[HPforGrownups] Re: CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chamber of Secrets Chapter 18: Dobby's reward

[Sheila Douglas]

No: HPFGUIDX 189342

<snip>

Nikkalmati:
> I am not sure why you think Snape is shown as struggling.
What I saw was that Snape was writing far more than necessary,
struggling, if at all, to get down on paper most of his rather
vast knowledge in the time allowed. The Mauraders are shown as
indifferent to their performance and rather flippant about it
> all.



sile_dubhghlase:
Think of Ockham's Razor--less is more. He's writing furiously to answer the
question with more verbage than necessary, so that tells me he's having a
hard time getting to the point. If he had a firm grasp on DADA, he could
have answered those questions faster and with fewer words. The Marauders are
not indifferent, but they are flippant because it doesn't tax them much..
well, except for Peter. Then we hearken back to the issue in the class Snape
taught for Lupin in third year when he blows the origins of the Kappa,
according to Fantastic Beasts and where to find them, page 23. That volume
is not a textbook, rather an individual effort by world-reknowned
magizoologist, Newt Scamander.

I had said earlier that Snape's knowledge of DADA was lacking, but someone
else said that maybe his knowledge of dark CREATURES was the issue. Perhaps
that's true. That said, maybe that question he was writing furiously about
had to do with a "dark creature." There was some joking around among the
Marauders about Werewolves... But then again, according to PoA, Chapter 19,
The Servant of Lord Voldemort, page 361 (Scholastic) or page 265
(Bloomsbury), three third-years blasted the greasy git off his feet and
knocked him unconscious. He can't be that good.

It's just how I read it and I think that's what JKR intended to convey.