Meta: Why Neville's Boggart Was Snape
Why Neville's Boggart Was Snape
Source: Reddit
i'm being honest me too. But everytime this gets brought up, it's always used to as people's ''evidence'' that Snape was always bad and a ''villain''. Yeah sure, he did bad shit there's no denying it, but this is pretty tame. But i would argue, it's not even traumatizing for Neville.
I think people forget, that boggarts don't show your ''true fear'', it just manifests into it. Harry see's dementor's because he fears, fear. Hermione see's McGonagall because she fears failing. But in the case of Neville, i think it's pretty obvious. He's scared of what snape represents, failure to live up to expectations. Nevile's whole family thought he was a squib, he thought he might've been too, he's just like harry, doesn't think he's meant to be a wizard. And who better than snape, who constantly goes on about how he sucks at making potions, that would only deepen his fear.
Even the fact that he and the entire class, laughs at the fact that it's snape.
He also defeats it on his first try. You see someone like Molly freaking weasley, a very powerful witch, couldn't even defeat her boggart, because it really was something truly terrifying, her real true fear. Not only does he defeat it once, but twice too. Showing the fact that, if it truly was his real fear, then he wouldn't be able to fight it like Hermione or Molly. The boggart was just representing what snape meant to him, not that snape is his real fear.
You could even honestly make a case, that if McGonagall treated neville hard too.
"Which person," she said, her(McGonagall's) voice shaking, "which abysmally foolish person wrote down this week's passwords and left them lying around?"
"Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours? Didn't you hear me say, quite clearly, that only one -tat 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?"
Like what's really the difference here lol. Yet we don't see that many people wanting to burn Minerva to the stake, like people do what Snape, but it is what it is.
I know it might come off as...like i'm just a karma whore rn, drinking the juice that is the Snape post pandemic that sweeps this sub everytime i sneeze. But i never do any post for the karma or anything. Snape posts are only good if they offer something insightful, instead of just ''he's bad/good''. I'm not trying to say he's bad or good, but just, it's not technically fair to act like this something ''traumatizing'' to neville, like he couldn't sleep over this. Honestly, i like to keep my posts unique and thoughtful, this seemed like a topic everyone knew, but nobody actually understood, and even if they did do it, they still hold it against snape. Also, this is just how i see it honestly, not trying to act like any of this is necessarily true in that sense.
I don't even think there's any deep symbolism in Neville's boggart. It's not his fear to live up to expectations because then I imagine he would see his grandma who is desperately trying to turn Neville into Frank 2.0.
Snape's just a scary and ill-tempered teacher who is intimidating. The fact that he harshly calls out Neville's mistakes just adds to his fear of the potions master because every mistake will lead to his humiliation. Neville needs a teacher who is patient and uses praise for things well done as he already seems to have self-esteem issues due to his grandmother's expectations.
Snape's nasty to Hermione as well but except for the incident with her teeth, she never seems to take it to heart and she doesn't fear him (she would not set him on fire or steal from him if she actually did). I also think it is funny that Hermione's boggart took the form of McGonagall rather than Snape as he's much more difficult to satisfy. I believe the reason is that Hermione subconsciously fears that as a muggleborn she doesn't actually belong in the wizarding world. This fear may have been instilled with Draco's mudblood insult the year prior and McGonagall as her Head of House and a capable witch could be something of an idol to Hermione, so she would seek her approval but people could obviously twist this into something entirely different if McG was as hated as Snape.
If Snape truly was that terrifying, Neville wouldn't have broken into his office to retrieve the Sword of Gryffindor. Clearly, he had already outgrown his fear by his last Hogwarts year.
