Sorting / Baddock / Sbape, Snape, Snape, Snape

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 185847

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185711>:

<< The only one who starts to doubt his family tradition is Sirius,
and, if it weren't for his meeting and befriending James, he would
probably have been Sorted into Slytherin just like Regulus (later) and
Andromeda (earlier) and all the rest of his family. He must have
wanted to be placed in Gryffindor, where he knew James would be placed. >>

I'm probably getting repetitious saying this, but I think Sirius at
age 11 was already into doing things just for the purpose of annoying
his parents, and had already realized that not being Sorted into
Slytherin would annoy them. 

He may well have already known that Gryffindor House is the
traditional rival of Slytherin House and therefore it would annoy his
parents more if he went into Gryffindor than if he went into Ravenclaw
or Hufflepuff (unconditional loyalty to his pack-mates may be his
strong suit, but can you imagine him in Hufflepuff, where students
follow rules?), and therefore already thought of going into Gryffindor
even before he met James.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185714>:

<< a more likely etymology, with Baddock as a variant of Badcock, in
which "BAd" or "Bat" is a variant of Bart (short for Bartholomew) and
-cock, like -kin, in a diminutive >>

I can't remember if it was this list, but one time one listie from
England mentioned that he lived someplace named Baldock and had just
discovered that the name was originally 'Baghdad'. Leaving the
Thousand Nights and One Night out of it, I can easily imagine the
surname Baddock meaning a person from Baldock. 

[Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baldock> says "Baldock was
founded by the Knights Templar (also the name of the town's secondary
school) in the 1140s. Perhaps for this reason, one theory of the
origin of the name Baldock is as a derivation from the Old French name
for Baghdad: Baldac, which the Templars had hoped to conquer during
the crusades. Other theories include that the name is is derived from
"Bald Oak", meaning a dead oak."]

I imagine the name 'Baddock' could also be a variant of 'Paddock',
which would be more wizarding when it's a nickname for a toad than
when it's a corral.

But I still think Rowling wouldn't give a character a name whose first
syllable is 'Bad' unless she meant for us to notice it as a
three-letter word regardless of etymology.

Montavilla47 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185721>:

<< I like the first image, too, when he's crying in the corner. (snip)
The most ambiguous responses I've heard from people to that one are 1)
that is isn't Snape's parents, but perhaps his mother and grandfather,
and 2) that the woman isn't afraid, but that they are simply fighting
on an equal level. >>

I don't recall hearing anyone suggest that the woman was fighting at
an equal level, but I do recall Kneasy insisting that the adult man
was Snape, the cowering people his wife and son, and this was his
happy memory of his beloved family killed by Voldemort, for which he
was seeking revenge.

<< But what are we to make of that second memory? It is just to show
us that Snape was horrible at riding brooms? Is that Lily laughing at
him? Or a random girl? >>

Something that Severus had in common with Harry, being victimized by
hexed brooms, altho' in Harry's case it was mortal danger and a girl
(Hermione) and Severus himself tried to save Harry, but in Sevvie's
case, no one tried to save him, and if he was in mortal danger, that
girl was rather a monster (as Carol mentioned in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185738>). Could
it have been Bellatrix?

I'm thinking the event occured at Hogwarts when Sevvie borrowed the
broom of a Slythie housemate to practise, but the lender secretly
hexed it as a 'joke'. Maybe the girl was the lender, sticking around
to laugh at her 'joke'. Maybe the lender was Lucius and someone else
(maybe the laughing girl) hexed it. If Lucius or whoever lent an
unhexed broomstick and James or Sirius hexed it because he was trying
to show off to Lily, why would Lily be laughing?

Montavilla47 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185778>:

<< Now, maybe Snape should have tried using Lupin's trick. Instead
of continuing to tutor the unwilling Harry, he should have suggested
that it was too difficult, given Harry some chocolate, and told him to
give it up. >>

I realise that later on you said that you were just being sarcastic,
but I think it was seriously a good suggestion. As you and others have
mentioned, many good teachers would nonetheless be stymied by Harry's
desire to keep having visions from Voldemort and especially dreams
about that corridor. What would motivate him to want to learn
Occlumency when he was dead set against using Occlumency? His pride
(or call it self-respect or call it vanity).

Snape says to Harry, in a tone of voice resembling concern about him,
or at least pure objectivity, that Occlumency is too difficult a skill
for Harry to be able to learn, and that these lessons are not only
useless but are excessively painful for Harry.

 ... Harry becomes certain that Snape is someone else disguised as
Snape by Polyjuice and is determined to observe Snape for an hour and
try to keep him from drinking anything in that time, in order to find
out who is the disguised person: he hopes it is Dumbledore, secretly
too fond of Harry to avoid him completely despite mysteriously wanting
Harry to think so ... 

Excuse me, I didn't intend that digression. Harry, it not crossing his
mind that Snape is not Snape, takes this as challenge: "Snape thinks I
can't do it! Snape think I'm a weakling who suffers from these
lessons! I'll show him!" "No, Professor, please let me keep trying. I
really want to do whatever Professor Dumbledore says I should do."

Montavilla47 wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185797>:

<< I"m probably wrong about this, but my suspicion is that Snape
kept pushing the "expell Harry" idea because he thought Harry
would be safer at the Dursleys--and he didn't give a darn whether
or not Harry was *happy* there. He never promised to ensure
Harry's happiness--only his safety. >>

Really? I always thought that Snape was just saying 'expel him' to get
Harry's goat, as he knew that DD would never expel Harry for anything.

<< Of course, in OotP, it became evident that the protections placed
on the Dursley house could not protect Harry and he was better off at
Hogwarts. And, oddly, Snape never suggests once in OotP that Harry
ought to be expelled. >>

That's a good point.

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185813>:

<< We also have the evidence of all those other students who received
O's on their OWLs after learning from Snape -- one Gryffindor
(Hermione), one Hufflepuff (Ernie), and (IIRC), four students each
from Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Clearly, not all students were
uninspired by him. >>

Just as many Slytherins as studious Ravenclaws got a O in Potions. Hmmm. 

I think Snape teaches the Slytherins better than he teaches the other
students. 

He may well feel some sort of paternal or avuncular love for them, so
he criticizes their work with fewer insults and much less venom, and
is almost patient when yet again explaining the parts they didn't get. 

Or maybe he covered the interior walls of Slytherin House with
informative posters about Potionology.

Alla wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/185816>:

<< One would think that if JKR wanted to make a point that Snape does
that to unlucky soul every year, she would have made a point of
mentioning it. She did not, so I choose to think that Snape does not
do it every year. >>

It has been suggested on list that he normally starts each class with
those three questions, but to three different students, so no one
feels singled out.