Snape/Expelliarmus (Was Disappointment Was: Deaths in DH

[va32h]

No: HPFGUIDX 177526

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "starview316" <starview316 at ...> 
wrote:
> Snape taught Harry "Expelliarmus" (which he acknowledged in 
> CoS: "Shouldn't have let Snape teach us that one."), which has become 
> his signature spell. 

va32h:

Just to go on another tangent here - I see this sentiment a lot "Snape 
taught Harry his signature spell". And I really think it's become one 
of those legends like "someone will do magic late in life in book 7" 
that has really been extrapolated into something HUUUUGE, when it's 
not. 

There was the Duelling Club.  Snape used the spell once, against 
Lockhart.  Harry copied him.  This is not "Snape personally instructed 
Harry in the spell he would later use to defeat Voldemort three times!"

It's more like "Harry and a bunch of other kids were in the room when 
Snape used the spell, and so they heard the incantation."  Technically 
Snape taught everybody in the club "Expelliarmus", if they did not know 
it already.  And it's a standard spell, after all, not some arcane 
knowledge carefully handed down. Harry would have learned it 
eventually. 

Harry learns other spells just by hearing the incantation and copying 
it...I just don't see how this has become one of the defining moments 
of the Snape/Harry relationship.  It's a nice bit of irony, but that's 
all, IMO. 

On another topic, I've seen it mentioned a few times that Snape's 
bravery redeems (or improves) Slytherin House...but for me, anything 
Snape did to positively reflect on Slytherin House was totally negated 
by Dumbledore's comment "Sometimes I think we sort too soon," (which is 
CANON, as we've been told to provide) and which I can only interpret as 
Dumbledore saying "Snape, you should not have been in Slytherin, 
because you actually have redeeming qualities.'

va32h