First lesson WAS: Re: Marietta, was Slytherin's Reputation

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 185806

> SSSusan:
> Hee, yes, I agree that teaching him potions wasn't likely to be TOO 
> directly significant in fending off Voldemort.  I think, though, 
that 
> it was always likely that Snape could be, WOULD be able to teach 
> Harry things that would be helpful in other ways – the stuff they 
> began to get to with Occlumency. 

Zara:
Such as the basics of duelling, and the Disarming Charm? Snape 
arranged to teach Harry that in Harry's second year.

> SSSusan:
> But by then, the teacher-student 
> relationship was really damaged, and much of that can be traced 
back, 
> imo, to the first lesson, the first year, the way Snape treated him 
> so angrily, with such hatred, which *naturally* made Harry react in 
> kind.

Zara:
I have to say, that the first year, was something in which *Harry's* 
reaction made me go "Huh?" His dislike of Snape throughout the first 
year, his suspicions that Snape was up to no good, all that made 
perfect sense to me. But Harry's non-reaction to the news that Snape 
had saved his life is something I can't understand. It would not make 
me like a teacher like Snape, but it would forever change how I 
thought and acted about him. He would no longer be a jerk to 
disrespect, he'd be a jerk to respect and avoid. I was taken aback by 
the first scene in CoS in which Snape came up, jarringly so.

> SSSusan:
> Sorry, I'm digressing.  I really would like to know if others feel 
> there's something to the idea that Snape would've liked to have 
just 
> packed Harry up & sent him back to the Dursleys because he thought 
> he'd be safer there.

Zara:
I don't agree with this view. Snape knew Voldemort would be coming 
back, but not when. I imagine he and Albus were hoping this might not 
occur until Harry was an adult, and as an adult, Harry could not be 
protected at the Dursleys anyway. He'd need an education in magic to 
have any chance - I am sure Snape had no desire to have adult Harry 
move in with him...

He does threaten to expel Harry on a couple of occasions, but I think 
he was just bluffing. It's a pattern of behavior he exhibits with 
other characters as well (I doubt he had any intention of causing 
Lupin to be Kissed by a Dementor, for another example. I also think 
he had no intention of poisoning Trevor - the first time he mentions 
poison in that scene, he already knows the potion is correctly made 
and thus will only turn Trevoer, reversibly, into a tadpole. Nor do I 
think he was going to poison any students in the calss on antidotes 
that Harry missed. I think these are all actions Snape knows would be 
over the line form the point of view of the legal/school authorities).
 
> Montavilla47:
> > I understand what you are saying. Lupin certainly explained 
things 
> > better in terms of what Dementors are, how they work, and what a 
> > Patronus would do.

Zara:
This I really disagre with. Snape explained what Legilimency is quite 
well. He did less well at explaining the special circumstances of 
Harry and Voldemort and how they applied, but this is a topic about 
which we *know* he did not have full knowledge, so he was engaging in 
guesswork (as he freely admitted in the scene). Lupin was teaching a 
standard, if advanced, topic in DADA.

> SSSusan:
> Yes, and this is a good point.  If one gets the content, the "how" 
> one got it isn't necessarily important.  Do you think Snape was 
aware 
> of these alternate methods?  Do you think he should have explained 
> the possibilities to Harry?  

Zara:
I do not believe there *are* alternate methods of Occlumency. Snape, 
in my opinion, taught the standard method, just as Lupin taught the 
standard method against Dementors. 

It is true that Harry blocks out Voldemort on a few occasions by 
experiencing deep, painful emotions of love and/or grief. However, it 
is my view that this is not an "alternative defense" against standard 
Legilimency, but something that works only against Voldemort 
(possibly even, only if you are Harry). For example, if Harry had 
attempted the same defense against Snape in the lessons, I do not 
believe that it would have prevented Snape from invading his mind.

It is certainly not a method that *Snape* would have ever considered -
 that he himself has comparable feelings, and the reasons for it,  
was one of the things he would most certainly have needed to hide 
from Voldemort.