The (Mis)Education of Harry James Potter - Part II
Here's the other half of my monster post on Harry's moral education and Severus as moral teacher.
(I've never hit the word limit for a single LJ post before!)
In the fifth book, his major expressed concern in the occlumency lessons – the primary episodes of interaction between he and Harry – is that Harry is deliberately allowing himself to be influenced by Voldemort and refusing to master himself and his (especially negative) emotions:
"'I told you to empty yourself of emotion!'
'Yeah? Well, I'm finding that hard at the moment,' Harry snarled.
'Then you will find yourself easy prey for the Dark Lord!' said Snape savagely. 'Fools who wear their hearts proudly on their sleeves, who cannot control their emotions, who wallow in sad memories and allow themselves to be provoked so easily — weak people, in other words — they stand no chance against his powers! He will penetrate your mind with absurd ease, Potter!'
'I am not weak,' said Harry in a low voice, fury now pumping through him so that he thought he might attack Snape in a moment.
'Then prove it! Master yourself!' spat Snape. 'Control your anger, discipline your mind!"
I don’t think anyone finds it difficult to guess what sort of experience Severus is speaking from here. Though Harry, of course, is less at risk of being recruited than of being made a pawn – but manipulation by Voldemort is manipulation by Voldemort still. (And it’s possible, though by no means ever explicitly suggested, that Severus has been recalling that unconscious Parseltongue incident from COS, when he gave Harry that “shrewd and calculating” look – how long has the question of potential negative influence on Harry been percolating in his mind? Is it a new concern to him this year?)
In these lessons, as others have noted elsewhere, he's interestingly indifferent to any lapse of Harry's besides this refusal to discipline himself and Harry’s repeated verbal refusal to recognize his authority at all. He's not at all upset by physical or magical attacks against him that Harry makes in response to his legilimency (stinging hex, breaking into his mind), doesn’t openly sneer at the humiliations he witnesses though Harry expects him to but asks cool questions, and gives him Snape-language praise when he shows any signs of success or improvement: "'Well, for a first attempt that was not as poor as it might have been,' said Snape." Later: "'Well, Potter . . . that was certainly an improvement . . .' [...] 'I don't remember telling you to use a Shield Charm . . . but there is no doubt that it was effective . . .'" His voice is usually described as cool or soft, not sneering, malicious, or the like, except when he’s angry at Harry’s lack of trying. And his expression is "curious, almost satisfied" when Harry guesses about his spying, not angry as Harry expects.
"'I would have thought that after over two months of lessons you might have made some progress. How many other dreams about the Dark Lord have you had?'
'Just that one,' lied Harry.
'Perhaps,' said Snape, his dark, cold eyes narrowing slightly, 'perhaps you actually enjoy having these visions and dreams, Potter. Maybe they make you feel special — important?'
[He neglects to repay Harry for breaking into his memories, though Harry expects him to, then sees the vision of the door opening in Harry's mind.]
'Explain yourself!' said Snape, who was standing over him, looking furious.
'I . . . dunno what happened,' said Harry truthfully, standing up. There was a lump on the back of his head from where he had hit the ground and he felt feverish. 'I've never seen that before. I mean, I told you, I've dreamed about the door . . . but it's never opened before –‘
'You are not working hard enough!' For some reason, Snape seemed even angrier than he had done two minutes before, when Harry had seen into his teacher's memories. 'You are lazy and sloppy, Potter, it is small wonder that the Dark Lord — '
He only really gets angry at Harry in this book when Harry a) refuses to practice or discipline himself and lets Voldemort in, and b) deliberately violates his privacy; he praised him for the accidental invasion as a sign of progress! He also, again, points out to Harry - now that Harry has seen for himself - that teenage James Potter is not, ah, a morally-upstanding role model for Harry. And for a brief time the lesson seemed to be having some effect:
What was making Harry feel so horrified and unhappy was [...] that he knew how it felt to be humiliated in the middle of a circle of onlookers, knew exactly how Snape had felt as his father had taunted him, and that judging from what he had just seen, his father had been every bit as arrogant as Snape had always told him.
But his personal hatred of Severus eventually overcomes his willingness to reflect, and he consciously indulges in this to avoid any feeling of responsibility for his own actions - especially after the DOM fiasco and Sirius' death, when Dumbles reveals that Snape is the one who sent the cavalry and so saved them after Harry's refusal to practice his occlumency led them into the trap:
Harry disregarded this; he felt a savage pleasure in blaming Snape, it seemed to be easing his own sense of dreadful guilt, and he wanted to hear Dumbledore agree with him.
And Dumbledore supports him in his ignoring of Snape's repeated command to master his emotions and discipline himself lest the Dark Lord use him, the very thing that indeed led to the fiasco:
"'That power [from the locked room - love] took you to save Sirius tonight. That power also saved you from possession by Voldemort, because he could not bear to reside in a body so full of the force he detests. In the end, it mattered not that you could not close your mind. It was your heart that saved you.'"
An explanation that we know to be disingenuous at best.
And he does not, note, allow Severus the luxury of being emotional in anything he does, not even when his life is on the line, but expects of him absolute self-control no matter the provocation. And he makes this double standard clear to Harry when discussing the ending of the occlumency lessons that Harry himself brought about by his deliberate invasion of Severus’ privacy:
“'I trust Severus Snape,' said Dumbledore simply. 'But I forgot — another old man's mistake — that some wounds run too deep for the healing. I thought Professor Snape could overcome his feelings about your father — I was wrong.'”
In other words: “it doesn’t matter, Harry, if you knowingly violated a man’s most private memories for no good purpose, in a situation in which, as you have reason to know, doing so might have put the man’s life at risk. The only fault here is Severus’ emotions, which we are going to interpret purely as being about a schoolboy grudge and nothing greater.”
In this scene we see one of the clearest examples of the general pattern in these books between Severus, Harry, and Dumbledore: Dumbledore explicitly undermines, to Harry, Severus’ attempts to impose any structured discipline on the boy, pushing him instead in the direction of thoughtless, emotion-driven action, into flinging himself – and others – into danger without regard for the potential consequences. Even ones long foreseen, even ones resulting in someone’s death. All the while still blaming Severus himself for failing to perfectly embody the ideal of absolute self-control when faced with much more severe provocation, including wrongdoing by Harry himself, and while refusing to so much as recognize the fact that Harry has done wrong to the man.
Message: you do not have to respect Severus Snape or the principles he looks to. You and you alone are above any rules that might bind him, and any conduct towards him and his attempts at enforcing discipline is permissible as long as you give occasional empty lip service to his authority in public. Regardless of the consequences to Snape or anyone else. In any conflict between you, Snape is automatically in the wrong, and his reasons for his behavior are automatically to be assumed pathetic.
Dumbledore may note briefly that he “trusts” Severus and that Severus acted to save Harry physically – that is, that he wants Harry to keep seeing Severus as his man – but he won’t support the man in his efforts to protect and guide Harry morally at all. Indeed, we see from Severus’ memories that he condescends to and blames Severus whenever he brings up the issue:
“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, likable, and reasonably talented. Personally, I find him an engaging child.”
Dumbledore turned a page, and said, without looking up, “Keep an eye on Quirrell, won’t you?” “
And between sensing this lack of support for Severus and his own hatred for Snape that Albus has worked to foster in Harry – and which Severus seems to have been fostering at first in accord with Albus’ plans before genuine frustration took over – Harry moves further and further away from any tendency to either reflect on his own actions, or to treat Snape as worthy of any regard whatsoever.
Snape's last interaction with Harry over his behavior in OotP is taking ten points from Gryffindor when he catches Harry, but not Draco, with drawn wand and Harry responds to his "What are you doing, Potter?" with "'I'm trying to decide what curse to use on Malfoy, sir,' said Harry fiercely." Though he accedes willingly enough to Minerva’s gift of points to Gryffindor when she walks up to them there.
In HBP, of course, is where we see Harry really taking a sharp moral dive. And this is where we get what is to my mind the clearest example of Severus concerning himself specifically with Harry’s moral education, as opposed to merely attempting to get his compliance, keep him physically safe, get justice for the Slytherins, and/or attempting to shield Harry covertly from unofficial retribution as terri has him doing in her fic. But we’ll get to that in a bit.
The first interaction between them that we get is, of course, at the Hogwarts gates. He verbally reprimands Harry for not wearing his uniform, then makes his comment about Tonks’ werewolf patronus looking weak before she departs.
Harry, for his part, has been overcome with loathing from the first moment he saw Snape there, before he spoke. Merely walking with Severus up the school is enough to generate waves of hatred in Harry so intense he marvels that Snape can’t physically feel them. He’s decided, upon a summer of, er, reflection, that Snape’s comment to Sirius – despite Dumbles’ brief point in OotP that Sirius knew better and made his own choice – makes him responsible for Sirius’ death, and “Harry clung to this notion, because it enabled him to blame Snape, which felt satisfying.”
Snape takes seventy points for the combination of lateness and no uniform, and starts in on the standard arrogance angle:
“’I suppose you wanted to make an entrance, did you?" Snape continued. "And with no flying car available you decided that bursting into the Great Hall halfway through the feast ought to create a dramatic effect.’" [Harry thinks of slipping in under his Cloak; Severus seems to guess his desire despite lacking eye contact] “’No cloak. You can walk in so that everyone sees you, which is what you wanted, I'm sure.’”
Points and visible tardiness as a direct consequence of being late, both which would be expected to lead to later social disapproval from his peers, the people whose opinion Harry seems to care most for in general.
Note that Harry has an excuse for his lateness (the train incident), but deliberately withholds it from Severus and remains furiously silent, giving Severus no cue as to why he’s late or that he’d been in physical danger, only sullen silence to read. And it’s dark, meaning Severus likely has not seen the bloody nose, which we know would alert Severus to go into protector mode.
Then it’s on to DADA lessons. In my “Indestructible” series I’ve noted that, especially in these last two books, mentions of dark magic and DADA seem keyed to unspoken but present moral dimensions of the series, and that Severus’ move to DADA professor coincides outwardly with a new required inward focus on moral questions for him. Part of Snape’s approach to teaching DADA, incidentally, is to give the teens graphic examples of the results of the Dark Arts to look at during classtime, an interior decorating choice which does at least, ah, get their attention. Cautionary examples, again.
In that first lesson Harry breaks out his ‘you don’t have to call me sir’ line in front of everyone after knocking Severus into a desk with a yelled Shield charm instead of the required nonverbal one, and earns himself: “’Detention, Saturday night, my office," said Snape. "I do not take cheek from anyone, Potter . . . not even 'the Chosen One.’”
Severus postpones the detention for Dumbledore, but explicitly not for Slughorn’s party – social invitation or no, Harry will be sorting flobberworms, his messenger tells Harry.
Harry meanwhile has been finding the teenaged Prince to be a teacher more to his liking than Severus, even on generally neutral subjects like nonverbal spellcasting. When he remembers seeing James use Levicorpus on Snape in the Pensieve, moreover, he recalls the incident, not with guilt at his wrongdoing in looking, but with the bright hope that maybe the Prince had been James, and defends James’ usage of the spell as “just having a laugh” when Hermione reminds him that Death Eaters had used the same spell to torture people at the Cup.
Right. That moral recognition from OotP lasted long.
Harry by this point has already been eagerly testing the Prince’s hexes: on Crabbe, “with very entertaining results,” and on “an unsuspecting Argus Filch,” which earns him approval from his peers; only Hermione disapproves, refusing even to talk with him when Harry’s using the relatively harmless Muffliato to chat in class. There’s no mention that Snape learns any details about what hexes were used or even if he hears about these attacks specifically, and he’s not apparently present for any of them, so we can’t evaluate the question of his response in relation to these incidents.
Harry also argues with Dumbledore about having Snape treat Katie for the necklace curse instead of Poppy, despite Dumbles’ point that Severus is the more knowledgeable – it seems his personal loathing of Snape is rendering him allergic to the very idea that Snape might know anything of use or be helpful to someone at all.
At Slughorn’s party, when Horace burbles to Severus about Harry’s potions genius and tells him the credit must be due to his teaching, Severus replies: "Funny, I never had the impression that I managed to teach Potter anything at all." He gives Harry a sharp look at Slughorn’s further praise, then notes at Sluggy’s next question that Harry’s classes are all ones required for Aurors before Luna interrupts. Then Draco appears and Snape goes with him, and Harry follows to eavesdrop on their conversation, and we see how little Draco cares for Severus’ attempts at guidance by this point either.
After the holidays Harry is busy trying to discover what Malfoy’s up to, and makes himself late for DADA after trying to get into the Room of Requirement after him. Snape takes ten points and leaves the matter. He takes a later opportunity, when he catches Harry and Ron talking instead of paying attention, to quiz him on ghosts and takes points from Ron when he argues with his assessment of Harry’s pathetic response.
The next set of interactions we have is the bathroom incident and its aftermath, which is what I really want to talk most about. I’ll be quoting scenes at length here, and returning to it later in this piece.
Harry, who has been ignoring and deflecting his friends’ criticisms of the Prince and continuing to use the book to cheat and as a source of spellcasting tips, finds Sectumsempra written with the note “For Enemies” and spends quite a few weeks itching over it, “considering trying it out on McLaggen next time he came up behind him unawares.”
So Harry’s been fantasizing about testing an unknown, possibly harmful (he won’t test it on Ron or near Hermione) spell on a quidditch rival for quite some time before the incident.
He finds Draco in the bathroom, with Myrtle attempting to get him to open up about what’s wrong and offering help. Draco claims no-one can help him and says that if he doesn’t do “it” soon, “he says he’ll kill me.” Harry realizes to his profound shock that Draco is crying.
After Draco sees him they trade hexes, Harry tries Levicorpus but is blocked, then a Leg-Locker curse that destroys a cistern. At that point it escalates:
Harry slipped as Malfoy, his face contorted, cried, "Cruci-"
"SECTUMSEMPRA!" bellowed Harry from the floor, waving his wand wildly.
Blood spurted from Malfoy's face and chest as though he had been slashed with an invisible sword. He staggered backward and collapsed onto the waterlogged floor with a great splash, his wand falling from his limp right hand.
Slipping and staggering, Harry got to his feet and plunged toward Malfoy, whose face was now shining scarlet, his white hands scrabbling at his blood-soaked chest.
Harry did not know what he was saying; he fell to his knees beside Malfoy, who was shaking uncontrollably in a pool of his own blood. Moaning Myrtle let out a deafening scream: "MURDER! MURDER IN THE BATHROOM! MURDER!"
Severus then arrives. He heals Draco as Harry watches, “horrified by what he had done, barely aware that he too was soaked in blood and water,” then moves to take him to Poppy:
“[Snape] supported Malfoy across the bathroom, turning at the door to say in a voice of cold fury, "And you, Potter . . . You wait here for me."
It did not occur to Harry for a second to disobey.”
Let us note that Harry does feel immediate shock and horror when confronted with the carnage he has caused. For now.
When Snape returns, he dismisses Myrtle. Harry speaks without prompting:
"I didn't mean it to happen," said Harry at once. His voice echoed in the cold, watery space. "I didn't know what that spell did."
But Snape ignored this. "Apparently I underestimated you, Potter," he said quietly. "Who would have thought you knew such Dark Magic? Who taught you that spell?"
"I - read about it somewhere."
"It was - a library book," Harry invented wildly. "I can't remember what it was call -"
"Liar," said Snape. Harry's throat went dry. He knew what Snape was going to do and he had never been able to prevent it. ...
The bathroom seemed to shimmer before his eyes; he struggled to block out all thought, but try as he might, the Half-Blood Prince's copy of Advanced Potion-Making swam hazily to the forefront of his mind.
And then he was staring at Snape again, in the midst of this wrecked, soaked bathroom. He stared into Snape's black eyes, hoping against hope that Snape had not seen what he feared, but -
"Bring me your schoolbag," said Snape softly, "and all of your schoolbooks. All of them. Bring them to me here. Now!"
There was no point arguing.
So. Though Harry realizes he’s done wrong, his immediate impulse is to take refuge in, “I didn’t mean to” – his past fantasizing ignored – and, when questioned as to where he learned the spell, to lie, poorly, even though he knows Snape will be able to see it in his mind, which he does.
Severus, interestingly, seems more concerned with the apparent inaccuracy of his own evaluation of Harry than with anything else at first. His cold fury from minutes earlier has changed to quiet calm and an evaluating gaze on Harry. He ignores the plea toward intent, neither accepting it nor smacking it down, and attempts to determine who has been teaching Harry such magic – what direction the influence leading to such an attack could be coming from. It’s Harry’s wild lie, in attempt to preserve access to the Prince’s book, that provokes his first sharp word – “Liar” and use of legilimency. Then he demands the books, quite obviously intending to confiscate the offending volume.
Harry runs to get his books. He thinks for a moment in shock that it seems like a “beloved pet had turned suddenly savage,” that one of the Prince’s spells did this. But upon the thought of losing the book “that had become a kind of guide and friend” Harry impulse is that he “could not let it happen. . . . He could not. . .”
He demands Ron’s book to turn in instead, and detours to the Room to hide the Prince’s book, compounding his original lie even though a moment’s thought would tell him that Snape is sure to notice he’s turning in the wrong book. He then returns to Snape in the bathroom:
A minute later, he was back in front of Snape, who held out his hand wordlessly for Harry's schoolbag. Harry handed it over, panting, a searing pain in his chest, and waited.
One by one, Snape extracted Harry’s books and examined them. Finally, the only book left was the Potions book, which he looked at very carefully before speaking.
"This is your copy of Advanced Potion-Making, is it, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry, still breathing hard.
"You're quite sure of that, are you, Potter?"
"Yes," said Harry, with a touch more defiance.
"This is the copy of Advanced Potion-Making that you purchased from Flourish and Blotts?"
"Yes," said Harry firmly.
[Notice that Severus gives him three tries to answer honestly, asking specifically for confirmation that Harry hasn’t picked up the wrong book – this after he’s already caught Harry in one lie. But Harry, er, firmly insists on digging himself in deeper.]
"Then why," asked Snape, "does it have the name 'Roonil Wazlib' written inside the front cover?"
Harrys heart missed a beat. "That's my nickname," he said. '
"Your nickname," repeated Snape. "Yeah . . . that's what my friends call me," said Harry.
"I understand what a nickname is," said Snape. The cold, black eyes were boring once more into Harry's; he tried not to look into them. Close your mind. . . . Close your mind. . . . But he had never learned how to do it properly. . . .
"Do you know what I think, Potter?" said Snape, very quietly. "I think that you are a liar and a cheat and that you deserve detention with me every Saturday until the end of term. "What do you think, Potter?"
"I - I don't agree, sir," said Harry, still refusing to look into Snape's eyes.
"Well, we shall see how you feel after your detentions," said Snape. "Ten o'clock Saturday morning, Potter. My office."
"But sir . . ." said Harry, looking up desperately. "Quidditch . . . the last match of the ..."
"Ten o'clock," whispered Snape, with a smile that showed his yellow teeth. "Poor Gryffindor. . . fourth place this year, I fear ..."
And he left the bathroom without another word, leaving Harry to stare into the cracked mirror, feeling sicker, he was sure, than Ron had ever felt in his life.
He calls Harry out on his lies – and, incidentally, the cheating that we and Harry know he has been perpetrating – and states that he feels detention is a deserved punishment for what’s happened. Then he asks Harry what he thinks of this.
Which is a curious move for Severus – he’s previously not shown much inclination to discuss the question of a punishment’s deservedness with Harry directly, only to enforce it. And it’s not a sarcastic question; nor does he slap Harry down for daring to disagree point-blank to his face about it. He only reflects that Harry may feel differently after his detentions. This is a rather more philosophical Snape than we’re used to seeing come out in response to Harry’s misbehavior. And the only hint of remotely-sneering Snape comes through at the end, when Harry protests the idea of being punished for his violent assault and lies because he’ll miss quidditch. At that point Snape smiles and notes that it seems Gryffindor will be in last place then, and leaves.
All trace of horror, regret, or squirming of conscience over what Harry’s just done to Malfoy have long vanished, note, despite the blood literally pooled around them here. All his attention and care are on keeping access to the book that had taught him the spell by any means necessary, even to the point of pointless, even ridiculous lies and even though a few minutes ago he was reflecting that the viciousness of the spell made him feel like the Prince was an animal he’s just realized is “savage.” He’s fallen into a pattern over the last couple of books of at first recognizing but then denying or avoiding his own responsibility for his actions, letting his other emotions distract him – precisely as Dumbledore has encouraged.
Harry later has to endure fifteen “highly unpleasant” minutes listening to Minerva tell him “he was lucky not to have been expelled and that she supported wholeheartedly Snape's punishment of detention every Saturday until the end of term.” Which, given how we know Minerva feels about quidditch, tells you how serious indeed his situation is. When Hermione says this proves she was right that there was something dodgy about the Prince, Harry replies stubbornly, “No, I don’t think you were.” But it’s the disapproval of his teammates that makes the biggest impression on Harry: “the looks on the Gryffindor team's faces when he had told them he would not be able to play on Saturday had been the worst punishment of all.”
None of it, however, induces in him remorse or genuine reflection on his own actions; he only notes the unpleasantness of the feeling of being disliked. And further attempts by Hermione to get him to reconsider his view of the Prince get met with snappish disagreement. When Ginny suddenly agrees with him and tells her to leave it, Harry, “little though he knew he deserved it, felt unbelievably cheerful all of a sudden, even though none of them spoke again for the rest of the evening.”
His mood evaporates the next day at the jeers from Slytherins and his Gryffindors’ fellow anger over the game he’ll be missing. Then it’s detention time:
"Ah, Potter," said Snape, when Harry had knocked on his door and entered the unpleasantly familiar office […] Ominously, there were many cob-webbed boxes piled on a table where Harry was clearly supposed to sit; they had an aura of tedious, hard, and pointless work about them.
"Mr. Filch has been looking for someone to clear out these old files," said Snape softly. "They are the records of other Hogwarts wrongdoers and their punishments. Where the ink has grown faint, or the cards have suffered damage from mice, we would like you to copy out the crimes and punishments afresh and, making sure that they are in alphabetical order, replace them in the boxes. You will not use magic."
"Right, Professor," said Harry, with as much contempt as he could put into the last three syllables.
"I thought you could start," said Snape, a malicious smile on his lips, "with boxes one thousand and twelve to one thousand and fifty-six. You will find some familiar names in there, which should add interest to the task. Here, you see . . ."
He pulled out a card from one of the topmost boxes with a flourish and read, "James Potter and Sirius Black. Apprehended using an illegal hex upon Bertram Aubrey. Aubreys head twice normal size. Double detention." Snape sneered. "It must be such a comforting thing that, though they are gone, a record of their great achievements remains."
Harry felt the familiar boiling sensation in the pit of his stomach. Biting his tongue to prevent himself retaliating, he sat down in front of the boxes and pulled one toward him.
It was, as Harry had anticipated, useless, boring work, punctuated (as Snape had clearly planned) with the regular jolt in the stomach that meant he had just read his father or Sirius's names, usually coupled together in various petty misdeeds, occasionally accompanied by those of Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. And while he copied out all their various offenses and punishments, he wondered what was going on outside, where the match would have just started . . . Ginny playing Seeker against Cho . . .
Between detentions he thinks of getting the book back, but is unable to because of Severus:
He had not dared to return to the Room of Requirement to retrieve his book, and his performance in Potions was suffering accordingly […] But Harry was sure that Snape had not yet given up hope of laying hands on the Prince's book, and was determined to leave it where it was while Snape remained on the lookout.
He’s not interested, though, in Hermione’s attempt to identify the Prince. He conscripts Ron into supporting him that the Prince isn’t anyone to worry about and that he doesn’t need to seriously worry about the effects of his attack on Draco:
‘I mean, I'm not saying that spell you used on Malfoy was great -'
'Nor am I,' said Harry quickly.
'But he healed all right, didn't he? Back on his feet in no time.'
'Yeah,' said Harry; this was perfectly true, although his conscience squirmed slightly all the same. Thanks to Snape ...'
'You still got detention with Snape this Saturday?' Ron continued.
'Yeah, and the Saturday after that, and the Saturday after that,' sighed Harry. 'And he's hinting now that if I don't get all the boxes done by the end of term, we'll carry on next year.'
He was finding these detentions particularly irksome because they cut into the already limited time he could have been spending with Ginny. Indeed, he had frequently wondered lately whether Snape did not know this, for he was keeping Harry later and later every time, while making pointed asides about Harry having to miss the good weather and the varied opportunities it offered.
So. Harry arrives for detention, and Severus at first is again strangely soft-spoken; “we would like you to copy out the crimes and punishments afresh,” he even says. It’s only in response to Harry’s deliberate contempt that that smile comes out and he then pointedly references the cards referring to the Marauders’ misdeeds. Then he reads one out and speaks of this legacy of “their great achievements.” That Severus deliberately means for Harry to note with discomfort their misdeeds Harry immediately takes as part of the point of the punishment. The only thing he reflects on, however, is the quidditch he’s missing.
This is an unusual punishment when compared with Severus’ pattern. Boring work, yes, but not mindless and empty of meaningful content in order to be unpleasant, the way his typical potions-ingredients detentions are, the fact of the work itself meant to be a deterrent. Instead, Severus literally makes him read through a series of records of crimes and the punishments thought fitting for them – including particularly but not only those of people Harry admires – and rewrite them, requiring his focused attention on each one. (And he doesn’t assign mere lines in order to make his point, which might stir up echoes of Umbridge that would draw on the wrong emotional resonance here.) As the detentions continue and Harry’s attitude doesn’t improve, he explicitly draws Harry’s attention to the pleasant opportunities he is forced to miss because of his behavior.
It’s almost as if he’s trying to push Harry to reflect, isn’t it? To consider the fact that he has done something wrong and the nature of the type of consequence that might be levied for attacking other people. (That card he read aloud did include the effects upon the victim, not just a record of the punishment, too.) This after he explicitly, and calmly, engaged Harry over the question of what punishment he might deserve for his wrongdoing and invited Harry to consider the idea that his detention might make him re-evaluate his attitude of denial.
Nor can we assume that he chose this punishment because, no longer potions professor, he no longer administers detentions involving ingredients and so he was forced to resort to the closest similar alternative. His first detention to Harry for that classroom cheek was, true to form, sorting flobberworms. This punishment is clearly intended to be something other than mere standard deterrence. He even hints – knowing that it’s wildly unlikely to happen, given his Vow – that the record-copying will continue next year. That is, that this isn’t simply an unpleasant task Harry can push through and be free of after school ends, but something he’ll need to continue doing.
And it’s not, note, a punishment likely to be seen as stern enough on its own by the Slytherins or Malfoy himself to quell any desire to retaliate more pointedly themselves they might conceivably have, so that can’t be the reason for it.
I mean, considering the role Snape’s position forces him to play and the fact that Harry is not at all inclined to listen to, much less take seriously, anything that Snape says directly on any matter, this is in Snape-language practically an engraved and gilded invitation spelling out, “wake up and think about the consequences of your actions and the direction you’re going in.” In response to the violent assault upon a fellow student that might have killed him, brought about by Harry’s adoption of Severus’ own previous teenaged approach to, ah, schoolyard spellcasting.
Meanwhile, Severus remains watchful that the book – the source of influence – does not come back into Harry’s hands.
It’s on the way to Dumbledore’s office after the conversation with Ron just quoted that Harry stumbles upon Trelawney and learns Snape delivered the prophecy, and flies into a rage at Dumbledore. Only the fear that Dumbledore will not take him with to retrieve the Horcrux he’s found this time makes Harry attempt to master his anger. They go to the Cave that evening.
After that night, of course, Severus is hardly going to be in a position to guide Harry in any way whatsoever.
And yet, even in the midst of the turmoil after the Tower, he does keep trying to teach Harry, pointedly. He blocks Harry’s Crucios (“No Unforgivable Curses from you, Potter! […] You haven’t got the nerve or the ability -” The nerve and the ability he’d just been forced to show, to his own devastation.), refuses to do more than deflect Harry’s spells and tells him, “’Blocked again and again and again until you learn to keep your mouth shut and your mind closed, Potter!’” It’s when Harry tries Sectumsempra and Levicorpus that his rage flares again: “No, Potter!” and then comes the “don’t call me coward” exchange.
Overall, the pattern we have is Severus protecting Harry from any actual punishment that might put him outside Hogwarts’ safety, which we know he could never countenance, but threatening Harry with the possibility to get his attention, and then in general using his position as school authority and Harry’s known critic to attempt to make the boy heed the impersonal authority of rules and laws. He explicitly and consistently connects Harry’s breaking of rules to arrogance and thinking oneself above others, above both the applicability of rules governing everyone and above the need to consider the cost to others – including one’s own friends – of one’s own actions. Lack of honesty also over times becomes an increasingly important issue to him.
(It’s possible, if you like, to read a hint of similar concern over arrogance into his repeatedly slapping down Hermione as a know-it-all and show-off, if you want to go that far. It’s something of a deserved criticism there as well, after all. With Neville...well, in general we have apparent refusal to pay attention combined with total lack of (magical) self-control, though his handling of Neville leaves much to be desired. Severus does seem to have some particular points of irritation with his students, doesn’t he? It’s not necessary here, but one could if one wanted speculate as to just why that combination of sins seems to most draw his wrath…)
From POA onward he also attempts to use the James aspect – first brought into the picture by Albus back in the first book – as an indirect means of provoking Harry into reflecting on his own behavior, on what sort of person he wants to model himself after and become. Again, the great sin here is that of arrogance and setting oneself above others, doing as one pleases to other people. Harry briefly recognizes the justice of this accusation and the nature of its wrongness in OotP, comparing it explicitly with his own experience of mistreatment, but drops this realization in favor of blaming Severus for everything after the DOM and Dumbledore’s undermining of the suggestion that he himself had possibly done something wrong.
Severus also explicitly shows concern – as far back as POA – that special exemption such as that granted to Harry by Albus might be, not merely unfair or socially disruptive, but negatively impactful on Harry himself, a concern he expresses most explicitly to the one person most likely to be able to impact Dumbledore’s treatment of Harry, since as we know he doesn’t listen to Severus himself on the matter. So he is aware of that dimension of things at least, though it tends not to be made so explicit usually. Though he also doesn’t allow Dumbledore’s policy to be a route of escape for Harry himself, but points out to Karkaroff in Harry’s hearing that breaking rules is a tendency Harry’s shown from the beginning of his schooling – i.e. is something Harry needs to correct in himself, not just something to lay at Dumbledore’s feet.
The next year, under the guise of the occlumency lessons, Snape ventures beyond the simple tactics of punishing Harry explicitly for breaking rules and discoursing on the sin of arrogance, into engaging him directly regarding the need to master himself and his negative emotions and to exert self-control. He warns him that failing to do so leaves him vulnerable to manipulation by those seeking to use him to evil ends – with himself as the unspoken but obvious cautionary example – and praises Harry for the slightest signs of improvement in this area, even when his own amour-propre has been unintentionally pierced. Signs of laziness and sloppiness he calls out.
When Harry’s progress stalls for two months and Harry lies to his face about his dreams of Voldemort, Severus ties Harry’s refusal of self-mastery to his old theme of arrogance, suggesting that perhaps Harry is allowing the Dark Lord to influence him because it makes him feel “special – important.” He passes over Harry’s breaking into his own mind but gets angry at him again when he senses Harry has not been working at his occlumency, which he connects directly to the danger of the Dark Lord’s continuing influence on him. It’s only Harry’s deliberate, conscious violation of Severus’ privacy after a consistent refusal to shield his own mind from Voldemort that apparently sends him over the edge into refusal to work with Harry any more.
And after Severus has been proved completely correct in his fears about Harry’s attitude and the possible consequences of Harry’s refusal to discipline himself, leading to the children being netted by Death Eaters, Harry’s torture by Voldemort, and the death of Sirius Black, Dumbledore explicitly undermines any suggestion that Harry ought to have heeded Severus’ instructions or should reflect now on the consequences of failing to master himself as Severus – on Dumbledore’s own orders! – had required, encouraging him instead to continue throwing himself heedlessly forward on the basis of his emotions. As he has been consistently encouraging him since book one. And he implies to Harry that the true fault leading to the end of the occlumency lessons is not Harry’s own deliberate violation of a man’s privacy under circumstances that could lead to the man’s death, but Severus’ weakness in being emotionally affected by wrongs that Dumbledore had tolerated against him.
From that point on Harry not only refuses to accord Severus any respect whatsoever, he consciously uses his hatred of him to counter and subdue any lingering sense of guilt in himself for anything he may have done wrong, any choice of his (or indeed of Sirius’ own) that led to Sirius’ death. And Dumbledore never makes more than an empty show of indicating that Harry should actually respect Severus: he’ll remind him once or twice to use the honorific “Professor” of him, but he never imposes actual consequences for any display of disrespect (or even expresses genuine disapproval strong enough for Harry to note) and never requires more than this hollow lip service from him. But then, it’s fairly clear that Dumbledore never accorded Severus any true respect, and if there’s one person whose lead Harry determinedly follows in these books regardless of his own doubts or conscience, it’s Dumbledore. As Dumbledore well knows and intends.
At the beginning of sixth year, when Harry arrives late for no good reason he will offer, Snape returns to the consistent criticism of his apparent arrogance and levies socially-pointed punishment; indeed, in by this book it’s become quite clear that Harry cares far more for, and thus might more likely heed, the disapproval of his peers than that of Severus himself, though even that is of limited effectiveness at best here. Severus later notes that it seems to him that he has never been able to effectively teach Harry anything, but he apparently hasn’t given up on attempting it with what tools he has. In defiance of Albus’ desires, apparently.
And then, when despite his efforts Harry is showing every sign of becoming, not only “a nasty boy” and liar who thinks himself above rules, but indeed a killer through his aggressive heedlessness and opening himself up to morally-questionable influences, Severus halts and evaluates him carefully, calmly offers him multiple opportunities to be honest about the circumstances, attempts to remove the negative influence he’s identified, engages him directly and calmly on the question of deserved consequences, and attempts to get him to reflect on his actions and role models.
And then later, even in the midst of a literal crowd of Death Eaters and his own immense turmoil and anguish, Severus pointedly prevents Harry from using Unforgivables and then reiterates the need for Harry to master his own mind and emotions.
So we have a pattern of attempting to make Harry obey rules and understand that other people are his equals and that he should not set himself above them or be heedless of his actions’ consequences to them, linked by his third year to the question of pernicious effects on Harry’s own development of Dumbledore’s special treatment, and attempts to get Harry to question the sort of aggressive, heedless, and arrogant role models he’s choosing for himself. This then becomes explicit instruction on the need to discipline oneself and one’s emotions lest they become a means of moral corruption and manipulation by others, a lesson that Dumbledore takes care to shoot down for Harry once it becomes clear that the consequences of not heeding it are very real. Severus responds the next year to signs that Harry’s moral slide downward is continuing into near-manslaughter by eventually setting aside sharpness and anger in favor of open dialog – as far as he’s able given his position and Harry’s deliberate, emotional rejection of his authority – and repeated opportunities for personal reflection, which he suggests will need to continue past the end of the school year.
And that, at some point, this pattern evolved beyond merely trying to keep Harry compliant for his own physical safety and get official justice for others looking to Severus, into concern specifically for the moral status of Harry Potter himself as a point of attention in its own right, is made clear in HBP.
Because consider the timing of that last shift of Severus’ into full dialog-and-urge-reflection mode.
It comes, firstly, after a year in which Harry had seemed, however briefly, to finally note that Severus is correct about his choice of role model (Harry indicates this verbally to him after the Pensieve), and at the end of which Severus (if unaware of Dumbles’ undermining him in that conversation) might be forgiven for thinking that Harry had at last given himself consequences for his lack of self-mastery severe enough that he might finally reflect and change course. Though I imagine his behavior over the course of sixth year steadily whittled down that hope in Severus.
Then, secondly: not only does it come during a year in which, as I’m arguing in my “Indestructible” series, Severus himself has been pushed into more thoroughly wrestling with the nature of moral choice and action and in which one of his explicit missions is to act as a guardian of a boy’s – Draco’s – soul. It also comes at particular point in that year.
Early May, to be exact. This is a little over a month before Dumbledore’s death.
And well after Hagrid overheard Snape and Dumbledore arguing. He reported that conversation to the trio on March first.
Which means that, since the end of February, Severus has known that Harry is not supposed to be able to survive the war. That protecting him physically is ultimately something of a moot point, even if Severus were able to be there to do so, because Harry has to die.
Now, Severus knows very well Harry’s hatred for Voldemort and willingness to finish him off, even if he was concerned about the boy’s arrogance leading him into letting himself be manipulated by him. And he knows, to his own frustration, exactly how willing Harry is to throw himself into mortal danger for others (and indeed for lesser reasons) without thought. He can’t seriously be contemplating the idea that Harry would preserve his own life at the cost of letting Voldemort win.
Which means that this last thoughtful, all-out attempt to get Harry to step back and seriously reflect morally on his own actions toward others, to develop that habit in him while protecting him from a known moral hazard that Severus is all too familiar with, cannot be motivated either by concern merely for the boy’s ultimate physical safety, or simply for the fate of the war effort. Nor is it deterrent enough to be merely an attempt to hold back some feared retribution from the Slytherins, and Severus himself meanwhile has nothing apparent to gain from appearing to play moral preceptor here – indeed, he seems to be going quite counter to Albus’ intended course of instruction for Harry and acting purely on his own initiative. While breaking even his own typical patterns of discipline and setting aside his own initial anger in order to try a new tactic.
The only clear motive for this move is if Severus were, indeed, concerned specifically for what sort of moral understanding and habits Harry actually possesses.
Concern, if you will, for his soul.
Pursued in defiance of Albus Dumbledore.
