sendandburn

[sendandburn]

Harry and Snape’s Clashing Communication Styles

It's interesting to think that Harry and Snape don’t have longer conversations in the series, but when they do, their communication styles are so different that they often clash.

Harry’s way of communicating is practical and straightforward. He tends to break down complex ideas into simpler terms that he can easily understand. This makes sense, given his upbringing in a non-magical world and his tendency to rely more on gut instinct than deep theoretical knowledge. For Harry, things are usually black and white, and his directness shows his desire to cut through the confusion and get straight to the point.

Snape, on the other hand, has a more complex and layered way of speaking. His language is precise and often sarcastic, which reflects not just his intelligence but also his disdain for what he sees as Harry’s lack of subtlety. Snape’s use of imagery and metaphor, especially when he describes consepts, gives his speech a poetic, almost philosophical quality. He takes pleasure in showing off his superior knowledge and uses this as a way to belittle Harry.

We see this clash clearly in OOTP during Harry’s first Occlumency lesson:

Snape looked back at him for a moment and then said contemptuously, “Surely even you could have worked that out by now, Potter? The Dark Lord is highly skilled at Legilimency —” “What’s that? Sir?” “It is the ability to extract feelings and memories from another person’s mind —” “He can read minds?” said Harry quickly, his worst fears confirmed. “You have no subtlety, Potter,” said Snape, his dark eyes glittering. “You do not understand fine distinctions. It is one of the shortcomings that makes you such a lamentable potion-maker.” Snape paused for a moment, apparently to savor the pleasure of insulting Harry, before continuing, “Only Muggles talk of ‘mind reading.’ The mind is not a book, to be opened at will and examined at leisure. Thoughts are not etched on the inside of skulls, to be perused by any invader. The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter . . . or at least, most minds are. . . .” He smirked. Whatever Snape said, Legilimency sounded like mind reading to Harry and he did not like the sound of it at all.

For Harry, when Snape mentions Legilimency, it immediately sounds like “mind reading,” which is a reasonable but overly simple way to understand such a complex concept. His quick jump to this conclusion shows his need to make sense of something that feels threatening, but it also reveals his limited grasp of the deeper nuances.

Snape, however, can’t resist mocking Harry’s lack of subtlety. His response is laced with condescension as he insists on the complexity of the mind and dismisses the idea of “mind reading” as something only muggles would think of. Snape’s explanation is detailed and philosophical, contrasting sharply with Harry’s desire for a straightforward answer.

Another great example of their different communication styles comes in HBP when Snape puts Harry on the spot, asking him to explain the difference between an inferius and a ghost:

“Let us ask Potter how we would tell the difference between an Inferius and a ghost.” The whole class looked around at Harry, who hastily tried to recall what Dumbledore had told him the night that they had gone to visit Slughorn. “Er — well — ghosts are transparent —” he said. “Oh, very good,” interrupted Snape, his lip curling. “Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter. ‘Ghosts are transparent.’ ” Harry took a deep breath and continued calmly, though his insides were boiling, “Yeah, ghosts are transparent, but Inferi are dead bodies, aren’t they? So they’d be solid —” “A five-year-old could have told us as much,” sneered Snape. “The Inferius is a corpse that has been reanimated by a Dark wizard’s spells. It is not alive, it is merely used like a puppet to do the wizard’s bidding. A ghost, as I trust that you are all aware by now, is the imprint of a departed soul left upon the earth . . . and of course, as Potter so wisely tells us, transparent.” “Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we’re trying to tell them apart!” said Ron. “When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we’re going to be having a shufti to see if it’s solid, aren’t we, we’re not going to be asking, ‘Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?’

Once again, Harry demonstrates his practical and straightforward approach. He gives a simple, clear distinction based on what would be most useful in a real-life situation—whether the entity is solid or transparent. This shows how Harry tends to focus on what’s immediately relevant and actionable, and Ron’s defense of Harry’s answer highlights this practicality. Ron even points out that in a real-world scenario, Harry’s answer is actually the most helpful, contrasting it with Snape’s more academic approach.

Snape, though, dismisses Harry’s answer as too simplistic and mocks him for stating what he sees as the obvious. Snape’s communication is more about the theoretical and precise understanding of magical concepts. He emphasizes the deeper, more complex nature of an Inferius, which, while academically accurate, is less practical in the context that Harry is thinking of. Snape’s disdain shows that he values this deeper, nuanced understanding more than the direct, practical knowledge that Harry offers.

These moments really bring out the deeper divide between Harry and Snape. Harry approaches things with instinct and a straightforward mindset, while Snape is all about nuance, precision, and seeing the layers in everything. Because they see the world so differently, they struggle to communicate, which only adds to the distrust and misunderstanding between them—a tension that echoes throughout the entire series.

[sendandburn]

Why Harry Potter never become a obscurus

"Harry Potter was punished for accidental magic. If he had been taught that he was being punished because his magic was evil, he could have tried to suppress it. And it would have mutated out of control but his relatives did not teach him that magic was evil. They taught him that it did not exist. It caused him to doubt his sanity because he couldn’t understand why he was being punished. But it did not allow his magic to mutate to the point where it could kill him or anyone else. "( taken from the fict more than magic)

It is is from a fict but i firmly believe that's what happened on canon, hence why it is here and not in my headcanon blog.

[sendandburn]

What does it say about Snape that he became a Death Eater?

"Considering:He had been abused as a child and had likely grown up in an unstructured, unbalanced, toxic household where his essential needs were not met, including care and affection.

The mentioned abusive scenario's protagonist (his father) was a muggle and possibly the only one he knew well.His views on wizarding society until the age of eleven came from his mother as far as we know, and her (probably?) being a Slytherin makes it likely she had some sort of pureblood superiority notion (although why she had married a muggle and was still living with him is not clarified upon… did she get pregnant on an adventure and was disowned and somehow got stuck in that situation? Did she just fall in love with a muggle - and maybe later regretted, which might reinforce the anti muggle feeling?).

The only friend and close relation (aside from his parents) he seems to have had until the age of eleven was Lily Evans, and he lost her friendship and possibility of love to his bully.He was RELENTLESSLY bullied in school, the one place he had always hoped to escape to from his abusive, lonely, poverty stricken childhood.Said school's Headmaster had done nothing to punish his bullies when they almost got him killed in a prank, sending the message Snape's life was not important to him or the school. Oh yes, he was alone.

He was not popular / good looking / well dressed / financially secure.He was a halfblood from a poor family in SLYTHERIN.To sum it up, he had been rejected in almost all fronts (family, closest friend/love, authority figures, wizarding society) except maybe one. His Slytherin friends and future death eaters. He was good at spells, curses and potions, and could be accepted among some of his house peers.So, what does it say about Snape that he became a Death Eater?That he did not have the appropriate guidance and social relations support to enable him to make a conscious, thoroughly analysed decision. He had been rejected in all fronts except from the path to become a death eater. Among these people he would hope to be valued and exalted. He wanted to belong, to be accepted and admired, everything he had never had.

Where else could he turn to?

Had he turned his back on the death eaters, what was there for him, at 17? No friends, no authority figures to guide him, no family to support him, no society to accept him.He could've still turned away from that path and ventured down a much harder, lonelier and uncertain road, but how likely is a 17 year old bullied, abused, hurt and possibly afraid boy to have that kind of strength and insight? Is it fair to demand that of someone in those circumstances?It's easy to think how we would never follow that path speaking from our much better prospects.

We like to think we wouldn't choose to become death eaters in his place. But wouldn't we really?If we don't understand what circumstances drove so many people to accept nazism, we don't know how to prevent it from escalating again." (Analysis from quora

[sendandburn]

Guys if you’re going to say Snape protecting the golden trio from a fully transformed werewolf Lupin wasn’t in the books and only the movies so we can’t use that to say he wasn’t that bad- then you can’t use what happened in marauders fanfics to say he was a bad person cause it didn’t happen in the books. Just saying 🤷‍♂️

[sendandburn]

I agree with this 100%

Severus Snape or the Importance of Body Language

+ A socially-awkward streak of perfection in speech

This is a little thought that has been nagging me since I saw these

but mostly this

Those are obviously not mine, they are how Rowling viewed Snape in her head (the hats are terrible). I’m not focusing on the cruelty of how she constructed such a character to be ridiculed for his ‘ugliness’, rather I’d like to make you notice—as you guessed—the body language used there.

There is a common example of body language we teach people: when you cross your arms in front of your chest, you are in a posture of defense. This occurs mostly when you confront someone, sometimes someone you disagree with, or a large group of people, for instance during a presentation in front of a class. Teachers will tell you to stop it because it sends a message that you’re closed up, that you feel threatened: the arms are protecting your chest, resting between your body and that of the opponent, they form a shield and they can even hug you in a sense, as though trying to warm you up in winter.

Now, notice how Rowling drew Snape? He constantly joins his arms in front of him. Not only is that a reminder of the arms-crossing I described, but sometimes it evolves into the second but mostly third panel: Snape is pulling the pans of his robes in front of him. For me, it’s not just a message of defensiveness: it’s a message of active self-protection, of being re-assured, of sensed fragility, of having something to hide and protect. Self-comfort, like when you pull a blanket around your shoulders and hold the ends in front of you. It’s pulling something near your heart, in front of an exposed part of the body with vital organs, which adds a sense of secretiveness. Imagine doing that with your coat. Try doing it and study how you feel, what messages you are sending yourself, how people could interpret what you’re doing. So unless his robes are really long, I think this posture is extremely revealing of Snape.

This is not only pictured in her sketches though. It’s in the books each time Snape’s described as an overgrown bat. What do bats do? They retract their wings in front of them, hiding their bodies like this:

(Picture not mine obviously)

So this pulling of the robes in front of him fits exactly with canon.

I have fair belief that this habit—starting with how he felt the need to hide his mother’s clothes as a kid and blushing for the embarassment and the discomfort under the hot sun, starting with the physical assaults as he’s been bullied, starting from how people mocked his looks—has been completely inscribed into him since when he was sexually assaulted, stripped of his underwear in front of everyone, unable to hide himself with his robes. Well there he’s hiding his front constantly. He’s tugging at those robes, securing them before him all right. Maybe whenever he lets them go he feels somewhat exposed, naked? Maybe he needs to grip at something to ‘hang on’? I could say it’s used as to make him imposing and look big in the class, but again, guess why he’d do that?

This is terrible. You’d have to be blind, or really unconscious of how to spot victims of trauma, not to notice the signs. You might not be able to read Snape’s mind, but on the body, he’s an open book. Snape stands no chance in front of Muggles who know where to look and who interpret correctly. A single glance, maybe a single class where you see how he behaves, talks, moves and interacts with students, and you guess everything.

But this is not all:

the brow and mouth lines that indicate stress

the tight lips that indicates hostility, poor social interactions, bitterness

the sad/melancholic look, the mistrustful/condescending one, eyes narrowing -> refusal to communicate

the constant frown that wards off people because of its open hostility

the clothes that cover everything but his hands and face—here Rickman added the knuckle-long sleeves that hides you even more and gives you some sense of comfort and privacy (rape victims are said to use tons of long sweaters and to always wear pants, you sadly know why)

the high collar that hides the neck and back of the head pretty well—well it’s been replaced by the long sleeves in the films

the long curtains of hair that can easily hide a face, hide the nose, maybe when he’s embarassed as well

the constant use of black, but I can’t pinpoint the exact reasons yet

the joining of hands, crossing the fingers for the third sketch, that again indicates how he’s closed up, but also discomfort and is very near to mild self-harm (scratching between the fingers or the palms)

the stumble that can either be a reference to John Nettleship’s 5 o’clock shadow, or a clue to poor grooming and self-neglect

the sallow skin, the yellow teeth and the “yellow finger” that scream self-neglect and how he feels bad under his skin

how he seems to always tilt his head towards the ground, as though defiant but still submissive and feeling as a prey—people uncomfortable with others will look at their feet to close off

the dark circles under his eyes (yep, you spot them on all panels)

the canon gaunt look (poor eating habits) stressed by the pronounced cheekbones, more noticeable on this following early sketch, “Snape brooding on the unfairness of life” which is again a clue to constant negative and depressive mindset

(Notice the pronounced/bobbing Adam apple, also is that a giant table or just something to put a book to read in front of the class like I see on interviews for the press? And again, he’s crossing his arms in front of his chest)

All of those are signs that give a pretty fair insight as to who Snape is inside and how he feels, what he thinks. Obviously there are people who read body language better than me…

I’d like to add this: people with low self-esteem (prone to be targets of radicalization) often think people laugh at them on their back. But for Snape, those insults are real. They haven’t ever stopped. He can’t even fool himself when he can literally read the minds of his students and the people around him. I remember that my saving point to move past a Snape-like behavior, was the realization that people didn’t look at me to laugh on my back—I was normal and inconsequential, and I never felt such a wonderful mind-blown. Snape doesn’t even have this luxury, and I can’t imagine how he could get out of this destructive circle of negativity. No wonder he’s cruel and openly nasty; I often view them as either revenge or defensive tactics (defend yourself from perceived attacks or strike first because the best defense is attack and the person you’ve attacked now knows they mustn’t try funny things with you if they don’t want to get hurt, they better leave you alone). Heck, even his ugliness could have turned into a weapon to instill fear into potential threats. Snape knows how Death Eaters look pretty ugly and how that can intimidate people; students have no luck (‘ugliness ‘attacks’ the eye’).

Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it strikes that chord damn well. So much in fact, that I love this version of Snape very much.

Bonus

Snape has the habit to require people to use proper terms. For instance, he tells Harry Legilimency is not “mind-reading”; he tells Harry, in HBP, that ghosts aren’t just ‘transparent’ but are the lasting imprint of a departing soul (and Ron will burn him for that, the second time his class laughs at him, and they say Snape is a tyran under whom everybody cowers? He’s losing his grip)

Those are pretty suspicious for me. Where does that need for precision come from? this somewhat sense of perfectionnism? I don’t want to use improper terms right and left, but those are reasons Snape can’t fit in with people. People want to speak fast, they don’t care for details and full specifics in everyday life, and if you speak about ghosts or legilimency, then they’ll know what you’re talking about and they don’t care about the almost-scientific terms—as Ron says, you won’t ask the ghost you’ll see if they’re the imprint of a departing soul. Snape cares very much though. Imagine a kid fixating on a single ‘perfect’ definition, or a man having something akin to obsessive perfectionism… this need to use the exact proper terms, even in informal settings… you get what I mean? Honestly the first thing that comes to mind for this mechanism is autism. Maybe Asperger-like. But what could that precisely be otherwise?

[sendandburn]

what did snape do as a death eater? it's a little unclear. but i think it's likely he did not murder anyone. severus is against killing dumbledore. when dumbledore asks severus to prevent draco from damaging his (uncorrupted) soul, severus says “And my soul, Dumbledore? Mine?” which suggests that severus has not committed murder, even when he was a fully-fledged death eater. althought severus was clearly skilled in combat, this implied that he did not commit the same atrocities as other death eaters. personally, i think he mostly utilized his other talents (which other servants of voldemort did not posess), like (dark) spell creation and brewing. and, of course, intelligence gathering, which he did in both the first and second wars. second, this is kind of a sad moment for albus and severus's relationship. because dumbledore is working to maximize good: this plan will save (what's left of) draco's innocence while solidifying severus's standing with voldemort and preserving dumbledore's dignity. we get where dumble is coming from, but he implies that severus's soul is irredeemable. that his suffering is less significant. snape, who for years has been dumbledore's right hand (especially after dumble's own right hand got cursed lol), gets taken for granted. dumbledore has no ill intent here but he's not great at treating individuals as people–he prefers to analyze the big picture (and makes social blunders lol).

[sendandburn]

To the people who rebloged the analysis of Severus Snape as a teacher: the original post had a mistake caused by me not copying the letter T in three and not realizing it until later so i recomend correcting it on your tumblrs or deleting your reblog and reblogig the edited version.

Oh and to @SeverusSnaps who said they feel like they have seen this on quora... Its possible. Tbh i don't even remember what i was searching for when i stumbled upon that analysis but it was good and thus i decided to share it, but i wouldn't be surprised if someone on quora used the same or even similar arguments in defense of snape

[sendandburn]

An Analysis of the hogwarts teachers

This iwas included in the Analysis of Severus Snape as a teacher but i decided to put it in a separete post 'cause i feared it would be to long for Tumblr.

"Fake Moody  [a Death Eater, but a Death Eater who fooled everyone, meaning his behavior was not that OOC for real Moody, whom Dumbledore hired]:

Transfigures Draco and slams him repeatedly against the stone floor while Draco is squealing in pain

tortures spiders with Crucio in front of Neville, which causes him such distress Hermione interrupts the lesson. Then, he “comforts” Neville. Now picture how Neville must have felt when he found out it was one of his parents’ torturers. That had to be more traumatic than watching your toad not get poisoned

curses students in class - “The rest of the class was very eager to leave; Moody had given them such a rigorous test of hex-deflection that many of them were nursing small injuries.” (r/harrypotter)

Ok , we don't know if the REAL Moody was even good at transfiguration so he might not have used that to punish Draco and as for the unforgivables....maybe...i mean, the reason Barty gave to show them that was a good one but Moody knew of the backgrounds of Harry and Neville so i'd like to think that he wouldn't use the unfogivables that affected them most with them in class.

"Flitwick:

does nothing about Luna’s bullying

has Seamus repeatedly write "I am a wizard, not a baboon brandishing a stick". The Irish were once openly compared to apes in England in the past, so that’s in extremely poor taste

Lavender bursts into tears during Charms, Flitwick doesn’t notice"

(r/harrypotter)

Ok, so i can't in good conscience say anything to defend him against points 2 and 3 'cause, quite frankly, there's no excuse for that, in fact point 2 makes him no better than Snape when he called Hermione the M word and he dosen't even have the excuse of once being anti-irish and trying to change,like Snpe does.

as for point 1 however the Harry Potter Wiki clearly states that when heads of houses decided to live at Hogwarts, they most likely had private quarters NEAR their House's common room. " note that it says Near, not In and as Luna's bullying happened In the dorms & common rooms, Flitwick would have no way of knowing about it unless she reported it, wich she never did.

"Trelawney:

predicts a death every year and generally distresses students with her predictions

To Hermione: “I don’t remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane.”

takes her anger about Umbridge’s performance review out on students: throws a book at Dean and Seamus, and thrusts another one so hard into Neville’s chest that he falls. She then calls the entire class a bunch of idiots: “You know what to do! Or am I such a substandard teacher that you have never learned how to open a book?”

Points 2 and 3 make her no better than Snape who is also often criticized by snaters for insulting his students, wich is funny if you consider that we clearly estabilished that he is not the only one who does this. As for predicting people's deaths, i understand that it's a part of her character, just like is a part of Snape's character to be snarky, however i can't help but think that she is incredibly stupid for doing that as it not only, as said distresses the students, but makes the theory that she is a fraud seem much more belivable.

"Slughorn:

starts an elitist club to promote his favorites and doesn't even bother to learn Ron's name. This clearly affects Ron (Molly is still raw about Arthur being excluded from the Slug Club, years later)

Ron is poisoned and he just stands there

was Tom Riddle’s mentor and his influence on Tom is apparent in Tom trying to become a teacher to influence young minds, and testing poisons on house elves; he is openly prejudiced, though non-violent. Further, Slytherins were groomed into the DEs under his nose." (r/harrypotter)

Ok, i'm not even going to defend him cause i never liked him and there are honestly no good arguments to defend his actions in any of those instances. Honestly, i can agree that Snape is a bad teacher but at least he never picked favorites or did nothing when a student was endagered in front of him.

"Dumbledore:

silenced student Snape after Sirius tried to kill him, and did not expel Sirius

His attitude toward Harry in OOTP was emotionally abusive

recruited students into the original Order while they were still his students in the Marauders era, and continued to use children for his war against Voldemort."

Look, i get silecing Snape as he didn't whant to put Remus in danger but Sirius punishment was fairly light in face of what he did, though i will disagree that he actively TRIED to kill Snape as the same point that was made in the original post about Snape and Trevor can be made about Sirius, to semi quote "Sirius  is competent enough that if he’d wanted Severus dead, he would be. " i mean....He is the son of Walburga OFF WITH THAT ELF'S HEAD Black and grew up having acess to more dark artefacts and dark arts spells than Snape could ever dream of having, thus it would be as the host of screen rant says " super easy,barerely an inconvenience" for Sirius to kill Severus without being caught. However, it was still Involuntary manslaughter and thus " a Friday afternoon detention for the rest of the year, along with being banned from playing Quidditch for the rest of the school year." is not a suitable punishment

As for Dumbledore in OOTP, i get that he was afraid that Voldemort could read Harry's mind but that could be solved by simply writting a porpusfully vague letter like " Harry, I'm afraid Voldemort can read your mind, that's why I can't look at you and I can't share my plans with you. I need you to trust me, I have a plan and the best thing you can do to help is put all your efforts in learning Occlumency. I would teach you myself but that may allow Voldemort to see my plans, but I happen to know of another expert at Occlumency who may be of help. You might not like him but he is by far the best person for this job. Don't worry, i will talk him into curbing down his behavior so that he is more civilized with you during those lessons"

There Harry won't know for sure who his teacher is going to be (thus neither will Voldemort ) but at least he won't be compleatly in the dark.

Point 3 was always something that irked me about him, but i suppose i can't say much as age is also not a factor in the recruitment of death eaters, though it can be noted that while Voldemort did manipulate his potential recruits, he never lied to them about what he expected of them wich can't be said about Dumbledore.

"Hagrid:

gives Dudley a tail because Dudley’s father insulted Dumbledore. Dudley has to get surgery to remove it. He intended to transfigure him into a pig

gets the Trio involved in his illegal and dangerous dragon hatching scheme, which results in them being caught and punished and in Ron being gravely injured, for which he blames Ron

calls Draco an idiot

first sends Draco and Neville alone, after the unicorn killer, then sends Harry and Draco alone, despite seeing that Draco is trying to cause trouble

sends Harry and Ron into the forest to speak with Aragog

Draco gets injured in Hagrid’s lesson

His blast-ended skrewts lesson result in multiple injured students

threatens Draco with transfiguration again after Moody’s stunt

asks Harry and Hermione to secretly look after his incredibly dangerous brother

makes a fuss about the Trio dropping his subject and guilt-trips them about it" (r/harrypotter)

ok so lets go in order:

Point 1: IRL, it was clearly another demonstration of Jk Rowlling's fatphobia. In potterverse, it was clearly irresponsible and constitutes as a violation of the status of secrecy as, although the Dursley's know about magic, the staff of the hospital where Dudley goes to remove his tail do not.

Point 2: once again, Irresponsible, but in character for Hagrid who seemingly fails to see how something like a Dragon could hurt the students.

Point 3: and Yet another teacher who insults his students ladies and gentlemen.

Point 4: One of his worst offences on this list, Investigating the Unicorn deaths was HIS JOB!!!! Honestly, call Snape what you will but he never used detentions to send students to get dangerous potion ingredients for him or set any detentions past curfew. Hagrid should have them do something like clean the owlery instead.

Point 5: i get that he though Aragog wouldn't eat them, wich is in character for him as he always sees dangerous creatures as inoffensive but he didn't know for sure and could have just told them to research Tom Riddle's geneology wich would have been just as effective and way less dangerous.

Point 6: Ok let's get this out of the way first: YES, Draco is partly to blame for this injury as he insulted Buckbeak when Hagrid specifically told him not to! However, in any class there will always, and i mean ALWAYS be a student that, for whatever reason, fails to follow instructions so if Draco hadn't said a word, you can bet that another student who wasn't paying attention would have! thus the end results would still be the same, with the only difference being how much power the parent's of said student have at the ministry and if they decide to press charges or not. The risk was always there and that's what he gets for bringing a XXX beast to a third year class.

"Lupin

endangers everyone for an entire year by covering up for a mass-murderer just to look good, even after said murderer has infiltrated the castle twice, once attacking and traumatizing the Fat Lady and once pulling a knife on Ron

is negligent with his Wolfsbane - Snape has to nag him about it. This leads to him transforming in front of the Trio

Hermione doesn’t get a chance to fight the boggart, leading to her first less than perfect grade, which affects her confidence well into her 5th year. As the DADA OWL exam included banishing a boggart, this is presumably why she doesn’t get the O she deserves

Has no apparent issue with executing Peter in front of three children" (r/harrypotter)

Point 1: Ok,so i believe that his reason for not telling people about Sirius being a dog animagus wasn't to, as the post said, "Look Good" but to be loyal to his friends whom,being who they were,probably made a pact in their first year to not tell any figure of authority about their mischiefs, wich included becoming animagus. Was it a bad decision? Yes,as he should have put the safety of his students above anything else but i understand his reason. it dosen't excuse it though.

Point 2: while i can understand that, as anyone would forget it with all that was happening, i can't defend him for that one.

Point 3: "his teaching style was obviously not good for Hermione, who got an E in DADA because she couldn't defeat a boggart, because she didn't get the same chance as everyone to practice in Y3. She remained insecure about her DADA skills, for no good reason" (pet_genius on reddit) Honestly, the fact that he let any of his students leave without having defeated their boggarts is something that i think no one could defend and is worrisome that, if it weren't for the Patronus lessons, Harry might not have gotten the chance to defeat his either.

Point 3: Ok i need to remind you that: LUPIN IS A WEREWOLF WHO DIDN'T TAKE WOLFSBANE AT THE TIME AND IT WAS THE NIGHT OF THE FULL MOON! meaning, the freaking Wolf while not in control of his body, was very active inside his mind and it, being an animal, dosen't care about the emotional impact Peter's execution could have had on the children and with it being so close to the front of Remus' mind, it was very capable of clouding Remus' rationality and common sense, making him focus only on his anger.

"McGonagall:

forces Harry to become Seeker without asking him if he wants to, threatening him with punishment if he doesn’t practice hard (in the process, ignores Draco’s attempt to steal Neville’s Remembrall)

pulls 1st-year Draco by his ear in addition to assigning detention and docking 20 points, doesn’t give points back or apologize when it turns out he wasn’t lying

sends 1st years to the Forbidden Forest to find a unicorn-slaying horror, in addition to docking the trio 150 points, thus making them a target for hatred, for breaking curfew

Doesn't notice 1st-year Ginny’s obvious distress

Allows Ron to study with a broken wand

catches Harry and Ron wandering the hallways alone, at a time when teachers escort students everywhere, and lets them get away with it because Harry lies that they’re going to see Hermione in the hospital wing; does not escort them there

Locks Nev out of the common room with a mass murderer on the loose for having his passwords stolen, a humiliating and dangerous punishment for something that's not Neville's fault, in addition to a ban from Hogsmeade visits and detention.

Lets Harry practice Quidditch outdoors in POA despite the danger he is in, because, as she explicitly says, she wants the Quidditch Cup

reacts to “Moody” torturing Draco by ordering Moody to take Draco to Snape to be punished some more, and doesn't check on him

humiliates Neville because she doesn’t want to look bad in front of the foreign delegations

punishes Harry for losing his temper with Umbridge, proceeds to do the same thing in front of him

admits she treated Peter poorly because he wasn't as talented as his friends

The worst two sets of troublemakers in school history were her charges and she failed to control them." (r/harrypotter)

Point 1: “threaten” changes the entire context. She says she “may change her mind about punishing him” but it’s not made to sound very serious, especially since she smiles immediately after that. " (Fae_Faye) That said, while, as Fae_Faye said, she might have allowed him to give up Quidditch after trying out should he want to, it wouldn't be Oc for her to pull a Voldemort emphasizing the fun and glory that Quidditch can bring more than the dangers it can cause,suibitably manipulating harry into trying out should he decide that he dosen't want to play or wants to wait for y2. Yes, she would respect his opinion should he make his denial clear but she would still try.

Point 2: "Pulling somebody by the ear is a common way for adults to punish children but the fact that physical abuse is extremely common does not make it right. Would you find it acceptable if your employer dragged you around by the ear if you spent too much time on break? No? Why not? Why would that be cause for a lawsuit, but not an adult doing it to a (physically much weaker) child in their care?

At worst, the child will actually come to believe that he deserves being psychically abused if he's done something wrong, which, later in life, will turn them into an adult who accepts domestic violence. (

At worst, the child will actually come to believe that he deserves being psychically abused if he's done something wrong, which, later in life, will turn them into an adult who accepts domestic violence. (Fae_Faye and to a lesser extent Vrajitoarea) Sure, she took more points of the trio than of Draco, but as his only misdeed was being out of the Snake's lair past curfew, a simple detention would have suficed.

Point 3: "There’s no evidence that McGonagall knew what the students were going to do for detention. It’s possible Hagrid asked for them without telling her why but the fact that she accepted to send three 11 y.o. to Hagrid, at 11 o'clock at night, without even asking what he would be doing with them? That's... somehow even worse.

Besides, Filch was the one McGonagall assigned to take them to Hagrid, and Filch knew what they'd be doing. Do you think Hagrid told Filch, whom he couldn't stand, but not McGonagall? And Filch didn't tell her either, for whatever reason?

About the point deduction –Harry and Hermione not only got into trouble themselves, but also put Neville and Draco into trouble as well, and already Harry and Draco have been troublemakers (having fights at the Hall over the Remembrall, breaking the rule about flying, and maybe some more- I can’t remember right now), so she was probably trying to discourage them from doing such a thing ever again by giving such a harsh punishment, especially since the school just recently had an issue with a troll on the loose and attacking students. In any case, Neville also had 50 points deducted, and Harry, Hermione, and Neville all became the target of bullying because of it. It doesn't matter what they did, putting a target on three 11 y.o. children's backs is wrong in itself. That it happened just for breaking curfew, and in addition to the detention in the FF, just makes it worse. (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea, semiquoted 'cause Vrajitoarea assumed Ron was involved)

Point 4: "Heads of Houses (i.e. real-life Housemasters) are parental stand-ins, and they're supposed to watch out exactly for this kind of situation. Ginny was visibly unwell, and Percy noticed, but couldn't force her to talk about it. Ron was a 12 y.o. child, he had no responsibility.But, anyway most people at that time were distressed with the opening of the Chamber, even the teachers. Which isn't an excuse. Checking up on 11 y.o. children who have just been separated from their families, for the first time in their lives, is the Head of House's job. After a superficial inquiry, it would have become clear that Ginny was having serious issues, which should have prompted further investigation." (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea)

Point 5: None of his teachers did anything about it. And Ron himself makes the decision not to get one because he doesn't want to suffer a howler: "Write home for another one," Harry suggested as the wand let off a volley of bangs like a firecracker. "Oh, yeah, and get another Howler back," said Ron, stuffing the now hissing wand into his bag. " `It's your own fault your wand got snapped-'" (Fae_Faye)

Point 6: McGonagall has no way of knowing that they’re lying; all she knows is that three thick friends have had one of their own petrified and so are desperate to see their friend. This scene showcases her empathy and kindness despite usually coming off as a disciplinarian. Also, the Hospital Wing is on the first floor and at the time McGonagall catches them, Harry and Ron were on the second – I don’t think it reflects that badly on her that she allowed them to go unescorted just one flight of stairs down, especially since she was rather too emotional at that time to think rationally (when Harry and Ron leave, McGonagall is tearing up and blowing her nose).(Fae_Faye)

Point 7: All McGonagall knows is that a boy habitually known for forgetting and misplacing things wrote down every password of the Gryffindor Common Room in the last week and then lost it while a mass murderer was on the loose and trying to get into the Gryffindor Common Room. Neville endangered every Gryffindor classmate of his by losing that parchment, and could have been the cause for all their deaths if Sirius had turned out to be the psychotic mass murderer he was painted as (especially since at that time, Ron was screaming about Sirius standing over him holding a knife). Sure, there were security trolls there to protect him ( “Poor Neville was forced to wait outside the common room every night for somebody to let him in, while the security trolls leered unpleasantly at him.” ) But, setting aside the sheer mental and emotional trauma Neville was experiencing by being forced to wait outside, fearing for his life, and to humiliate himself in front of his classmates by begging to be let inside his own "home"... Sirius Black was believed to be an extremely skilled killer, who walking around the castle without being seen. The trolls were not even a small guarantee that Sirius couldn't endanger Neville.

All this, for Neville supposedly having lost something (so, not a voluntary action, but the consequence of him being naturally forgetful, and of the fact that Cadogan was inventing harder and harder punishments, to the point that other students complained).

And Neville is an extremely sensitive child, so a punishment that would have been terrible for anyone, would be excruciating for him. McGonagall, as his Head of House, should know that. It's also extremely poor pedagogy - by having him there, it's a constant reminder to everyone else that he supposedly endangered their lives, which would prompt bullying." (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea)

Point 8: "Bad news, Harry. I've just been to see Professor McGonagall about the Firebolt. She -- er -- got a bit shirty with me. Told m' I'd got my priorities wrong. Seemed to think I cared more about winning the Cup than I do about you staying alive. Just because I told her I didn't care if it threw you off, as long as you caught the Snitch first." Wood shook his head in disbelief. "Honestly, the way she was yelling at me... you'd think I'd said something terrible... then I asked her how much longer she was going to keep it. He screwed up his face and imitated Professor McGonagall's severe voice. 'As long as necessary, Wood'..."*When it comes down to it, she clearly cares for Harry’s safety more than winning the Cup. I also doubt that Harry would have been in any danger out on the Quidditch field, since it’s part of the school, a wide open space and shooting spells at a person flying in the air would be almost impossible" (Fae_Faye)... so yeah that point is null and void but it is the only póint so far that is null and void.

Point 9: " I must say I don’t like how you word some of your points. McGonagall didn’t “order” Moody; she told him there were alternatives to transfiguring a student as punishment, which includes seeing their Head of House - and Moody immediately says he’ll do that.McGonagall’s reaction to “Moody torturing Draco” is thus: she "shrieks", drops her books, untransfigures Draco and then she scolds Moody "weakly". It’s made clear that she’s extremely stunned by what happened, still ,she didn't even bother to ask the Draco, who was visibly in pain, if he was OK, instead letting him be dragged away by his torturer, who was still threatening him." (Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea)

Yes,his fall would probably not be considered serious but it dosen't change the fact that she should have asked about his wellbeing regardless of that: a scraped knee is not serious but it can still be painfull.

"In case of injury, you don't send the injured person to the "proper authorities", who will then send them to the hospital. Internal bleeding and ruptures are a thing.

About the pain, Draco might be slightly hurt by the ten-feet fall, but I doubt it's any more serious than a kid scraping their knee on the floor.

... repeatedly smashing someone into the floor isn't any more serious than a kid scraping their knee? Never mind the emotional trauma.

“I don’t think so!” roared Moody, pointing his wand at the ferret again—it flew ten feet into the air, fell with a smack to the floor, and then bounced upward once more. “I don’t like people who attack when their opponent’s back’s turned,” growled Moody as the ferret bounced higher and higher, squealing in pain. “Stinking, cowardly, scummy thing to do…” The ferret flew through the air, its legs and tail flailing helplessly. “Never—do—that—again—” said Moody, speaking each word as the ferret hit the stone floor and bounced upward again. [...] “Hello, Professor McGonagall,” said Moody calmly, bouncing the ferret still higher. [...] Draco Malfoy had reappeared, lying in a heap on the floor with his sleek blond hair all over his now brilliantly pink face. He got to his feet, wincing. [...] Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation, [weeks later] The Gryffindors roared with laughter. Malfoy flushed with anger, but apparently the memory of Moody’s punishment was still sufficiently painful to stop him from retorting.

It's made very clear that the experience was a truly traumatising one. (Vrajitoarea)

Point 10: "She scolds Neville for not being able to do a spell properly, and does so by mentioning the delegates. Neville has a history of endangering the class by melting his cauldrons (see PS, where the students have to climb on tables); Neville was supposed to have studied that particular potion over the summer; living in a magical household, he could have even practised brewing it (unlike a Muggle-born); Snape had also given them exact instructions as they were brewing; Snape is clearly frustrated with Neville's seeming intentional incompetence, and wants to make him learn - which is why he tells Neville he'll have to use the potion on Trevor - he tries to scare Neville into paying attention, because he thinks Neville can get better (not a good tactic for someone like Neville).

McGonagall, on the other hand, may belive in Neville ( as can be seen from the quote: You cannot pass an O.W.L.,” said Professor McGonagall grimly, “without serious application, practice, and study. I see no reason why everybody in this class should not achieve an O.W.L. in Transfiguration as long as they put in the work.” Neville made a sad little disbelieving noise. “Yes, you too, Longbottom,” said Professor McGonagall. “There’s nothing wrong with your work except lack of confidence." ) however, she never explains to him what he's doing wrong .

It's also mentioned that the only time she says something positive to Neville is in HBP, and then it's only because he was willing to die for Harry at the Ministry... which was actually the sort of reckless gesture that a teacher should not have been encouraging. If they had all stayed put, Sirius would have lived.

And, again, she was his Head of House - she was supposed to nurture him, help him gain self-confidence, not further undermine it.

She was often sharp with him, as she is with everybody. McGonagall holds all her students to high standards because she believes in them, and Peter probably didn’t meet those expectations often

(Fae_Faye and Vrajitoarea) Fae_Faye said and i agree that Minerva appears to not care what others think of her, but she knows that Neville does so her mentioning the delegates might have been done because she donse't want HIM to look bad in front of the foreign delegations.

Point 11: " There’s a difference. Harry is a student who can easily be punished by his professor for cheek and he is, after all, the person that the Ministry is trying to discredit as hard as they can. Though McGonagall’s job can be on the line, punishing her is a lot more difficult than with Harry, considering her stellar record of service in Hogwarts (thirty-nine years, wow). Their situations are nowhere near the same.

Point 12: "that is not what she said. Let’s see that quote, shall we? "Hero-worshipped Black and Potter,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘Never quite in their league, talent-wise. I was often rather sharp with him. You can imagine how I – how I regret that now …’ She sounded as though she had a sudden head cold. ' She was often sharp with him, as she is with everybody. McGonagall holds all her students to high standards because she believes in them, and Peter probably didn’t meet those expectations often, , along with him being a troublemaker as part of the Marauders. She regrets her sharpness, as most people tend to regret their actions regarding a dead person, even if they were right in those actions." (Fae_Faye) and here we have the second null and void point.

Point 13: "She constantly tries. It’s not her fault that they are completely unwillingly to change and, no you can't use Lily's morals to imply James's. It's the sort of reasoning used to dismiss domestic abuse, for example - X can't possibly abuse Y, because Y is a good person who wouldn't stick with them/wouldn't tolerate a bad person.

Plenty of decent people are partnered with terrible ones.

Besides, in Y5, Lily downplayed James's actions, and even "almost smiled" at him tormenting Snape. JKR had also said she was already attracted to James, even while he was being the school bully. She wasn't a saint Sure, Plenty of people seemingly have a good relationship and marriage.

The Marauders, i.e. James's friends and accomplices, tell Harry, who is highly distressed, that his father's head "deflated a bit." Then admit that James lied to Lily (why would he, if he wasn't at fault), and continued hexing Snape behind her back (the idea that Snape was the initiator falls flat on its face, when Sirius admits James was the one to decide when the hexing would occur; similarly, if James had grown as a person, he could have just used the Map to avoid Snape).

James' maturity is, as far as I know, collaborated by every person who knew the two, except Snape, who is biased to hating James

It's not. Only Lupin and Sirius say James got better, and Sirius is the only person, throughout the books, to call James "a good person." Seriously.

Hadn’t people like Hagrid and Sirius told Harry how wonderful his father had been? (Yeah, well, look what Sirius was like himself, said a nagging voice inside Harry’s head… he was as bad, wasn’t he?)

Hagrid only says, to James's orphan son, that James was brave. Which he was, of course. The best that McGonagall has to say about James, while looking back through rose-tinted glasses, is that James was brilliant… and the leader of a gang.

“He is his father over again—”

“In looks, perhaps, but his deepest nature is much more like his mother’s.

Considering Dumbledore usually reflects the authorial voice, there you go.

As for James's behaviour post-Hogwarts, JKR wrote two short stories that portray James as reckless, arrogant, mocking of Muggles, and responsible for the collapse of Lily's relationship with Petunia. Which I honestly find weird, considering she clearly intended for James to have become decent, yet never got around to actually writing it.

In any case, "toning down the bullying and the sexual assaulting" != "becoming a good person."

I don't blame McGonagall for the Marauders' behaviour itself, just for the complete lack of consequences. I find it hard to believe she didn't know about t.On the other hand, Draco was Snape’s student but he never managed to make him a better person bu that's because Draco was the subject of heavy indoctrination, and Snape had the mission of pretending he agreed with said indoctrination. Draco actually acts behind Snape's back a lot, like in PoA, when he's taunting the Trio behind Snape's back, while pretending to be very injured in front of him."

Holly shit that was long! and looking back i find it interesting that Pomona and Aurora Sinistra were the only one's not criticized by the original post (not couinting  Septima Vector and Bathsheda Babbling who we don't see teaching cause the books were written in Harry's perspective and he never took their subjects), perhaps because they were the one's that actually deseve the title of best teacher at Hogwarts.

[sendandburn]

An analysis of Severus Snape as a teacher

"Three things always come up in the context of Snape’s abusiveness. One of them is not something Snape does but a reaction to him.

1. Threatened to Poison Neville’s Toad

This is one of two direct interactions between Snape and Neville in the books. Since it merits real-time narration, it must stand out: Snape is at his worst at this moment.

A particularly nasty mood is understandable:

“have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning — they reckon Sirius Black’s been sighted.” “Where?” [...] “Not too far from here,” said Seamus.

Snape believes that Black betrayed the Potters and wants to go after Harry. Black also nearly murdered Snape in their fifth year, so Snape has reason to be on edge.

His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned — “Orange, Longbottom,” said Snape, ladling some up and allowing it to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see [Harry assumes]. “Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn’t you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn’t I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?” Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears. “Please, sir,” said Hermione, “please, I could help Neville put it right —” “I don’t remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger,” said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. “Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly.”

Not great. Snape is not a suitable teacher for an introductory class, or for insecure children like Neville, but abusive, this is not. The fact that Neville brought Trevor to class shows that Neville never expected to be very severely sanctioned for doing that or for Trevor to come to any harm, before that lesson. Snape is at the end of his rope with Neville and wants him to take the lesson seriously. He states his motives plainly - to get Neville to understand.

Did he mean harm to Trevor? Snape is competent enough that if he’d wanted that toad dead, it would be. In any case, the potion turned out alright, and Snape knew it - he can tell from the way the potion looks. Snape also has a bottle of the antidote in his other pocket:

Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville’s potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor’s throat. There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape’s palm. The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

Is he sour because he hoped to kill Trevor? Why give it the antidote, thus saving it? Maybe��he is sour for the reason he says he is:

“I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed.”

This is also why he docks five points, not because Neville got it right. This was a misguided attempt to teach. Nothing was ever going to happen to Trevor.

[Sidenote: Animal cruelty is commonplace at Hogwarts. sentient or semi-sentient animals are experimented on regularly in Transfig. They even vanish cats. Even the herbology plants seem able to feel pain, but 2nd year students are expected to chop up humanoid mandrakes. Flitwick demonstrates levitation on Trevor, and Harry practices Accio on him.] " (

hree things always come up in the context of Snape’s abusiveness. One of them is not something Snape does but a reaction to him.

1. Threatened to Poison Neville’s Toad

This is one of two direct interactions between Snape and Neville in the books. Since it merits real-time narration, it must stand out: Snape is at his worst at this moment.

A particularly nasty mood is understandable:

“have you heard? Daily Prophet this morning — they reckon Sirius Black’s been sighted.” “Where?” [...] “Not too far from here,” said Seamus.

Snape believes that Black betrayed the Potters and wants to go after Harry. Black also nearly murdered Snape in their fifth year, so Snape has reason to be on edge.

His potion, which was supposed to be a bright, acid green, had turned — “Orange, Longbottom,” said Snape, ladling some up and allowing it to splash back into the cauldron, so that everyone could see [Harry assumes]. “Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn’t you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one rat spleen was needed? Didn’t I state plainly that a dash of leech juice would suffice? What do I have to do to make you understand, Longbottom?” Neville was pink and trembling. He looked as though he was on the verge of tears. “Please, sir,” said Hermione, “please, I could help Neville put it right —” “I don’t remember asking you to show off, Miss Granger,” said Snape coldly, and Hermione went as pink as Neville. “Longbottom, at the end of this lesson we will feed a few drops of this potion to your toad and see what happens. Perhaps that will encourage you to do it properly.”

Not great. Snape is not a suitable teacher for an introductory class, or for insecure children like Neville, but abusive, this is not. The fact that Neville brought Trevor to class shows that Neville never expected to be very severely sanctioned for doing that or for Trevor to come to any harm, before that lesson. Snape is at the end of his rope with Neville and wants him to take the lesson seriously. He states his motives plainly - to get Neville to understand.

Did he mean harm to Trevor? Snape is competent enough that if he’d wanted that toad dead, it would be. In any case, the potion turned out alright, and Snape knew it - he can tell from the way the potion looks. Snape also has a bottle of the antidote in his other pocket:

Snape picked up Trevor the toad in his left hand and dipped a small spoon into Neville’s potion, which was now green. He trickled a few drops down Trevor’s throat. There was a moment of hushed silence, in which Trevor gulped; then there was a small pop, and Trevor the tadpole was wriggling in Snape’s palm. The Gryffindors burst into applause. Snape, looking sour, pulled a small bottle from the pocket of his robe, poured a few drops on top of Trevor, and he reappeared suddenly, fully grown.

Is he sour because he hoped to kill Trevor? Why give it the antidote, thus saving it? Maybe he is sour for the reason he says he is:

“I told you not to help him, Miss Granger. Class dismissed.”

This is also why he docks five points, not because Neville got it right. This was a misguided attempt to teach. Nothing was ever going to happen to Trevor.

[Sidenote: Animal cruelty is commonplace at Hogwarts. sentient or semi-sentient animals are experimented on regularly in Transfig. They even vanish cats. Even the herbology plants seem able to feel pain, but 2nd year students are expected to chop up humanoid mandrakes. Flitwick demonstrates levitation on Trevor, and Harry practices Accio on him.]

Let's be clear here: putting the wrong number of spleens into a potion suggests someone who either doesn't consider the instructions to be important, or simply doesn't care.

Something else to consider is just how dangerous someone like Neville is to the class. In university, one of the requirements for my degree was Organic Chemistry, which contained a large lab portion to it. Organic Chemistry, for those who don't know, is chemistry that focuses on carbon-containing compounds, which includes things like oils and chloroform. To put it mildly, it's dangerous. Many of the compounds used are either explosive, or are placed in potentially explosive situations. Many of the chemicals are directly dangerous all on their own, too.

Rules in that lab were particularly strict, they have to be, because one wrong move could end disastrously. Case in point, one of the experiments involved a type of round bottom flask which were needed to heat a set of chemicals in. Critically, the pressure had to be relieved from the flask. The instructor told us what happened in a prior class when someone had failed to do so: it exploded, and everyone in the lab was lucky none of the glass had cut anyone. That particular person was ejected from the lab for it, and with good reason.

Potion class seems just as dangerous at the end of the day, perhaps more so since unlike chemistry where adding different amounts of ingredients is more likely to cause the reaction to fail, people like Neville appear to be able to produce something, it's just something that's likely to be toxic or have completely unexpected effects. We know from the books that producing an antidote to a blended toxin is a complicated, almost quantum endeavour, I shudder to think what you need to do to properly reverse or mitigate the effects of a poorly blended potion are.

Similarly, Snape isn't being cruel when he docks points for Hermione's successful recovery of Neville's toxic potion, because in actuality what we see here is an academic offense; Neville is essentially presenting someone else's work as his own." (reddit)

Plus, bringing a pet to class always causes problems,specially if it is to the wixen equivalent of a chemistry class.

Granted his bad mood does not in any way excuse or justify his actions towards neville but it does help explain them.

2. Neville’s Boggart

"True, his boggart is Snape.

This does not mean that Snape is truly scary. (assuming Snape is scary because Neville fears him because he is scary is circular reasoning). His fear of Snape is not overwhelming or traumatizing. Neville’s fear is on par with Ron’s fear of spiders (which itself was caused by the twins, who are much scarier), Dean’s fear of hands, etc.

If Snape had been abusive, other students would not have found this funny, and Neville would not have smiled. If the fear had been overwhelming, Neville would not have defeated the boggart on his first try.

Neville looked around rather wildly, as though begging someone to help him, then said, in barely more than a whisper, “Professor Snape.” Nearly everyone laughed. Even Neville grinned apologetically. Professor Lupin, however, looked thoughtful. “Professor Snape... hmmm… Neville, I believe you live with your grandmother?” “Er — yes,” said Neville nervously. “But — I don’t want the boggart to turn into her either.”

Neville seems more scared of admitting he fears Snape than of Snape. He does not want to confront his grandmother either, probably because, like Snape, she makes him feel inadequate, which is what really scares him. But she should have loved Neville unconditionally and not compared him to his parents, and Snape is his teacher, whose job it is to let him know when he is doing poorly.

Neville defeats his Snape boggart on his first attempt because it’s a trivial fear. Molly, an adult witch and the bad-ass who killed Bellatrix, fails to beat her boggart, in OOTP, because there’s nothing trivial about her fear of losing her husband or her children.

Snape is listed among the meaningless boggarts the kids defeated with ease:

“Did you see me take that banshee?” shouted Seamus. “And the hand!” said Dean, waving his own around. “And Snape in that hat!” “And my mummy!”

This is the textbook definition of a boggart:

Hermione put up her hand. “It’s a shape-shifter,” she said. “It can take the shape of whatever it thinks will frighten us most.” “Couldn’t have put it better myself,” said Professor Lupin.

The boggart is whatever’s on your mind, not your true deepest, darkest fear (unless Ron is a monster for fearing spiders when just last year, he nearly lost Ginny). POA already introduces a creature that actually makes you relive your worst moments - Dementors. Introducing two creatures that do essentially the same thing is redundant. Snape’s on Neville’s mind because this lesson immediately follows the toad scene.

If that does not convince you: Hermione’s boggart is McGonagall (but actually, failure).

An out-of-universe explanation for Neville’s fear of Snape is that his parents’ story, just like the Cruciatus curse, did not exist at the time of writing the boggart scene. You’d think Draco would tease Neville about it, if it had existed by POA.

This passage is from GOF, after the lesson about unforgivables, in which Neville was clearly thinking about his parents:

“What was that?” said Seamus Finnigan, staring at the egg as Harry slammed it shut again. “Sounded like a banshee... Maybe you’ve got to get past one of those next, Harry!” “It was someone being tortured!” said Neville, who had gone very white and spilled sausage rolls all over the floor. “You’re going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!”

This scene shows that Harry is unlike the rest of his classmates because his fears are real and serious. It provides comic relief, because the big meanie is in drag. It’s the beginning of Neville’s arc from someone who fears Snape in Y3 to someone who leads the DA in Y7 and fears nothing. It hints at the Snape-Marauders relationship. It’s used to make Snape’s behavior in the werewolf lesson seem petty and vindictive, to obfuscate the fact that it actually takes place right after Sirius infiltrates the castle for the first time, which is what’s actually bothering him.

In conclusion, the boggart says nothing about Snape, only about Neville.

3. I see no difference

In context:

“And what is all this noise about?” said a soft, deadly voice. Snape had arrived. The Slytherins clamored to give their explanations; Snape pointed a long yellow finger at Malfoy and said, “Explain.” “Potter attacked me, sir —” “We attacked each other at the same time!” Harry shouted. “— and he hit Goyle — look —” Snape examined Goyle, whose face now resembled something that would have been at home in a book on poisonous fungi. “Hospital wing, Goyle,” Snape said calmly. “Malfoy got Hermione!” Ron said. “Look!” He forced Hermione to show Snape her teeth — she was doing her best to hide them with her hands, though this was difficult as they had now grown down past her collar. Pansy Parkinson and the other Slytherin girls were doubled up with silent giggles, pointing at Hermione from behind Snape’s back. Snape looked coldly [as opposed to his usual smirk/smile, when he enjoys whatever he’s saying. Also, what’s the difference between being “calm” and being “cold”? Harry is awful at reading people, and at reading Snape in particular] at Hermione, then said, “I see no difference.” Hermione let out a whimper; her eyes filled with tears.

Snape is demanding an explanation from Malfoy, not the trio. Harry admits that both of them attacked each other. You’d think Snape will never miss an opportunity to punish Harry, who attacked his favorite, right? Wrong. He sends Goyle to the hospital wing calmly, despite Goyle being in pretty bad shape. Ron seems to expect Snape to be helpful, otherwise, why does he direct his attention to Hermione? The Slytherin girls hide their giggling from Snape, as if expecting him to discipline them if he sees them. But he simply says he sees no difference. Why is he acting this way, so out of character? Because at this point, in GOF, the Dark Mark is already growing darker and Voldemort is coming back. Snape will soon have to resume his spying role. He cannot act like he otherwise would have, which is to punish everyone, including the Death Eaters’ children - he is downplaying the whole thing to avoid punishing anyone.

Did he absolutely have to mock Hermione? No. Does he ever do that in any other context? No. It was an easy way to demonstrate his hatred of Harry and supposed disdain for his Muggle-born friend, when he needed to reinforce that image of himself.

Some resentment is understandable: Hermione had set Snape on fire, stolen from him, and slammed him against a wall, knocking him unconscious. That she gets away with a mean-spirited comment indicates that he doesn’t hate her.

He wasn’t even necessarily thinking of her teeth. He might have meant “ISND between what Malfoy did to you, and what Potter did to Goyle”, “ISND between what I told Goyle to do, and what you should do”. We know he can insult her outright when he wants to, and nothing stopped JKR from writing “your teeth look the same as yesterday.”

Maybe he was thinking about how, just a few chapters previously, McGonagall had watched Moody torture Draco, and instead of asking Draco how he was feeling (redundant question, since he was visibly in pain, but it would have been her duty nonetheless), and sending him to the Hospital Wing, she had allowed Moody to drag him away for more punishment, meaning it was she who had set the precedent that students in obvious distress can be dismissed.

She gets over this comment instantly. She even defends Snape later in the same book, and up until he kills Dumbledore.

Snape is definitely an asshole. Here are other bad things he does:

The first Potions lesson: calls Neville an idiot and then accuses Harry of not helping Neville because he wanted to look good. Absurd.

“Longbottom causes devastation with the simplest spells. We’ll be sending what’s left of Finch-Fletchley up to the hospital wing in a matchbox.” Hilarious, but ouch!

Calls Hermione an insufferable-know-it-all (which she was), following several more civilized attempts to shut her up.

Reading the article about Harry in front of everyone, when the Trio is discussing it in class instead of working, then separating them, ordering Harry to sit next to him, and taking the opportunity to taunt him, culminating in calling Harry a “nasty little boy” and threatening to use Veritaserum on him. This is clearly an empty threat, or Snape would have simply slipped him some without warning him, like Umbridge (not that the legilimens needed to).

Doesn’t punish the Slytherin who hexed Alicia Spinnet before the big Quidditch game (McG before that: “I’ve become accustomed to seeing the Quidditch Cup in my study, boys, and I really don’t want to have to hand it over to Professor Snape, so use the extra time [from the lack of homework] to practice, won’t you?”

In the first occlumency lesson, calls Harry a lamentable potions maker (irrelevant and uncalled for), as well as implicitly calling him stupid: “The mind is a complex and many-layered thing, Potter… or at least, most minds are.” Why should Harry know how legilimency works? He’s never heard of it. Even that can be explained away, though: Voldemort might be spying on the lesson through Harry’s eyes.

When escorting Harry from the train to the school in HBP, he calls Tonk’s Patronus weak, and needles Harry. He accuses Harry of only wanting attention: “I suppose you wanted to make an entrance, did you?” Then he says this: “No cloak. You can walk in so that everyone sees you, which is what you wanted, I’m sure.” Make up your mind, Snape.

When Harry says ghosts are transparent: “Yes, it is easy to see that nearly six years of magical education have not been wasted on you, Potter.” When Ron points out that this is the most useful way to tell ghosts and inferi apart, because inferi are solid, he says this: “I would expect nothing more sophisticated from you, Ronald Weasley, the boy so solid he cannot Apparate half an inch across a room.” Possible explanation: Harry and Ron were publicly discussing Snape’s and Fletcher’s involvement in the Order, so shutting them up was imperative.

That’s 9 things, so with the toad scene and ISND, that’s 11 bad things Snape does to students, in 6 years. Snape is the teacher we spend the most time with, so we get a large enough sample to have an accurate impression of him. All of his transgressions are insults of varying severity, and that’s it.

He’s rude to everyone, not just his inferiors: Tonks and Sirius, fellow Order members, Bellatrix, a “fellow” Death Eater, and even Dumbledore, his superior in every way. Yes, he should have been gentler with students. He is harsh, unkind, strict, impatient, and overbearing, but not bullying or abusive.

His treatment of Harry is truly unfair. He projects the trauma James had caused him onto Harry, which is completely undeserved (but he also protects Harry out of guilt and love for Lily, which is also, strictly speaking, undeserved). Snape doesn’t see Harry for who he is, but even that is not as superficial as it seems, and it’s not entirely the result of Snape’s “immaturity” (i.e., long-term trauma).

PS: When they first make eye-contact, both of them are set on the wrong path because of Quirrell. Harry feels a pain when Snape is looking at him, pulls a face, and continues to stare at Snape. The legilimens might be sensing Voldemort in him. Harry then sasses at him in the very first lesson, and nearly knocks him off his broom.

COS: Harry arrives at school by flying car, launches a seemingly random attack on Slytherins, the appears to be encouraging the snake to attack Justin.

POA: Harry displays recklessness truly worthy of his father, sneaking off to Hogsmeade, throwing snowballs at Malfoy, lying about it

GOF: Harry becomes the center of attention. Snape resents this, as do Ron and Sprout. Twice, the legilimens is looking into Harry’s eyes while Harry is fantasizing about hurting him.

OOTP: Harry violates Snape’s privacy and endangers him, Snape does not know that Harry regrets the whole thing. He also catches Harry at this:

“What are you doing, Potter?” said Snape coldly as ever, as he strode over to the four of them. “I’m trying to decide what curse to use on Malfoy, sir,” said Harry fiercely. Snape stared at him.

This must have been flashback-inducing. What we see as fiercely, Snape sees as vicious.

6. HBP: Harry hexes people at random, including Filch, and worst of all, Snape catches Harry casting Sectumsempra on Draco.

Snape has a disincentive to try with Harry: He knows he will return to Voldemort as a spy. The cover story is, “I thought Voldemort was finished, and that Harry did it.” Becoming buds with Harry would have been inexplicable; becoming buds with Harry and then NOT using that to deliver Harry to Voldemort (i.e., what BCJ has done) - unforgivable. Snape relied heavily on half-truths and misdirection but there was one thing he could be honest with Voldemort about: He hates Harry with a passion. That, ironically, helped him protect Harry.

FWIW, I believe the memory of Snape ranting about Harry, and Dumbledore dismissing Snape and telling him he’s wrong, is included as an apology.

Snape’s three biggest victims are Harry, who names a child after him; Hermione, who doesn’t mind him and even likes him; and Neville, who clearly got over it with ease.

Dumbledore will never fire Snape. He has a free pass to be as cruel as he wants, because he has a cover to keep. Other than the DADA teachers and Hagrid, he is the least experienced, and he is the youngest by far except for, briefly, Lockhard and Lupin. Hogwarts is a site of lifelong trauma for him. Since he is so young, some of his students probably saw or heard about him being publicly humiliated. It also meant that he was initially barely older than some of the students' siblings, so he had to cultivate a very strict persona to control his classroom.

Hence, if you find judging teachers’ conduct in a children’s book a worthwhile pursuit (I don’t think it is, but here we are), Snape should be judged less harshly, not more harshly.

He has no incentive to dial down his cruelty and a wealth of excuses for being cruel, so the cruelty we see in him is the worst he could do, despite being under extreme stress. Yet it is limited to sarcastic remarks, docked points, and mild detentions.

He never lays a hand or a wand on a student, except when pulling Harry out of the Pensieve and then blowing up a jar over his head. Pulling him out was obviously justified - Harry not only violated his privacy and humiliated him, he also risked showing Voldemort classified memories. I believe that if he had wanted the jar to hit Harry, it would have, and he missed on purpose. He never takes advantage of his position over students or his relationship with them, and his punishments are never dangerous.

But he is biased, right?

Not as biased as people think. He has issues with the Trio+Neville, but not other Gryffs, or with students in other houses. He assigns zero house points, including to Slytherins, and his deductions are rarely substantial. He does not bend the rules to get a 1st year student on the Quidditch team, and he does not give 170 last minute points.

Unlike points, grades do matter, and he grades fairly:

According to Lucius in COS, Hermione beat Draco in every test, including potions:

“I would have thought you’d be ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat you in every exam,” snapped Mr. Malfoy.

Harry expects Snape to grade him fairly, when he tries:

Determined not to give Snape an excuse to fail him this lesson, Harry read and reread every line of instructions on the blackboard at least three times before acting on them.

Harry does fail. This is the Strengthening Solution they work on over two lessons. In the second lesson, Harry isn’t paying attention because he is too busy listening in on Umbridge’s interrogation.

Except the bit where Harry's vial breaks, there is no evidence that he grades unfairly. This was petty, but Hermione is the one who vanished the rest of the potion and prevented him from being able to turn in a second sample.

At the end of the lesson he scooped some of the potion into a flask, corked it, and took it up to Snape’s desk for marking, feeling that he might at last have scraped an E. He had just turned away when he heard a smashing noise; [...] His potion sample lay in pieces on the floor, and Snape was watching him with a look of gloating pleasure. “Whoops,” he said softly. “Another zero, then, Potter…” Harry was too incensed to speak. He strode back to his cauldron, intending to fill another flask and force Snape to mark it, but saw to his horror that the rest of the contents had vanished. “I’m sorry!” said Hermione.

This is after Harry views SWM. Assuming Snape did this on purpose (we don’t know), he might have been vindictive or he might have been putting on a show of it because Voldemort was watching through Harry’s eyes.

Snape appears unfair in the sense that when Harry does poorly, he receives poorer grades than he deserves (in Harry’s opinion), but when Harry does well, he expects to be graded fairly (OOTP29). Specifically, Harry complains that Snape grades only him unfairly, and not Ron or Neville, meaning that the issue is with Harry and not with all Gryffindors (OOTP12+15).

Snape’s bias shows only in that he does not punish his own students for their wrongdoings on-page. However, Slytherins wait until Snape’s back is turned to misbehave, and that includes Draco, Snape’s favorite:

In the ISND incident, Pansy and her friends giggle behind Snape’s back.

Draco flashes his Potter Stinks badges when Snape’s attention is directed elsewhere.

Draco taunts Harry with his “remedial potions?!” jeer when Snape isn’t looking.

Right before the toad incident, Draco was pretending to be badly hurt, and pointed out to Snape that Ron (who was sitting next to him and whom Snape had asked to help Draco) wasn’t helping him properly. Draco lowers his voice to admit he pretends to be hurt partly because it means Snape will have someone help him.

They routinely bother to hide their nastiness, because they expect some sort of sanction. McGonagall sends Slytherin transgressors to Snape for punishment, meaning she expects him to handle them.

Snape also assigns Crabbe and Goyle detentions liberally to make sure they “pass their DADA OWLs”. This is also done to thwart Draco’s attempts to kill Dumbledore, but nobody is surprised at this.

Snape is a very effective teacher and the students don’t all hate him

In Y2, Snape teaches students about Polyjuice Potion, which exceeds the curriculum requirements. Umbridge’s objective is to discredit Dumbledore’s hires, but even she recognizes that his class is advanced. Snape constantly explains to the students what they did wrong, even if Harry calls this bullying. His exam pass rate is high: The trio earns two Es and one O even though Harry and Ron don’t care about the subject. Snape is an effective, albeit very imperfect, teacher (Harry, Ron, and Hermione all earn the same grade in Potions as they do in Charms and Transfiguration; Neville can be deduced to have passed his Potions and his Transfiguration OWLs with an A).

He only admits O students into his NEWT potions class, whereas Minerva is “very pleased” with Harry’s E. This is not as restrictive as it sounds:

This is the composition of Harry’s 6th year Potions class:

The four Slytherins took a table together, as did the four Ravenclaws. This left Harry, Ron, and Hermione to share a table with Ernie.

Everyone but Harry and Ron had earned Os, because they all had the textbook already. That’s at least 10 out of 28* students in Harry’s year who got the highest grade.

*There is some debate about the size of Harry’s year. I’m only counting students who have names.

25 out of 25 eligible students take DADA with Snape in their 6th year:

”Before we start, I want your dementor essays,” said Snape, waving his wand carelessly, so that twenty-five scrolls of parchment soared into the air and landed in a neat pile on his desk.

The missing ones are Crabbe and Goyle, who failed their OWLs, and Abbott, who left.

Neville definitely took DADA with Snape:

Typically, ten minutes into the lesson Hermione managed to repel Neville’s muttered JellyLegs Jinx, a feat that would surely have earned her twenty points for Gryffindor from any reasonable teacher.

Harry whines, but note that Snape doesn’t take points from Neville for muttering, either.

That’s how unbiased students talk about Snape:

“Harry,” Ernie said [...], “didn’t get a chance to speak in Defense Against The Dark Arts this morning. Good lesson, I thought.”

Safety is his top priority

Snape:

stops Ron from hitting Draco

Upon hearing that a student had been taken into the Chamber - he was distressed enough that he had to grab a chair "very hard" (even though his Slytherins alone were not in danger)

is the one who nags Lupin to drink his potion in POA, and not the other way around

runs into the Shrieking Shack to face Black and Lupin on the full moon to save the trio

when the egg starts screaming in GOF, runs toward the sound of someone screaming as though they’re being tortured in the middle of the night

Supplies Umbridge with fake Veritaserum

Orders Harry to release Neville when he thinks Ron and Harry are fighting him

Saves Neville from being choked by Crabbe

Runs toward a woman screaming in the middle of an occlumency lesson (it’s Trelawney getting fired)

Makes an unbreakable vow to protect Draco, keeps it

Runs toward Myrtle’s cries of a murder, not knowing who was hurt or how and what danger he might face there

Steers Hermione+Luna out of harm’s way before the Astronomy Tower battle

After killing Dumbledore, he stops Death Eaters from Cruciating Harry when Harry confronts him. Harry tries to curse Snape, including an attempt at Crucio, yet Snape risks breaking cover to spare Harry pain

He is the one Dumbledore assigned to keep students safe during DH. Snape did not have to stay at Hogwarts at that point, both of them knew Harry won't be attending next year, so this had nothing to do with the original mission, Dumbledore just trusted him this much, and rightly so - nobody is reported to have died during Snape's year as headmaster, which is more than can be said for Dumbledore. Within this, he Sent the silver trio to Hagrid as a form of "punishment" for trying to steal the sword.

Only in one of these cases is Harry even in the picture (that Snape knows of before springing into action). I omitted things like saving Harry in PS. In one case, he leaves Harry to go see what’s going on. Also not included are multiple instances of Snape saving students at no risk to himself or to his cover, by brewing potions or using his Dark Arts expertise (COS, HBP). His attempts to save adult characters are not included either.

“Her [the Doe Patronus’s] presence had meant safety.” (r/harrypotter on reddit)

Note: the writer of this post said it the the title that Snape is the best teacher at Hogwarts, wich i frankly do not agree with as, despite being a master in his subjects and prioritizing safety, Snape comes of as unaproachable to his students wich causes strugling students like Neville to go to peers for help instead of him, wich is far from ideal.

[sendandburn]

Why Hagrid is not a good father figure for Harry

Personally, I think Hagrid did take advantage of Harry's good nature and friendship. He asked him/allowed him (and his friends) to do things that Hagrid should have either dealt with himself as an adult or gone to another adult for support/assistance with. He also may not have done it "purposefully," but he did endanger him on multiple occasions and put him into situations where he had to break school rules for him. Hagrid treated Harry like a friend/peer, not like a son. He cared about Harry very much and they had a nice friendship, but that's what it was - a friendship. It wasn't a father/son relationship.

People have already pointed out the numerous occasions he put the trio and other students in danger but I also hated how he guilt tripped them when they stopped taking his class. Hagrid doesn't really seem to have the maturity to handle rejection very well at all. Hagrid does have his heart in the right place but he was a terrible teacher, exceedingly careless and was not at all a good father figure to harry." (from reddit)

Examples of that, also from reddit:

1.Hagrid took 11 year-old Harry with him into the Forbidden Forest to search for something fast and powerful enough to kill unicorns. When doing so, he left Harry alone with another 11 year-old.

2.Hagrid had 11 year-old Harry, Ron and Hermione help him take care of a baby dragon. He then had them carry the adolescent dragon in a wooden box up to the tallest tower of the castle.

3. Hagrid encouraged 12 year-old Harry and Ron to ”follow the spiders” to a lair of giant, man-eating spiders deep within the Forbidden Forest. Even if Hagrid truly thought Aragog wouldn't hurt them, he was still knowingly sending them into the Forbidden Forest and encouraging them to break the rules.

4. In his very first Care of Magical Creatures lesson ever, as well as the very first Care of Magical Creatures lesson ever of his third-years, he introduces them to Hippogriffs. Some of these students have never cared for or even seen a magical beast, yet Hagrid introduces them to an XXX beast.

5. Hagrid requested that 15-year old Harry ”look after” his giant half brother - who had been injuring Hagrid all year, willingly or unwillingly, which again required going into the Forbidden Forest. Harry was already under enough scrutiny from Umbridge that year; he didn't need to be asked to do anything else that could possibly get him into trouble

6.Asked them to come to Aragog's funeral, even though he knew that students weren't supposed to be out of the castle at the time he was insisting on holding it.

So to anyone who thinks that Hagrid would be a excellent father figure to Harry, i sincerely urge you to think again: this man is basically a child traped in an adult body! He may be fit to be a dog dad but a baby dad? Definitely not! Unless, perhaps if the baby is a giant or half giant (thus having more resistance to danger) and even then he would still have to learn how to properly discipline and protect a child.

[sendandburn]

If I'm honest I think the way the Deathly Hallows were made into a theme in the HP books is much more interesting than the whole Christ allegory, especially since it's a bit more original. I mean, sure, the Tale of the Three Brothers borrows heavily from the European storytelling tradition as filtered through the homogenized lens of the Grimm Brothers - the number three, the two older brothers being rash and unthinking and the youngest being wise, the outwitting of a dangerous foe, the lesson that brute force and bending nature's order will only end badly, etc. But there's still something interesting and original there, and I find that much more exciting than pinpointing how Christian tropes manifest in a children's story that follows them without building on them or raising questions.

What I find particularly fascinating about the Hallows theme is the way it connects to the characters, and how the three brothers and the objects they represent come to be reflected in three of the most key characters in HP:

Harry, Voldemort, and Snape are so inextricably connected, but even though the only moment they're all in the same place is when Snape is killed, it feels like Snape's the one whose journey to that moment is the most clearly laid out. It's the third time we know him to be in the Shrieking Shack: the first, when he's nearly killed by Lupin-turned-werewolf but escapes unscathed, and the second, when he corners Lupin and Black in PoA and is knocked unconscious sustaining a head wound. With each visit to the Shrieking Shack he inches closer to his own death metaphorically.

It's no secret that each Hallow is connected to or representative of one of these characters.

The Deathstick/Elder Wand is Voldemort: he's its penultimate wielder and even before possessing it, his own wand might as well be a death stick. He kills with impunity and without remorse. It's said several times in the series that ultimately all the death and destruction Harry, Ron, and Hermione fight against comes down to Voldemort; even the Death Eaters do what they do in his service. (And, while I take issue with the simplistic and naive perspective it conveys, the story makes it clear that as soon as Voldemort dies, the chaos he has wrought on the wizarding world is already beginning to be set right again.) Harry meets Voldemort in the forest at the end of DH in order to meet his death because it's Voldemort who brings it about.

The Resurrection Stone is Snape: we find out in DH that he has spent the entire septology haunted by the heartbreak and regret losing a loved one caused, and everything he's done has been in service of her. Though he never possesses the Resurrection Stone, he might as well - we see through his patronus that the memory of Lily is with him "always." Interestingly, it's also the Resurrection Stone that sets him on his final path - it's the stone in the ring that curses Dumbledore's hand, leading to Snape agreeing to kill him, and to him making the Unbreakable Vow. Killing Dumbledore draws him into Voldemort's trust even more, but also puts a target on his back. So, like the second Peverell brother, Snape's main drive is a departed loved one, his devotion to whom ultimately dooms him. The more he tries to keep her alive and honor her memory, the more she draws him to his death.

As in the Tale of the Three Brothers, death claims both the first and second brother.

It's the third brother who escapes death and meets him on his own terms through his use of the Invisibility Cloak. Harry literally wears it into the forest at the end of DH and throws it off to meet his death. Harry starts the story having escaped Death and working his way towards it on his own terms. When he dies, it's because he is ready and he chooses to - and once again, he escapes it. Harry is also closely connected to the youngest Peverell brother, being descended from him, and as per the Beadle the Bard's story, the cloak gets handed down from parent to child so Harry is its rightful owner.

Finally, there's the character of Death, whose parallel is, reluctantly but determinedly, Dumbledore. There's an irony in his ownership of the Elder Wand, in that he learned from the mistakes of his youth and understands and eschews its capacity for death and destruction. Even so, he becomes a character who plays a key role in the death of several other characters, not least of whom are Snape, Harry, and Voldemort. His main goal throughout the series is to bring about Voldemort's death. In the process, he sacrifices both Harry and Snape (not to mention countless others). Dumbledore is also the person who gives all three Hallows to their ultimate owner, Harry. In the process, it's from Dumbledore that Voldemort takes the Elder Wand, and it's through Dumbledore's actions that Snape is doomed by the Resurrection Stone, not to mention he's the one to give the Invisibility Cloak to Harry. When Harry escapes death as a baby, it's Dumbledore who leaves him with the Dursley knowing he will return for him later (or will do so through a proxy), sort of - but not quite - foreshadowing that death will come for Harry when the time is right. When Harry is killed by Voldemort, it's Dumbledore who meets him in Kings Cross limbo.

Interestingly, of these four characters it's only Voldemort who is not connected to all three hallows. Dumbledore has, at some point, had each in his possession, and at the end of the story Harry possesses all three and is the only person who knows where the Resurrection Stone is in the forest. Snape is the only person we see use the Invisibility Cloak without an invitation to do so from Harry (in the Shrieking Shack in PoA), and he's the only one aside from Dumbledore and Harry to be connected with the Resurrection Stone. Though he never does so, he was meant by Dumbledore to possess the Elder Wand, and it's the direct reason he's killed. There's an interesting parallel there, based on what Dumbledore says to Harry in King's Cross Limbo:

Harry is obviously the Specialest Boy™️ because he's the protagonist, so he's fit to unite the Hallows (which he never quite does - he uses the Resurrection Stone while wearing the Cloak, but drops the stone well before he physically takes possession of the Elder Wand and wields it). Dumbledore nevertheless has the Cloak for a decade between James' death and giving it to Harry, by which point he has had the Elder Wand for much longer. He takes possession of the Stone when he takes Marvolo's ring, and in the process experiences a parallel to the second brother's story (similar to Snape) as his efforts to reconnect to a deceased loved one instead sets him on the path towards his death. Snape, as stated above, is similarly connected to all three Hallows at one point or other.

As interesting as I find all this, I feel like these parallels and, really, this theme, could have been worked out more throughout the septology and been dealt with in richer, more wide-reaching ways. Maybe it didn't occur to Rowling (boo, hssss) until she was well into writing the series, whereas the Horcruxes clearly had, since Voldemort's inability to die is established in PS and the first Horcrux crops up in CoS. There's a clumsiness in the way Hallows vs. Horcruxes becomes the great dilemma in DH, and if the themes each represents had been established early on and been an undercurrent through the whole series it would have been more powerful.

That's not to say that the themes connected to each Hallow - death, loss, choosing wisdom over power - aren't overarching ones on their own. But Harry's contending with them against Voldemort's focus on that power and his fear of death alongside his cavalier implementation of it ends up being a bit flat, because Harry doesn't waver. It's one of the things Dumbledore points out when they discuss the prophecy, that because Voldemort killed his parents, Harry was never at risk of being seduced by all that Voldemort represents. So even though the themes are there, the tensions between them aren't really present in Harry - again, the protagonist - until the second half of the last book. Not until HBP do we start to see Voldemort's past and understand the parallels between him and Harry, and not until the Prince's Tale chapter in DH do we really see how Snape fits into this trio of "abandoned boys." The fleshing out of his character was sacrificed for the sake of the big reveal of his motivations and I think it would have been more interesting to have moments throughout the series that turned out to be foreshadowing along the theme of the Hallows, and not just ones that clarify his allegiances through the insight into his life.

[sendandburn]

Clearing up misconceptions

So a lot of people seem to believe that Abraxas Malfoy married Druella Rosier, however...

Druella Black[4] (née Rosier) (fl. 1951-1955) was a pure-blood witch who married Cygnus Black III. The couple had three daughters: Bellatrix, Andromeda, and Narcissa Black. " (Harry Potter Wiki)

So who did Abraxas marry? Honestly.... We don't know. All we know is that however it is, they are definitely not a Rosier. Perhaps he married an Avery, Macnair or Mulciber.... Or someone from a different pureblood family entirely.

Another common misconception, constantly being perpetuated by fanfiction cause people just LOVE the idea of a Teeny Tiny Wizarding world :

Dorea and Charlus Potter are James Potters parents.

They are not, as you can see right here:

"James Potter I (27 March 1960 - 31 October 1981),[1] also known as Prongs, was an English pure-blood[3][4] wizard and the only son of Fleamont and Euphemia Potter.[12]" (Harry Potter Wiki)

So what Charlus and Dorea are of James? Well, either They are his grandparents or, my own personal take, his Aunt and Uncle.

Ofc, you are free to write them as his parents if you want but not only you will be essencially erasing and/or flat out ignoring the freaking inventor of Sleekeazy's Hair Potion but also systematically destroying every chance Progstar/Starbucks, Jegulus, Sirry, Drary and whatever the heck the oficial ship name for Regulus Black/Harry Potter is (Regarry? Hagulus? Hargulus???) ever had of happening.

Look, i get why someone would want to destroy Sirry and Regulus Black/Harry Potter and as much as i love progstar, it is not that popular so it's not that surprising that someone would want to kill it. But Do you seriously want to obliterate two of the three most popular crack ships on this fandom, just so you can pretend the wizarding world is even more inbreed than it already is?

Wich, if you want to avoid incest, would leave you with the following options for partners for Harry :

Fred Weasley

George Weasley

Charlie Weasley

Bill Weasley

Cedric Diggory

Cho Chang

Neville Longbottom

Ron Weasley

Hermione Granger

Ginny Weasley

Marcus Flint

Oliver Wood

Dean Thomas

Theodore Nott

Blaise Zabini

Astoria Greengrass

Daphne Greengrass

Pansy Parkinson

Susan Bones

Hanah Abbot

Fleur Delacour

Gabrielle Delacour

Victor Krum

Luna Lovegood

An Oc

Remus lupin

Albus Dumbledore

Severus Snape

Tom Riddle

Minerva McGonagall

Amelia Bones

Alastor Moody

Evan Rosier

Barty crouch jr

Mulciber Jr

Avery Jr

Fenrir Greyback

Xenophilus Lovegood

Rubeus Hagrid

..... Or Cargo of any kind

Not as big of a selection as you would have by just leaving things as it is, but it may still please somebody so, whatever.

I guess the choice is up to you

Just remember that this is not canon.

[sendandburn]

What was so funny about Mulciber attacking Mary Macdonald with Dark Magic that Snape described it as "just a laugh"?

"Let’s make something as clear as possible. We have no idea if Snape and Lily were even present when whatever happened to Mary Macdonald happened. That is how little information we have available. The only two people in the series that discuss it. And we don’t even know if they were there at the time. Let that sink in for a moment.

Snape says it was just a laugh. Lily says it was Dark Magic. And states thatJames and the Marauders do not use Dark Magic when Snape tries to compare what they do with what was done to Mary. She also considers Mulcibers sense of humour sick. There are a few ways to interpret this.

Snape was there and is lying/does consider it just a laugh when someone that isn’t him is being bullied. Lily was also there and finds what was done to Mary worse than what James does in SWM.

2. Snape wasn’t there and has heard secondhand that it was just a laugh or bit of fun that got out of hand. He appears to believe said account. Lily was there and knows it was worse than SWM.

3. Snape was there and considers it just a laugh. Lily wasn’t there and from what other people have told her about it considers it to be Dark Magic and worse than SWM.

4. Neither Snape not Lily we’re there. And both of their assessments come from secondhand information from people who either sided with Mary or Mulciber. People who could quite easily have lied to one or both of them.

One is the most unlikely possibility. Since Lily doesn’t argue that Snape let his friend Mulciber do xyz to Mary Three is likewise unlikely.

As Snape being there would have likely been mentioned to Lily if she heard the news secondhand and she’d make the same argument as above.

Snape being friends with someone doing evil stuff behind his back makes sense given the arguments she makes in canon. Not Snape already being aware of what his friend is doing and letting it happen.

That leaves two and four. And personally I tend towards four.

Given Lily does not say something like “I was there Severus it definitely wasn’t “just a laugh”” But as you’ll notice I’m talking probability not certainty when I say I find it most likely neither of them were present for what happened.

We have a fairly wide disparity of reactions but if we assume that what Mulciber did was Dark Magic and both Snape and Lily’s friends told the truth here’s what I think happened; Mulciber cast the Imperius Curse on Mary under his breath. And forced her to do relatively harmless but embarrassing and humiliating things for his and some mates amusement.

If we assume they’re prejudiced and cruel let’s say kissing the hem of their robes, calling herself a filthy Mudblood and things to that effect. If confronted by Mary’s friends or a teacher he lies and insists it was just a powerful Confundus. Or outright denies it was him.

As no one can prove it was Dark Magic/ that Mulciber did it he gets away with it. Facing light punishment at worst. Snape’s friends tell him of the stuff they forced Mary to do in a way that he finds amusing in the telling. He is convinced they were just having a laugh and it wasn’t as bad as what James has done to him. Lily’s friends tell her they’re sure Mulciber used the Imperius Curse. And she gets told how Mulciber wasn’t even punished properly for it. How upset Mary was etc. She believes it’s considerably worse than what she’s seen James do. Because she saw what it did to the person afterwards.

Now for a mature adult it’s pretty obvious this kind of mental violation is deadly serious even if no physical lasting harm was done. But a teenager hungry for acceptance could relatively easily not linger on that form of harm. And think “they weren’t actually hurt so where’s the harm?”.

If my scenario is accurate and Snape was told outright that it was Imperius not Confundus they used. He should not have found it funny. He ought to have considered it a significant violation of another person. But we can say exactly the same of everyone in the crowd during SWM. Remus and Lily are the only people outside that have any issue with what Snape was being subjected to. SWM was slightly less severe (provides my scenario is accurate and everything that Mulciber did was cruel but petty) but the people there actively witnessed someone being hurt and tormented. No secondhand accounts. No distance from someone else being upset and hurt. Yet they laughed and found it amusing.

Should we consider the people in the crowd psychopaths or as empathic as Death Eaters? Snape is a teenager. The people in the crowd are teenagers. Teenagers can be very s**tty under the right circumstances. (...) Snape is wrong to find it amusing yes. Just as the crowd is to find his humiliation amusing. But it doesn’t make him abnormal, sub-human, evil etc. He did choose a pretty dark path and took time to turn back from it as much as he did. But people like Remus who know it’s not cool to laugh at someone else’s suffering. But who don’t do anything to help/stop other people laughing are a bit depressingly rare at secondary school. People like Lily who for whatever reason can tell when things go too far and actively try to stop it even more so. " (Analysis by Alex Forbes)

[sendandburn]

It’s time to talk about Harry and Ron.

You may hear the canon shippers and antis shit on Harry and Hermione’s relationship and say things like “Harry and Ron would make more sense” or “are more compatible together than Harry and Hermione are”, when in actuality, they’d be pretty terrible together. And I almost have to say that it’d be worse than Ron and Hermione.

And a large part of this is Harry unhealthy reliance on Ron. Take Goblet of Fire for example. When Harry and Ron are no longer talking, Harry missed him a lot. And I cannot account that Ron missed the same amount as Harry did, but he was at least socializing with his peers, while Harry was just moping around.

There’s also a severe lack of “balance” in their relationship. Throughout the series. Ron can be accounted for saving Harry at least twice (sacrificing himself in the 1st and saving Harry in DH, in the frozen pond). He also saved him from the Dursleys a couple times. He also remained by his side when Harry was having a bad time in OOTP. But Harry? The best thing he does for Ron is motivating him on his quidditch abilities. That’s it.

And then. One could assume that, since Ron does all these things, Harry feels indebted to Ron and his family, that’s why he’s close to being a doormat to him (mostly agreeing with him and being instantly forgoving). And that’s not a good thing. Being a doormat means you’ve got no self-respect for yourself.

And lastly, are they truly best friends, ones that can change and inspire as they grow up together? Do they really understand each other? Being best friends for 4 years and still not understanding a friend’s main problem is kinda telling. And then, 2-3 years later, he has a hard time empathizing that his best friend still has family out there that could die. Do they give advice to each other when one of them has something on their mind? The only advice given that I recall, is Ron giving Harry the “12 Ways to Charm Witches” book (yes, he gave Harry this book, even though Harry didn’t have a problem asking out Parvati and Padma, who were known to be “really pretty”, to the Yule Ball).

[sendandburn]

“oh no, my audience has begun to guess the big twists of my story and are accurately predicting what will happen!”

incorrect response: write the rest of the story to be as twisty, shocking and counter to expectations as possible, regardless of whether this is a logical or satisfying way for the plot to go

correct response:

[sendandburn]

List Encanto Antis to Mute & Block/Follow on Ao3 and no these are not just the people who tagged No Incest. Part 2

Part 1 is here

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[sendandburn]

Why did Snape hate Hermione?

"The assumption of this question is wrong. Snape never hated Hermione. But there is one thing to be noted though. While Minerva or Pomona awards points to Gryffindor when Hermione answers their questions but Snape is being mean to Hermione. Have you ever noticed why ?

“An answer copied almost word for word from The Standard Book of Spells, Grade Six,” said Snape dismissively -Severus in DADA class, HBP This is Snape’s problem with her.

Hermione is a bright witch, there is no denying that. But she never opens her mind. I am not saying this to make her look bad - it’s perfectly fine to know the course book cover to cover. But that doesn’t mean Snape should be a fan of that.

“How are you doing that?” demanded Hermione, who was red-faced and whose hair was growing bushier and bushier in the fumes from her cauldron; her potion was still resolutely purple.

“Add a clockwise stir —” “No, no, the book says counterclockwise!” she snapped.

She is seeing with her very eyes that Harry’s potion is doing better and still reluctant to take his advice. Maybe Severus is the kind of teacher who expects more from his students, who likes to push their boundaries. And that’s why he’s being mean when Hermione answers his questions from the books. And to confirm this, remember Harry’s occlumency lesson in OOtP ? He appreciated when Harry improvised by using shield charm against Snape.

“Well, Potter . . . that was certainly an improvement . . .” Panting slightly, Snape straightened the Pensieve in which he had again stored some of his thoughts before starting the lesson, almost as though checking that they were still there. “I don’t remember telling you to use a Shield Charm . . . but there is no doubt that it was effective . . .” (analysis from Reddit)