CHAPTER DISCUSSION Chamber of Secrets Ch. 5. The Whomping Willow

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 188820

Montavilla:
> The default mode is Snape *not* demanding that Harry be expelled 
> (even if he may be *thinking* about it).  It's only a few times that he 
> does, and those can be explained by other motives than a sincere
> desire to have Harry expelled.
> 

Pippin:
It's similar to Arthur and the flying Ford. Does  Arthur really think he can persuade Molly to let him fly the car, or does he just wish he could?  If Molly weren't there, would he have gone ahead?

He could have flown the car already without being discovered, just as the Twins did (five or six times, according to Ron). We know Arthur didn't do that. So my conclusion would be  that while he really would have liked to fly the car, he never seriously thought it would be worth the trouble. 

Similarly, I think Snape would get great pleasure out of imagining Harry's wand being snapped in two and Harry leaving Hogwarts in disgrace. But that doesn't mean he's trying to make it happen.

Alla seems to want  an explanation that would allow Snape to sincerely try to get Harry expelled while at the same time honoring his vow. But that's incompatible with being Dumbledore's man, so much so that trying to take Harry away from Dumbledore's protection was what exposed the impostor Moody. 

And that brings up another argument. If Dumbledore really believed that Snape was trying to get Harry expelled, he would have stopped trusting him. 

Pippin