Snape, Snape, Snape--favorite moments (Re: Snape's involvement in the...)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 169282

Jen wrote: 
><snip> And your thought above inspired me to try to start a "What I
like about the character of Snape" thread. :)  I can be open-minded, I
*can*.  I'm going to give some moments where I've enjoyed Snape as a
character and admired the job Rowling has done in creating him:
> 
Carol:

Thanks, Jen, for turning this thread in a new direction. You really
are a good sport. :-)

Montavilla47:
> 
> My favorite Snape moments:
> 
> 1) The Hospital Wing scene in GoF.  This is the moment that turned
me not only into a Snape fan, but a rabid HP fan as well.  It starts
with Snape showing that Dark Mark to Fudge, but there's also the
forced handshake, and Snape's black glittery eyes as he goes off to
what seems his inevitable doom. <snip>

Carol:
Yes, yes, yes. Add his image in the Foe Glass and Dumbledore's anxious
silence as Snape leaves, and you have a scene that left me in no doubt
whatever that Snape was Dumbledore's man through and through (before
the phrase itself had yet been coined).

Montavilla47: 
> 3) The Occlumency lessons.  <snip>

Carol:

Yes, again. Snape reveals some very important information about
himself and Voldemort, as well as defining Occlumency and Legilimency
for us and for Harry. But, for me, it's his control of his anger, his
faint praise of Harry's efforts, and, above all, his concerned,
alternately fearful and angry reaction when Harry has memories that
are clearly Voldemort's, that makes me sure he's DDM and is doing his
best to protect and teach a very unwilling and uncooperative Harry. 
> 
MV47 (I'm lazy, okay? <grin>):
> 4) Snape kicking Gilderoy Lockhart's butt in the Dueling Club.  Go
Snape!

Carol:
Classic! And our first indication that Snape really does know DADA as
well as Potions.
> 
MV47:
> 5) Snape kicking Harry's butt in the post-tower flight.  Take that,
Chosen One!

Carol:
LOL! But, also, he's saving Harry from a Crucio and giving last-minute
advice in that scene. If only Harry figures it out!
> 
MV47:
> 6) Snape healing Draco in the bathroom.  What an amazing and
unexpected image.  I keep thinking of the Pieta when I read about that
passage.

Carol:
And I thought of Gregorian chant when I read the description of the
counterspell. We've had off-page indications of Healer!Snape in HBP
(the ring Horcrux, the cursed necklace) but here we see him in action.
And *this* scene stays in Harry's mind even after he sees Snape kill
DD. He thinks of it in the cave, true, but he remembers it again in
the hospital wing. I hear alarm bells going off in my head saying that
this information is important. And also Sectumsempta and its
countercurse are almost like the two sides of the Snape coin in one
symbol.
> 
MV47:
> 7) The First Potions lesson.  It immediately makes Potions seem like
the most interesting class at Hogwarts, doesn't it? <snip>

Carol:
Or, at any rate, the most interesting *teacher* by far. I saw a
scientist with the soul of a poet (and the phrase "does not suffer
fools gladly" also entered my head). Any teacher would love to have
Snape's gift for assuring silence just by walking into a room!

MV47:
> 8) Snape questioning Harry about the Potions book.  "I know what a 
nickname is!"

Carol:
One of many delicious lines. I wish I could list them all.

I would also include the scene Betsy mentioned with Snape walking all
over Sirius with his cool, sardonic wit; Snape gripping the back of
his his chair when he hears that a student has been taken into the
CoS, followed by his setting up the opportunity for Lockhart to expose
his ineptitude ("The man. The very man"); his refusal to cooperate
with Umbridge followed by an ironic bow when she puts him on probation
(and literally saving Neville's neck on his way out); his unexpected
gallantry toward the weeping Narcissa, who kneels at his feet and
kisses his hands. Come on, now. Isn't that the very image of a Gothic
hero (even though, of course, he's not the hero of the books)?

Unlike Jen, I don't find him scary, but I have no doubt that he can be
*very* dangerous to those who, like Quirrell, have the wrong
loyalties. He has intelligence, power, and courage, and I have no
doubt that we'd regard him as a very effective teacher if we saw him
from, say, Ernie Macmillan's point of view. (And I can't help loving
the way he sweeps out of a room.)

Carol, noting that the "ugliness" Harry sees in Snape is usually
referred to when Snape is angry with Harry and that we don't see it at
all in the objective narrator's description in "Spinner's End"