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

[Annemehr]

No: HPFGUIDX 185933


Montavilla47:
Interesting, Annemehr. My own (entirely unsupported) theory is that
Serpentsoria is a spell that Slytherin firsties are traditionally 
taught by
older students because it's a cool way to conjure up the House Mascot.

Of course, they'd all know how to get rid of it, too.

But, you're right. Why bother to have Snape whisper instructions to
Draco here? Just to be a jerk? Well, okay, I can buy that (especially
after that House cup switcheroo the previous year) that Snape just
wants to have *his* Slytherin student show up the Gryffindor golden
boy. But it's more fun to think Snape was doing a bit of sleuthing for
Dumbledore.

<g>

Annemehr:
Hee.  A bit of Harry-deflating and some Slytherin pride all in one?  
Along with Snape's wearing of the green at Quidditch and his House 
Cup competitiveness, I could see it! <g>


 
> > Annemehr:
> > So, I wonder if Snape could have used [Protego] to shield himself 
from 
> Buckbeak at the end of HBP - or, can't you use it when you are 
> moving, because then you'd just run into your own wall? <snip>
> 
> Carol responds:
> I don't think you'd run into your own wall because you'd be running
> away from the pursuing hippogriff.

Annemehr:
I don't know how we could tell.  Would it move along with you, or is 
it planted in place?  Is it *so* temporary, that it would disappear 
before you got to it, if you were running?  What about on a broom?

Carol:
> I think the main reason that snape
> didn't use it was that he was keeping an eye on the gate, which was
> close at hand. I'm trying to remember--did Harry use Protego against
> any of the creatures in the TWT maze?
> > 

Annemehr:
I'm thinking that Snape didn't use it because JKR wasn't think of it 
that way at the time. <eg>

Anyway, no, Harry didn't ever use it at all in GoF - apparently he 
never managed to learn it until OoP.

I also checked HBP, and he didn't attempt it against the inferi in 
the cave, either.  And I'm thinking it would have helped if he had - 
all the other spells he tried worked; they just weren't effective.  
That is, incarcerous and impedimenta worked on individual inferi, but 
there were just too many of them, and sectumsempra made slashes 
appear in them, but as they were already dead, it didn't stop them 
advancing.  So, presumably, protego would have worked on a dead body 
as well as working on live ones.

> > > Carol, wondering what Annemehr thinks that Snape was "up to" 
given
> > that we know he was protecting Harry
> > >
> Annemehr:
> <snip>
> > The only thing that makes sense is that he was trying a little
> experiment to see whether he could evoke Parseltongue in Harry (in 
> connection with Dumbledore's plan). Because, DD knew *who* was 
> opening the Chamber; it was Tom Riddle all the time.  And Harry was
> someone with a connection to Riddle.
> 
> Carol responds:
> I see! So we're back to the suggestion I made earlier in this 
thread:
> 
> Carol earlier:
> > > I'm not sure about the Serpensortia spell, but it *may* have 
been
> Snape's way of testing to see whether Harry was a Parselmouth. It
> certainly served that purpose whether it was his intention or not.
> And Snape easily Vanished the snake before it could do any harm.

Annemehr:
In fact, I am right back to the first time I really understood this 
scene: as part of Guilty!DD!!! <veg>

> 
> Carol again:
> I abandoned that particular point because I couldn't think of any 
way
> to support it. The Serpensortia looked to me primarily like a plot
> device to allow Harry to speak Parseltongue and set up the 
suspicions
> of him as the Heir of Slytherin, especially after the next Petrified
> student just happens to be Justin Finch-Fletchley. <snip> But the 
only piece of solid evidence I can find is
> Snape'e expression after Harry starts speaking Parseltongue. Instead
> of looking surprised or horrified, he looks "shrewd and calculating"
> (CoS Am. ed. 193). He certainly could not have anticipated that
> Lockhart would try to Vanish the snake, causing it to move angrily
> toward a student. I wonder what he *did* expect--and whether he 
teally
> thought that Harry might have been responsible for the attacks.

Annemehr:
Well, after DH, I have to admit that I think some things in the 
series *are* mere plot devices.

But we do have some decent evidence here: the fact that it was 
Snape's idea and not just a random hex from Draco; the fact of 
Snape's shrewd expression, as you point out; and also the fact that 
he waited to vanish the snake...until after Harry had spoken to it.  
He didn't vanish it when it was threatening Justin, but only after it 
was already safe, when it had quit hissing and turned toward the 
person who had spoken to it.

I can't really say whether he thought Harry might be responsible for 
the attacks.  That would partly depend on how much DD told him.  But 
it really doesn't look as though Snape suspects Harry in connection 
with them, as I recall.

Carol: 
> What we don't know is whether Dumbledore asked him to "assist"
> Lockhart or whether it was his own idea. I'm inclined to think that
> it's the first. If only we could see inside that shrewd and
> calculating mind!

Annemehr:
Given that I don't think he believed that Harry was opening the 
Chamber, I'm thinking this was at DD's behest.  (Was there ever any 
indication that Snape ever knew that Voldemort was the one who opened 
it the first time, btw?  I can't recall.)

As for the Dueling Club in particular, he may just have been looking 
for a good opportunity to elicit Parseltongue from Harry, and this 
was it.  I can't imagine him setting a snake on Harry himself, as it 
would would be construed as attacking a student, and it wouldn't be 
his style anyway.  Best to induce Draco to do it sometime; those two 
are always at odds and it would look like business as usual.

> 
> Carol, wishing that Snape could have taught DADA all along with no
> DADA curse (I know; there goes the plot)

Nah, I like the Potions Master.  But I do wish Harry had listened to 
him on the matter of other ways to handle dementors, the little twerp.

Annemehr