Weekly Discussion: Favoritism
Quote from The Gestalt Prince on October 19, 2023, 1:22 pm30. Why did Snape preferably wanted to teach DADA despite having an affinity for both Dark Arts and Potions?
To be completly honest, I think the main reason was just him liking DADA very much. We know that when he was a student, he liked Dark Arts. He wanted to learn more. We know that he had a hard childhood (right know focus on home). His father was an awful man, but he must have really loved his mother - he made a nickname (we all know and love) from her side of family name - Prince. Maybe he wanted to project his mother from Tobias? He was terrible husband to Eileen, and terrible father to Severus.
On the other hand he loved potions. He was really, really good at it. So was his mother. I would call it "passing legacy". It kinda was tbh.
So potions from mother and DA from father (obvsly i mean projecting Eileen and maybe Lily? from Tobias).
If think he just wanted to keep these who he cared about, and loved, save. Tobias was agresive, so Severus was probably scared for his mother, but also for Lily.
I think that as a student his favourite subject was potion, but as an adult he understad more and more things. We all know that Snape was probably the best wizard in the potion (Slughorn was also amazing but Snape corrected books he used), and he was just in general really good at other subcjects, ofc DADA too. But let's be honest, when he was teaching kids as an adult it might been a bit annoying for him - he knew all anserws, he was just a God (well in HP more like Merlin, heh) in potions, and we all know that no kid coould beat him in that.
Now, I don't really think that kids not begin good at potions is the really reason why he prefered DADA. But he probaly though that he could teach them how to survive. Maybe he didn't want kids to be helpless when after Hogwarts they would be out in real world? Knowing potions is one, but knowing how to cast spell is second.
I agree with Naaga on this one. He had affinity for both Potions and Dark Arts. He didn't enjoy teaching potions to dunderheads who would blow up the classroom and had the attention span of a goldfish. With DADA, it's all about spells which most kids would be excited about.
31. Do you think Severus Snape actually hated Harry Potter?
Quote from The Gestalt Prince on November 7, 2023, 1:48 pm31. Do you think Severus Snape actually hated Harry Potter?
I don't think he hated hi, but he might dislike him.
We know that Snape was rather a cold person, insteed of all happy, with smile on his face and everything like that. And that kind of personality pushes kids away rather them gets closer.
Their first interaction (I don't count the one in Great Hall) was in potions class. Snape starts reading list, and stops on Harrys name. I mean he obvsly at that moment had many memories in his head passing by - of course about Lily, and probably also about James; I mean, Harry looks like him.
"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
I can only guess that he tried to check him.
But let's be honest. Hate is a very strong word. Sure we use it sometimes to say that we hate some food, some drinks, but we don't mean the really hate.
If Snape would have hate Harry he would never protect him (Even for Lily, except probably the first part when Harry's on the broom almost falling, but that's debt he had towards James). We know that he loved Lily, hated James, but since he saved Harry multiplay times, it means his love was way stronger then his hater.
So yeah, in conclusion, I think he just dislike him, but everytime when I watch or read Severus Snapes death I always in that scene see only that he doesn't hate him and doesn't dislike him.
There may well have been times that Snape hated Harry:
'You dare use my own spells against me, Potter? It was I who invented them-- I, the Half-Blood Prince! And you'd turn my inventions on me, like your filthy father, would you?'
And here:
'DON'T--' screamed Snape, and his face was suddenly demented, inhuman, as though he was in as much pain as the yelping, howling dog stack in the burning house behind them, 'CALL ME COWARD!'
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 28, p503
There are many Snape fans who like to think Snape's treatment of Harry was an act but there are many canon evidences confirming that Snape hates Harry in canon.
Snape hated Harry. Or rather, he hated the idea of Harry. He hated him before he even started Hogwarts, because he had already pictured a certain version of Harry in his mind, no matter if the real Harry was the same as that version or not.
The office dissolved but re-formed instantly. Snape was pacing up and down in front of Dumbledore.
‘– mediocre, arrogant as his father, a determined rule-breaker, delighted to find himself famous, attention-seeking and impertinent –’
‘You see what you expect to see, Severus,’ said Dumbledore, without raising his eyes from a copy of Transfiguration Today. ‘Other teachers report that the boy is modest, likeable and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him an engaging child.’
Snape hates Harry because of who his parents were, mainly who his father was. Snape sees Harry as James's clone (and physically, we know it's not that far off), and Snape didn't just hate James, Snape was deeply scarred by James and co (one might even say, traumatised). What Snape is doing is in a way doing to Harry what he would have liked the teachers back then to do to James. Take him down, show him that having a powerful name and being rich and famous/popular didn't mean he was above everyone else.
Snape is also someone who is forced to teach and spend his life in a place where he was relentlessly bullied for at least 6 years. Then comes in the carbon copy of his former bully, except that this time, Snape is the one in charge, he's the one who is in a position of power, and Harry/James isn't.
Then, and that is going more towards the theoritical side of things, but there is also the fact that at this point, Snape is as I said above, stuck into a job he hates in a place where he's had more than a few bad memories, and it's been like that for a decade. His whole life goal at this point is to protect Harry Potter.
Everything he might have dreamed of as a teenager, every job he could have wanted to do, places to visit, things to do, ect... all of this has been put aside, because of Harry Potter. Well, because of Snape's own choices first and foremost of course, and we know that had he been a less courageous and honorable man he could have said fuck it all and run away, but it doesn't change the fact that pretty much all for Harry.
So it's very possible that a part of his resentment also comes from this, maybe he himself isn't aware of it, but it adds another layer to the "why a grown man hates a child" question.
Agreed with @naaga here. And to add to his points, Harry wasn't actually doing a really good job at proving him wrong.
He's constantly breaking school rules and putting himself in mortal danger. Which, apart from being James-like, just makes Snape's job of protecting him considerably harder.
He talks back in class. Granted, Snape's often provoking him, but if he's already set on hating Harry, that would just further his hatred.
He's just plain nosy and fast to jump to conclusions – Fluffy biting Snape's leg in first year, the Dark Mark in fourth, Snape helping Malfoy in sixth etc.
He's constantly lying to his teachers – more so to Snape – and isn't even good at it. This includes the Occlumency lessons (which, tbf, were a disaster for more reasons than just Harry's lying).
And then he was close to both Black and Lupin, which is self-explanatory.
I think Snape wouldn't have hated Harry nearly as much if he hadn't embarrassed him so in that first Potions class. It made Harry hate him back, and as neither had a reason to salvage the situation, their hatred just kept escalating.
I agree that book Snape definitely hates Harry, what causes confusion here is movie Snape because the changes that Rickman made to Snape's character do leave room to make one think that deep, deep down and especially at the end of his life he does care about the boy and comes to see that Harry is not only Potter's son but also Lily's.
Regarding Snape's hatred towards Harry, it is a case of the sins of the father being visited upon the son. As Naaga quoted Dumbledore saying that Snape only sees what he wants to see and that's a mini James. Yes, it's wrong and petty but it makes sense. We already know how affected Snape was by Lily's death and that he is a spy, hating Potter junior makes everything easier for Snape. If he did actually acknowledge that Harrybis Lily's child, he would be replacing his hatred with guilt which is much more difficult to deal with and it would be more difficult to act as Voldemort's loyal follower. I also think that Snape's final task would have been near impossible if he cared about Harry; he was furious to find out that the boy he was supposed to protect was meant as a pig for slaughter, what would Snape do if he was given this information as someone who actually cared for the boy beyond duty? There was a risk that he would not follow Dumbledore's orders, act on his emotions and thus endanger the whole wizarding world.
32. Do you think Snape knew Harry would survive?
Quote from The Gestalt Prince on November 25, 2023, 1:33 pm32. Do you think Snape knew Harry would survive?
I don't think he did. I think he expected him to die. And that actually makes for a better story as it means that he was willing for Lily's son to die if it meant everybody else could be saved.
