Dragons, Produced and Tickled, and Other Pleasantries

[nrenka]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:

> Pippin:
> Nice try. But Snape was nicely connected to Lucius,   and the 
> ministry has plenty of room for sadists like dear old Dolores on 
> the staff.
> 
> Are you saying Lucius couldn't have gotten his old pal Snapey a
> ministry job? And what about Slughorn? It's not clear whether 
> Snape was in the Slug club, but he was at Sluggy's Christmas
> party, so I'd guess yes, in which case Snape could get a job
> anywhere within the reach of Sluggy's web.
> 
> Then there's Karkaroff...I don't think Snape would have had
> trouble finding employment elsewhere.

Trouble--maybe not.  But maybe Snape doesn't want to call in favors 
and get himself entangled in *those* sorts of connections.  As we've 
seen, taking a job at the Ministry can involve all kinds of 
entanglements and power plays.  Not saying that staying at Hogwarts 
isn't an entanglement with Dumbledore, but maybe the known situation 
is preferred to the unknown.  There are all kinds of ways in which 
*Snape* profits from having Dumbledore as his immediate patron, as 
opposed to Barty Crouch.

>> -Nora would still love to see Snape try to run something like a 
>> graduate seminar, where students can draw blood just as well
> 
> Pippin:
> We saw Snape dealing with Lockhart in the staff room. He can
> play with the big boys just fine.

You're far more charitable than I would be in considering Lockhart to 
be one of the "big boys".  No, I was thinking of a situation where 
students are freer to fight back and the core of the class is actual 
discussion and argument where positions have to be defended as to 
equals, as opposed to getting to be the dictator and reveling in 
bullying inferior students.

-Nora has fond memories of one seminar for that very reason...