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

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 185873

> Alla:
> 
> So that *is* the scene you meant. Okay then no I do not see them as 
> the same at all. Because I think it is much more reasonable to expect 
> sixth years who had DADA for several years to pick up some extra 
> knowledge, at least theoretical of the magic they never done 
> (presumably), but definitely saw in the WW.
> 
> Not that I would expect everybody to look non verbal spells of 
> course, but as I said just seems more reasonable to me that somebody 
> will see teachers doing one or another nonverbal spell and may just 
> be curious to figure out what it is they are dealing with. Heck 
> Dumbledore presumably does non verbal magic during the end of the 
> first year feast. I would not be surprised if somebody besides 
> Hermione got curious.

Montavilla47:
I don't know why Snape would take that into account.  (And, it looks
like either *no one* besides Hermione was curious enough to look
that up ahead of time, or everyone besides Hermione was savvy
enough not to try and answer Snape's first question of the year
of they didn't have to. :-)

Alla:
> NOT the first years muggleborns who just only learned that magic 
> exists and had to deal with Snape's questioning.

Montavilla47:
Okay, this is a really minor point--which is why I haven't bothered
to address it before--but we don't know that Snape knows that
Harry just got informed about the wizarding world a month 
earlier.

As far as Snape knows, Harry was sent to live with his family in
the Muggle world.  He may or may not not know that Lily's parents
are dead.  What he did know was that Lily's parents loved magic
and he probably knew (since he was her friend until they were 
fifteen or sixteen) that her parents were proud of her prowess
in magic. His experience with Lily was that she drank in everything 
he could tell her about magic, the wizarding world, and how it all
worked.  

He knows that Petunia is a nasty person, but he doesn't necessarily
know that Harry is living with her.  He may or may not know (although
he probably does, since she called Lily a freak) how opposed to magic
Petunia has become.  His experience with Petunia was that she was
curious about magic, even to the extent of spying Lily when Snape
was telling her about Hogwarts.

I think it would be counter-intuitive for him to assume that Petunia 
would tell Harry *nothing* about his parents and magic.

Before DH, I would have assumed that Snape did know something
about Harry's background.  After DH, I'm assuming that Dumbledore
told him nothing.