Marietta, was Slytherin's Reputation

[zanooda2]

No: HPFGUIDX 185671

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "littleleahstill"
<leahstill at ...> wrote:
 
> You know, it's not exactly unheard of for a teacher to single 
> out one student to answer questions.  It does happen in classrooms >
from time to time.


zanooda:

Sure, you are right, there is no rule against teachers asking students
questions :-). It seems to me, however, that you are ignoring the rest
of Snape's remarks, which are, I regret to say, quite spiteful
(starting with "our new celebrity" :-)). Snape doesn't humiliate Harry
by asking questions, he humiliates him by commenting on his lack of
knowledge in a way that makes Harry look stupid, even though he (and
the rest of the students) is not *supposed* to know all this stuff yet. 

If Snape only wanted to ask Harry questions for the reasons that you
give (to find out more about him etc.), he wouldn't have sneered, he
wouldn't have said things like "fame isn't everything", he simply
would have gone on with the questioning. IMO, Snape assumes from the
very beginning that Harry is second James and therefore treats him as
he would have treated James. 

I don't think that he had planned this beforehand, but Harry and Ron's
raised eyebrows probably set him off :-) - he took it as a sign of
arrogance, I suppose :-). Anyway, I only wanted to say that I like
Snape, but I admit that he *does* try to put Harry down in this scene
(IMO, of course). It's not that easy though, because Harry has had a
lot of training with the Dursleys :-)