape's single-minded ferocity and his willingness to trust his 
own perceptions instead of following the crowd would
make it difficult for him to stay in Voldemort's service and also 
allow him to perceive, when no one else did, that Harry was in
danger from a curse and not from mishandling his broom. 

Unfortunately the same characteristics would also make it 
difficult for anyone to make him understand that he's misjudging Harry
very badly. Harry shares these qualities, and in his case it's
unquestionable that they've led him to heroic actions, but
it's also possible that they've led him to ignore what he's
been told by others and misjudge Snape as badly as Snape 
has misjudged him. 



The question of why Snape treats Harry as if he must be a carbon
copy of James has, IMO, the same answer as the question of why 
Harry treats Snape as if he must be a villain who hates him for no 
reason and who is bent on treachery and murder.

I saw a Cathy comic strip  the other day that about sums it up.
Cathy's mom made an innocuous comment and  Cathy
responded with a barrage of defensive self-deprecation. When
Irving bewilderedly asked what brought that on,  Cathy says, "You 
heard the last twenty seconds. I heard the last twenty years." 

That's *exactly* what I see going on between Harry and Snape.
On that first day of class, Snape saw seven years of James in 
everything that Harry did. In everything Snape did, Harry saw 
ten years of  the kiddie-lit/cartoon villains whom Snape so 
much resembles, down to the hooked nose and sarcastic
manner.

IMO, it's a case of mistaken identity, one of so many in the books. 
Harry has the misfortune to resemble James. Snape's subconscious 
identifies Harry as James, who persecuted Snape for years. 
Every time Harry does something that would have been hostile  
if James had done it,  Snape's subconscious perceives a threat 
and Snape reacts reflexively.

Meanwhile Harry's subconscious  tells him Snape would like
nothing better than to ruin Harry's life, although Dumbledore
tells him that he's actually been working very hard to save it.

Snape had no business to blame Harry for Neville's accident. But
I suspect he figured Neville would get it right since Neville's parents
were both Aurors and therefore skilled at potions. He probably
wasn't paying attention for once, blamed himself for the accident
and immediately thought of a reason to blame Harry instead. Now
who does that sound like?

Pippin