GoF CH 27-29 Post DH look/ Snape and Harry and Gargoyles

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 182175

montavilla47 wrote:
> These are really good points, Leah.  I agree that, even as a Snape
supporter, I don't have anything good to point at for Snape's reign as
Headmaster (other than his sending the kids out to the forest).
<snip>
> It's definitely a challenge, as it doesn't seem like Carrows should
be that difficult to get around.  And, it isn't like Voldemort is
worrying about the school or pulling surprise inspections, right?
> 
> However, there are things one could imagine that Snape does.  For
example, he might subtlely inform McGonagall about the danger posed to
Muggleborn students if they show up at the train station, which would
allow her to grab the letters before they go out to those students--or
send other letters to warn them to stay away.
> 
> He might have worked out a cunning plan with the Slytherins to pull
their punches on the Crucio curses.  He might assign detentions that
actually help the resistance students. <snip>
>
Carol responds:
I think he must have learned a few tricks from the resistance to
Umbridge in OoP. Just keeping McGonagall, Flitwick, et al. on the
staff ensures that most of the classes will be taught normally by
competent teachers, and Snape knows that those same teachers will
resist and undermine the Carrows (and, by extension, Snape himself, or
so they think) just as they resisted and undermined Umbridge. I'm
quite sure that the teachers don't arrange their detentions through
the Carrows as ordered, for example. Probably they deduct House points
instead. By reposting Umbrige's ban on organizations, Snape also
ensures that the DA will reform. IMO, sending Ginny, Luna, and Neville
to Hagrid also encourages them to resist (in addition to being a
humane punishment passing as a cruel one). And he forbids Ginny from
going to Hogsmeade, surely for her own protection (though she no doubt
thinks that he's being "evil").

Certain things at Hogwarts are still normal (if you don't count DEs
snatching Luna from Platform 9 3/4, which Snape could not have
anticipated or prevented): The House-Elves are still preparing
delicious meals, the kids still have warm beds to sleep in and
DE-proof dormitiories (until Alecto Carrow forces Flitwick to let her
into the Ravenclaw Common Room). The Hogwarts Express and probably
Hagrid's boats and the Thestral-drawn carriages run as usual. I see no
reason why Hagrid wouldn't cut the usual twelve Christmas trees, and
we know that he's planning to teach about Unicorns as one of his
projects. (No Skrewts this year!) Filch and Mrs. Norris are still
prowling the halls as usual, and the teachers are assigned to patrol
the halls. (Possibly Snape excuses the Carrows from this duty.) Even
Peeves is still there, as are the Hogwarts ghosts, so in some ways,
Hogwarts is unchanged despite the change of regime. It's possible that
some of them, or some of the portraits (like Phineas Nigellus, when
he's at Hogwarts) act as spies or lookouts for Snape. Snape has closed
up all the secret passageways, not only preventing the students from
sneaking out into DE-infested Hogsmeade but preventing DEs (other than
the Carrows) from sneaking in. And, of course, he's consulting with
Portrait!DD about the Sword of Gryffindor and other matters; I see no
reason to think that they don't discuss protective measures for the
students as well.

I doubt that Amycus Carrow (Alecto's class is all brainwashing, no
spells involved) is teaching Unforgiveable Curses to students below
NEWT level, if only because they don't yet have, in HBP!Snape's words,
"the nerve or the ability." And Snape, being Snape, would make a big
deal about NEWTs. Note the acceptance speech of which we get a snippet
in "The Bribe": "I welcome the opportunity to uphold our finest
Wizarding traditions and values--" (DH Am. ed. 226). I'm sure that he
made similar assertions in his staff meetings. (Slughorn, at least,
seems to regard him as a legitimate headmaster, so I assume that he
conducts meetings and does everything that a headmaster would normally
do. He could require all his staff, including the Carrows, to teach
the students at levels appropriate to their ages and abilities, for
example.)

At any rate, we do know some of the things that Snape did, not just
that one detention. We do know where his loyalties lie and we do know
that when he makes a promise to Dumbledore, he keeps it. So I'm quite
sure that, despite the reports that we get from Neville (a
seventh-year and a D.A. member) that Snape does what he can,
undercover as always, subtly as always, to protect the students as he
promised. He can't completely control the Carrows, of course, or
they'd suspect that he wasn't one of them, but he can always point out
that the Dark Lord doesn't want the students spilling each other's
Wizarding blood in the corridors and that the students are there to
receive an education, which means that they need to pass their OWLs
and NEWTs. (Amycus Carrow actually teaches Crabbe and Goyle to cast a
Disillusionment Charm. Odd that they can cast it but not pronounce it,
but at least they learned something, and they're complete lunkheads.)

Carol, who *doesn't* want to know what JKR thought went on at Hogwarts
because it would most likely be from a Gryffindor perspective and not
Snape's own