Chapter Text
Snape vs. Other Teachers
As pet_genius says: Discussing what other teachers do is not whataboutism. A serious discussion of child abuse in Harry Potter must acknowledge all incidents. A serious discussion of Snape as a character must acknowledge the full context of his actions, and that includes prevailing norms.
Or as I’d put it: To call Snape the worst teacher in Harry Potter is to call for a comparison with the other teachers that we meet in the saga, see if he is indeed the worst or if he isn't out-of-line after all.
Snape has no incentive to dial down his cruelty and a wealth of reasons for being cruel, so the cruelty we see in him is the worst he could do. Yet (and as we will see later) it is limited to sarcastic remarks, docked points, and a handful of detentions. Physical abuse is not part of his teaching habits and the few punishments Snape gives out are never dangerous. How do the other teachers measure up? Here’s everything that came to mind, there may be more. By teacher, just to show how bad anyone would look if you listed their bad deeds just as is done for Snape:
Fake Moody
a Death Eater, but a Death Eater who fooled everyone, meaning his behaviour was not that OOC for real Moody, whom Dumbledore hired and the school kept, and is “confirmed” by Rowling to impersonate Moody to near-perfection:
- Upsets the students by randomly shouting CONSTANT VIGILANCE and teaching them to be paranoid. [include a CONSTANT VIGILANCE moment from Moody VA]
- Repeatedly curses students in class without healing them afterwards: “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.”
- Transfigures Draco and slams him repeatedly against the stone floor while Draco is squealing in pain (which amounts to torture against a child); right after that, he grabs Draco and pulls him towards the dungeons, intending to humiliate him some more as well as threaten his Head of House, so that Draco understands that not even Snape can protect him from a violent magic cop/soldier aka Auror going out of line
- Crucios a spider that he purposefully enlarged “to get the idea”, in front of Neville, which causes him such distress that Hermione has to interrupt the lesson. Neville is in shock:
Neville was standing alone, halfway up the passage, staring at the stone wall opposite him with the same horrified, wide-eyed look he had worn when Moody had demonstrated the Cruciatus Curse.
“Neville?” Hermione said gently.
Neville looked around.
“Oh hello,” he said, his voice much higher than usual. “Interesting lesson, wasn’t it? I wonder what’s for dinner, I’m — I’m starving, aren’t you?”
“Neville, are you all right?” said Hermione. “Oh yes, I’m fine,” Neville gabbled in the same unnaturally high voice. “Very interesting dinner — I mean lesson — what’s for eating?”
Ron gave Harry a startled look.
“Neville, what — ?”
We know for a fact that this traumatised him because while Seamus Finnigan says the 2nd Triwizard task might involve a banshee (his Boggart), Neville immediately exclaims that Harry will have to fight off the Cruciatus Curse, while going very white and spilling his food on the floor.
After the lesson, Moody “comforts” Neville:
“It’s all right, sonny,” he said to Neville. “Why don’t you come up to my office? Come on… we can have a cup of tea...”
Neville looked even more frightened at the prospect of tea with Moody. He neither moved nor spoke. [...]
Neville looked pleadingly at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, but they didn’t say anything, so Neville had no choice but to allow himself to be steered away, one of Moody’s gnarled hands on his shoulder.
Now picture how he must have felt when he found out it was one of his parents’ torturers.
- In the same lesson, kills the spider with the Avada in front of Harry, triggering a dissociative reaction typical of PTSD like for Neville:
Harry stared at the blank blackboard as though fascinated by it, but not really seeing it at all…
So that was how his parents had died… exactly like that spider. Had they been unblemished and unmarked too? Had they simply seen the flash of green light and heard the rush of speeding death, before life was wiped from their bodies? [...]
Moody was speaking again, from a great distance, it seemed to Harry. With a massive effort, he pulled himself back to the present and listened to what Moody was saying.
It didn’t just shock Harry either:
Several of the students stifled cries [...].
Moody easily got away with it.
- Performs the Imperius on students repeatedly, hurting Harry in the process:
Jump! NOW!
The next thing Harry felt was considerable pain. He had both jumped and tried to prevent himself from jumping — the result was that he’d smashed headlong into the desk, knocking it over, and, by the feeling in his legs, fractured both his kneecaps .
And the school does nothing to stop fake Moody. These are Hogwarts’ teaching standards, after all.
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: [quote]
Hooch:
- Lets Neville break his arm instead of flying up to his level and catching him before he falls, or using Arresto Momentum or a Cushioning Charm.
- More reprehensible is that she decides to leave a whole class of 1st years alone with the brooms (Slytherins and Gryffindors together, no less) to walk Neville to the Infirmary when she should have sent Neville with another student and stayed to ensure no one else injured or killed themselves; alternatively she could have used a spell to make the brooms unable to be ridden; and because she didn’t, two students almost seriously hurt themselves right after Neville.
- Harry gets almost murdered by a Dark jinx and stands on the verge of death for a solid 5 minutes, she does nothing (why do you think Snape decided to referee the next match instead)
- Harry gets almost murdered by a rogue Bludger during a whole match, she does nothing, all in the name of respecting a stupid school sport’s rules
- Harry almost dies because of the Dementors in the stadium, she does nothing
- Falls asleep during practice (...)
Trelawney:
- predicts a death among the new students in her class every year and generally distresses students with her predictions [quote McGonagall]
- To Hermione: “I don’t remember ever meeting a student whose mind was so hopelessly mundane.”
- Is so terrible that the same student who constantly defends Snape cannot stand her and furiously quits her classes
- 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?”
- shows up several times in a state of inebriety among the students and hides her bottles of sherry inside the school;
- calls Firenze the centaur a horse in front of a student [that's racist meme]
Binns:
- His History classes are so disastrous that he may be partially to blame for bloody wizarding history repeating itself.
I’m sorry but he’s just so horrible as a teacher I had to mention him. Look at this:
- History of Magic was the dullest subject on their schedule. Professor Binns, who taught it, was their only ghost teacher, and the most exciting thing that ever happened in his classes was his entering the room through the blackboard. [...] Today was as boring as ever. Professor Binns opened his notes and began to read in a flat drone like an old vacuum cleaner until nearly everyone in the class was in a deep stupor, occasionally coming to long enough to copy down a name or date, then falling asleep again.
- It was amazing how he could make even bloody and vicious goblin riots sound as boring as Percy’s cauldron-bottom report.
- Professor Binns, their ghost teacher, had a wheezy, droning voice that was almost guaranteed to cause severe drowsiness within ten minutes, five in warm weather. He never varied the form of their lessons, but lectured them without pausing while they took notes, or rather, gazed sleepily into space. Harry and Ron had so far managed to scrape passes in this subject only by copying Hermione’s notes before exams; she alone seemed able to resist the soporific power of Binns’s voice. Today they suffered through three quarters of an hour’s droning on the subject of giant wars. Harry heard just enough within the first ten minutes to appreciate dimly that in another teacher’s hands this subject might have been mildly interesting, but then his brain disengaged, and he spent the remaining thirty-five minutes playing hangman on a corner of his parchment with Ron, while Hermione shot them filthy looks out of the corner of her eye.
- He glanced around at Professor Binns who continued to read his notes, serenely unaware that the class’s attention was even less focused upon him than usual.
- His classes are so boring that Hermione herself couldn’t help sleeping the class off once:
- History of Magic had rarely gone so slowly. Harry kept checking Ron’s watch, having finally discarded his own, but Ron’s was moving so slowly he could have sworn it had stopped working too. All three of them were so tired they could happily have put their heads down on the desks and slept; even Hermione wasn’t taking her usual notes, but was sitting with her head on her hand, gazing at Professor Binns with her eyes out of focus.
- Does not even remember his students’ names!
- “But, sir,” said Seamus Finnigan, “if the Chamber can only be opened by Slytherin’s true heir, no one else would be able to find it, would they?”
“Nonsense, O’Flaherty,” said Professor Binns in an aggravated tone. “If a long succession of Hogwarts headmasters and headmistresses haven’t found the thing —”
“But, Professor,” piped up Parvati Patil, “you’d probably have to use Dark Magic to open it —”
“Just because a wizard doesn’t use Dark Magic doesn’t mean he can’t, Miss Pennyfeather,” snapped Professor Binns. “I repeat, if the likes of Dumbledore —”
- “Yes,” said Professor Binns, clearly very much wrong-footed. “Yes… yes, hospital wing… well, off you go, then, Perkins…” [Potter]
What a terrible teacher.
Madam Pince:
- Yells at students like a freaking banshee for the slightest rule-breaking, physically assaulting them with magic to force them to run away from her – using their own student material no less:
“WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING?”
“Oh damn,” whispered Ginny, jumping to her feet. “I forgot —”
Madam Pince was swooping down upon them, her shriveled face contorted with rage .
“Chocolate in the library! ” she screamed . “Out — out — OUT!”
And whipping out her wand, she caused Harry’s books, bag, and ink bottle to chase him and Ginny from the library, whacking them repeatedly over the head as they ran.
- Students are uncomfortable searching for books in the library because of her:
- What they really needed was a nice long search without Madam Pince breathing down their necks.
- [...] though Harry asked Professor McGonagall for a note of permission to use the Restricted Section, and even asked the irritable, vulture-like librarian, Madam Pince, for help — they found nothing whatsoever that would enable Harry to spend an hour underwater and live to tell the tale.
- Has a tantrum on students and tries to steal their books for unconventionally customising them:
“The library is now closed,” she said, “Mind you return anything you have borrowed to the correct — what have you been doing to that book, you depraved boy? ”
“It isn’t the library’s, it’s mine!” said Harry hastily, snatching his copy of Advanced Potion-Making off the table as she lunged at it with a clawlike hand .
“Spoiled!” she hissed. “Desecrated, befouled!”
“It’s just a book that’s been written on!” said Harry, tugging it out of her grip.
She looked as though she might have a seizure ; Hermione, who had hastily packed her things, grabbed Harry by the arm and frogmarched him away.
Filch (honourable mention):
- Is nostalgic of corporeal punishment and children torture [probably beat some himself when it was still allowed in Hogwarts?]
- Partook in the Forbidden Forest punishment with glee, threatening the children that they may not come out of it in one piece
- Is quick to join Umbridge in turning Hogwarts into a hell school, salivating at the prospect of whipping children
Slughorn:
- is less interested in his duties as a teacher than establishing contacts with powerful families and celebrities like Harry while they're still young and impressionable
- makes the students buy an outdated book with faulty recipes; everyone is failing, including Draco and Hermione (who were previously proficient under Snape), but he doesn't care to help them and would rather discuss (elitist things) with his students during Potions class; to succeed in Potions under him, you have to literally cheat or be a potions wunderkid. No wonder he thinks a child without wizard heritage cannot succeed in his class.
(Neville hurt himself only once in Snape's classes, and that's during the very first, after which Snape took care that it never happened again. I wonder what Slughorn would have done if he had to teach Neville, a student prone to hurt himself in Potions?)
- Ron is poisoned and he just stands there
(We just got our answer about what could have happened to Neville if Slughorn had been his teacher.)
- starts an elitist club to promote his favourites 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.
- is openly prejudiced/”racist” (though non-violent): assumes Muggle-Borns are bound to perform worse than anyone else in Potions (then again his horrible pedagogy ensures that), assumes Hermione Granger must come from a wizard family if she is so talented, pays a bit of attention for her only because she's the friend of the Boy Who Lived (to check)
- was Tom Riddle’s mentor and his influence on Tom is apparent in Tom trying to become a teacher to influence young minds or testing poisons on house elves
- helped Tom Riddle in the making of Horcruxes; but the worst is that he actively hid this crucial info from Dumbledore. Telling the leader of the Order that Voldemort seems to have created 7 Horcruxes to attain immortality could have helped Dumbledore end the war sooner, sparing hundreds of lives among his students and their families (not to mention Muggles), but Slughorn cared too much about his reputation for that.
- whole generations of Slytherins were groomed into the DEs under his nose, and all he did was to complain about how he couldn’t get the whole set of the heirs of the family of Black in his House, or that Lily (a Muggle-Born) wasn’t Sorted in Slytherin, where Death Eater wannabes ran rampant, which he ought to know as he was the Head of Slytherin House; in comparison, only 3 students turned DEs under Snape and that's Draco's gang
Dumbledore:
- silenced student Snape after Sirius tried to kill him, did not expel Sirius, did nothing to protect Snape and the other students against the Marauders ["boys will be boys"]
- This is consistent with allowing dangerous/evil individuals to live at Hogwarts like Quirrell, Lockhart or Draco
- His attitude toward Harry in OOTP was emotionally abusive
- recruited soldiers into the original Order while they were still his students (?), and continued to use children for his war against Voldemort
- appointed Hagrid as the Care for Magical Creatures teacher when he obviously wasn’t fit for the job, Binns even though History of Magic was a disaster, Trelawney even though she was a fraud, etc, etc
- Kept Trelawney, kept Hagrid, when they were about to be expelled (but did not keep Lupin, though there were sensible reasons for that)
- Condoned Snape’s bullying methods, and in general, the inclusion of horrible teachers. [Rowling quote] Every assholish thing Snape did to the students, Dumbledore approved, he just pretends not to for the sake of, who knows, looking good, like many other “good guys” in Rowling’s wizard story ["You're not giving him more detentions?" Quote]. Allowing the subordinate bad cop to do his things so that he looks like the good cop in comparison. Dumbledore could have intervened, could have told Snape what limits were not to be crossed, and his spy would have obeyed. As it is, Snape operates under contradicting messages.
- this is consistent with the reason why he leaves Harry among the Dursleys with no contact with the magical world (quote); while it was necessary for Harry to get the protection of the blood wards thanks to Petunia (and Dudley?), Dumbledore should have intervened sooner as the family was abusive and that he'd picked up the signs since year 1 [OotP quote]; he does not even try to know if everything's going well in Harry's adoptive family, before or after. Here's his motive: [quote about Harry not getting his head swollen]. He only intervenes when he's about to kick off and he must make Harry trust him, manipulating a feeling of gratitude out of Harry for something that Dumbledore owed him all this time.
- This is also consistent with Harry's (senseful) suspicion that Dumbledore set up the meeting between him and Voldemort, however traumatic and dangerous that experience could be for an 11 yo. [Quote]
- is overall indirectly responsible for the misdeeds of his staff
Hagrid:
- is incredibly hostile to Harry's family even though he is not aware (last we know) that they are abusive, just because they are Muggles who admittedly freaked out after seeing hundreds of spam letters filling up their house by an unknown school of "magic", and that the letters were following them everywhere. Who wouldn’t freak out, other than the few who believe that magic exists?
- Pulls a Greyback and gives Dudley a pigtail because Dudley’s father insulted Dumbledore.
Dudley has to get surgery to remove it (risking a breach of the Statute of Secrecy). I repeat: an 11 yo kid – a Muggle nonetheless – needed SURGERY because Hagrid disfigured him. The trauma of that first magical encounter lasts for years [PS, CoS and GoF quotes].
Moreover, Hagrid intended to transfigure the boy into a whole pig, like Moody who transfigured Draco into a ferret, but worse this time because he does it to shame Dudley for being fat. According to The Tales of Beedle the Bard, if one is Transfigured into an animal:
Animagi do not retain the power of human speech while in their animal form, although they keep all their human thinking and reasoning powers. This, as every schoolchild knows, is the fundamental difference between being an Animagus, and Transfiguring oneself into an animal. In the case of the latter, one would become the animal entirely, with the consequence that one would know no magic, be unaware that one had ever been a wizard, and would need somebody else to Transfigure one back to one’s original form.
This is almost pulling a Lockhart on Dudley, mind-killing him, for as long as he remains a pig. Considering that Hagrid didn't care to remove the tail, would he have cared to un-transfigure a full pig Dudley (and would he have succeeded, let alone without nasty side-effects)? Would anyone have come, considering no one did to remove Dudley’s tail, not even the Ministry of Magic? Because if not, Hagrid would have essentially killed Dudley – an 11 yo non-magical child – in front of his parents (and Harry) just because Vernon dared insult Dumbledore in front of him.
Hagrid didn't know that Dudley was a bully. If he knew, not only did he never intervene to protect Harry before irreversible damage was done, but he also punished the wrong persons, AND virtually killing a child isn’t the answer, even if that child was the bully.
Before you barge in: no, Dudley wasn't eating Harry's cake, that was added in the movie because otherwise Hagrid would look bad and gratuitously violent. Because he was! The only thing Dudley did wrong was to be Vernon's son, and to be fat.
- Because in case you didn’t know, Hagrid is extremely fatphobic:
- ‘Budge up, yeh great lump,’ said the stranger.
- ‘Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune,’ said the giant.
- ‘Yer great puddin’ of a son don’ need fattenin’ any more, Dursley, don’ worry.’
- An’ it’s your bad luck you grew up in a family o’ the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on.’
- ‘Shouldn’ta lost me temper,’ he said ruefully, ‘but it didn’t work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn’t much left ter do.’
As a reminder: Dudley did nothing in Hagrid’s pov that warranted being verbally assaulted like that, and there is no excuse for hating on someone because they’re fat. Also, doesn’t it occur to Hagrid that if an 11 yo child is fat to the amount Dudley became, then it might be due to genetics, a medical condition [show graph with medical explaination], or simply because his parents feed him inappropriately? An 11 yo child doesn’t own the family’s wallet – they eat what their parents teach them to eat (spoiled or not). Couldn't Hagrid at least spare everyone of his fatphobia?
- He repeatedly displays prejudice and latent Muggle-phobia, including when students are present [quotes] [also CoS quote “The Muggles”]:
- ‘No, sir – house was almost destroyed but I got him out all right before the Muggles started swarmin’ around. [...]’ [ → like insects?]
- ‘S-s-sorry,’ sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handker- chief and burying his face in it. ‘But I c-c-can’t stand it – Lily an’ James dead – an’ poor little Harry off ter live with Muggles –’ [ → living with Muggles is a tragedy]
- ‘I’d like ter see a great Muggle like you stop him,’ he said.
- ‘If he wants ter go, a great Muggle like you won’t stop him,’ growled Hagrid.
- ‘See that, Harry? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?’
- ‘I don’t know how the Muggles manage without magic,’ he said, as they climbed a broken-down escalator which led up to a bustling road lined with shops.
- ‘It’s – all – my – ruddy – fault!’ he sobbed, his face in his hands. ‘I told the evil git how ter get past Fluffy! I told him! It was the only thing he didn’t know an’ I told him! Yeh could’ve died! All fer a dragon egg! I’ll never drink again! I should be chucked out an’ made ter live as a Muggle!’
Hagrid said it: living as a Muggle is the greatest punishment he could think of. Now think how Squibs must feel about Hagrid’s opinion on the subject.
- He lowkey [Loki flash] buys into blood purist preconceptions:
- ‘I’m a what?’ gasped Harry. ‘A wizard, o’ course,’ said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, ‘an’ a thumpin’ good’un, I’d say, once yeh’ve been trained up a bit. With a mum an’ dad like yours, what else would yeh be? [...]’ [--> “You’ll be a great wizard if your parents were magically proficient”... Neville, anyone?]
- But what does a Ministry of Magic do?’ / ‘Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there’s still witches an’ wizards up an’ down the country.’ / ‘Why?’ / ‘Why? Blimey, Harry, everyone’d be wantin’ magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we’re best left alone.’ [--> world hunger, natural disasters, wars, sex slavery/exploitation, dictatorships–look at those Muggles wanting to find any solution they can against them, and I don’t give a fuck about it, it’s too annoying for me to try and help them]
- ‘– and he said people from Muggle families shouldn’t even be allowed in –’ / ‘Yer not from a Muggle family. If he’d known who yeh were – he’s grown up knowin’ yer name if his parents are wizardin’ folk – you saw ’em in the Leaky Cauldron. Anyway, what does he know about it, some o’ the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in ’em in a long line o’ Muggles – look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!’ [--> the first thing Hagrid has to say about Draco’s prejudice, to reassure Harry, is that he’s not from a Muggle family so he shouldn’t worry about what Draco said, instead of “what he said is pure bullshit, wizards from Muggle families have as much right to attend Hogwarts as the others”]
- “Yeh should’ve ignored him, Arthur,” said Hagrid, almost lifting Mr. Weasley off his feet as he straightened his robes. “Rotten ter the core, the whole family, everyone knows that — no Malfoy’s worth listenin’ ter — bad blood, that’s what it is — come on now — let’s get outta here.” [--> “bad blood”, in a book where we learn that Mudblood means dirty blood?]
- Hagrid imparts his prejudice against Slytherins to Harry. It’s a wonder Snape tolerates him:
‘Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin,’ said Hagrid darkly. ‘There’s not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn’t in Slytherin. [...]’
Except for Sirius Black/Pettigrew I guess, who were Gryffindors? Or Grindelwald, a student expelled from Durmstrang? The temptation to discriminate at least a whole quarter of the Hogwarts population was too great for the stupid love bear.
- Leaves Harry alone to buy stuff while he's gone drinking at the Leaky Cauldron (check if that's not just game material lol)
- Leaves an 11 yo child alone in a train, left to himself to carry tons of odd-looking baggages back to Privet Drive, uncaring that this child might get kidnapped, racketed or assaulted by the surrounding adults or teens, unconcerned with whether this child can carry all his stuff on his own, uncaring to check if this child knows the way home, and after leaving the Dursleys stranded on an island (he took the only boat left), meaning that unless Harry manages to break a window of the Dursleys's house, he has no way of actually getting home and is thus stuck out in the streets for… quite a while. (This is a mild plothole btw):
Harry didn’t speak at all as they walked down the road; he didn’t even notice how much people were gawping at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the sleeping snowy owl on Harry’s lap. [...] The train pulled out of the station. Harry wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; he rose in his seat and pressed his nose against the window, but he blinked and Hagrid had gone.
Why didn’t Hagrid care to accompany back home a child he was responsible for and whom he particularly liked? Because he had other priorities I guess. [Drunk Hagrid in Leaky Cauldron] [+ quote]
- gets the Trio involved in his illegal and dangerous dragon hatching scheme, which results in them being caught and punished by their Head of House – Hagrid doesn't even try to intervene! – and in Ron being gravely injured and stuck in the Hospital Wing, for which he blames Ron.
- calls Draco an idiot, blackmails & bullies him, even though Draco was in the right to protest against the Forbidden Forest punishment; all because Hagrid fears the penal consequences of breeding a dragon illegally (he’s an outright hypocrite)
- first sends Draco and Neville alone, hundreds of metres away in the forest (far enough that it takes Hagrid whole minutes to reach Draco and Neville), defenceless, after the unicorn killer; leaves Hermione and Harry alone in the forest (they were shaking in fear) when he knows something is attacking the students; then sends Harry and Draco alone, despite seeing that Draco is trying to cause trouble.
Hagrid seems to send Draco far away (twice) in the hope of getting him traumatised or hurt – there was no valuable reason to split the group otherwise. Harry is the one almost killed instead. He'd have died from Hagrid's stupidity and vendetta if a centaur hadn't broken his tribe's rules and saved him. Harry ends up having nightmares of someone out to kill him, “a hooded figure dripping blood”. An overall extremely scary experience for Draco, Hermione, Neville and Harry, all because of Hagrid’s reckless vindictiveness.
- sends Harry and Ron into the Forest to speak with Aragog despite the danger (and despite the Forbidden Forest being, you know, forbidden for students) just because he so badly wants to save his face. First care about your image! children safety is not a priority. Ron vomits from the shock, and if not for an extraordinary chain of fortunate events (again), Ron and Harry would have gotten eaten alive by man-eating spiders:
quote
- asks Harry and Hermione to secretly look after his incredibly dangerous giant brother. Again, he never tries to consider what kind of danger he’s putting first year children in. Book-Hagrid is not so stupid as to be unable to consider their point of view, meaning that his disregard for the Trio’s own safety comes from self-centredness.
- Hagrid repeatedly uses his position as a teacher to shower the trio with favouritism (which they never acknowledge as such) [quotes].
- Because Filch reasonably questioned Hagrid on what difference it made that a teacher was present when a student was out of bed after curfew (in fact, the teacher should be sanctioning the student already), Hagrid decides to insult him, saying:
“I’m a ruddy teacher, aren’ I, yeh sneakin’ Squib !”
As a reminder: 15 yo Snape loses his friendship with Lily and is cast by some fans as an unredeemable asshole for calling her a "filthy Mudblood" in a moment of distress, nevermind that he profusely apologised for that and deeply regretted it for the rest of his life; Hagrid insults Filch for being a Squib – admittedly more painful and difficult than being a Muggle-Born – and no one bats an eye. It's Okay If A Gryffindor Does It. It’s okay because Hagrid looks dumb and is Harry’s friend; but not for Snape because he’s purposefully written to walk the line between hero and villain, and as Harry’s enemy in any case.
(Then again, we saw Hermione getting away both in the narrative and in the fandom with unashamedly calling Firenze a horse, like Trelawney does and in a similar fashion as Umbridge calling centaurs filthy half-breeds, when we know centaurs rightfully perceive it as a prejudice to be thought of as "pretty talking horses," so should we really be surprised? [quotes])
- is seen several times in a state of inebriety at school to the point he got the reputation of an alcoholic. Yes, even after promising Harry that he'll never drink again after telling Quirrell the secret on how to get past Fluffy, which almost resulted in Voldemort stealing the Philosopher’s Stone for an early resurrection on an immortality guaranty and Harry dying by the end of his first magical year.
Apparently, 11 yo Harry nearly dying was not enough of a reason to sober up, and Hagrid never makes an effort to stop drinking afterwards. Alcohol addiction is hard to cure, but he could at least make the effort not to be drunk where children are present.
- makes students buy books that bite them, and does not tell them how to soothe the books down in the new year’s book list, resulting in multiple injuries among the students (+ some of them lost their books because they self-destructed?) (except for Harry, of course – his favourite :3)
- Has Harry fly on a barely tamed Hippogriff, without any set of safety equipment (quote: Harry is on the verge of falling off Buckbeak for the entire ordeal), while establishing favouritism with Harry on the first class (of course);
- Draco gets injured in Hagrid’s lesson, Hagrid keeps accusing Draco of faking it (even though Draco had an open wound and Pomfrey had him stay a week in the Infirmary, see quotes]; maybe he shouldn’t have brought Hippogriffs for the very first Care of Magical Creatures class of 13 yo kids (that nearly got Buckbeak killed)...
- Because of the Buckbeak fiasco, Hagrid decides to spend the rest of the term teaching kids about flobberworms, wasting hours and days of Care of Magical Creatures in making students bored. You might as well skip his classes and study on your own if you want to pass your OWLs!
- Does not even manage to do a proper job at teaching the students how to care for Flobberworms since they die of overfeeding. All of that effort, for nothing.
- His (illegal?) Blast-Ended Skrewts lessons resulted in multiple injured students, to the point many complain about them. Or as tumblr user thecarnivorousmuffinmeta wrote: "The very next year he starts breeding death machines he calls Blast Ended Skrewts. They're cannibalistic, breathe fire, are poisonous, very temperamental and territorial, grow at a rapid rate, and are liable to murder the students the first chance they get. Naturally, Hagrid makes his entire class about the children taking care of these things, they're adorable. It's a miracle no one died." (Again, Hagrid’s fun comes first, children's safety next!)
- threatens Draco with transfiguration right after Moody’s stunt, just because Draco was rightfully angered that they'd be studying Blast-Ended Skrewts again (check); not only the whole class laughs at Draco over a humiliating and genuinely painful experience (which the explicit message that his teacher found it funny), but Hagrid effectively made a threat to torture a student, and we know he is not above Transfiguring kids to vent his anger (Pig Dudley) (quote GoF)
- is such a shit teacher that students were relieved to learn under Grubbly-Plank while Hagrid was put on probation. They got to learn about unicorns instead, in a very safe setting.
- makes a fuss about the Trio dropping his subject in 6th year and guilt-trips them about it
You could argue that Hagrid is an exception, because his intellect is limited. He is certainly immature! But that doesn’t negate the fact he’s a shit teacher – and a shit adult overall.
Lupin: (see Reveal of a Secret)
- decides that his first class of the year will be to make all students confront the trauma closet, revealing their worst fears to everyone in the class, without asking any of them if they'd really rather not confront the trauma closet today… While he could easily guess Harry's Boggart would be too much, another student could have gotten a horrible Boggart too without Lupin knowing it, causing chaos; imagine a girl's Boggart was her naked paedophile uncle or if a boy's Boggart was a Dementor, a DE or Voldemort (like Lupin expected Harry's Boggart to be). Bear in mind that if Lupin got Harry’s Boggart wrong, he could have mistakenly assumed that everybody else had not-too-serious fears and could confront their Boggart.
- On the other hand, Hermione doesn’t ever get a chance to fight her boggart, despite her wanting to, leading to her first less than perfect grade, which affects her confidence well into her 5th year (and Lupin doesn’t do anything about that either). As the DADA OWL exam included banishing a boggart, this is presumably why she doesn’t get the O she deserves; he should have managed the Boggarts lesson better. He showed favouritism for Harry at Hermione’s expense: [OotP quote about Harry’s DADA grades; PoA quote]
- Not to mention: commentators like Lorie Kim have rightfully pointed out the sexist/queerphobic undertones of the Snape Boggart humiliation (which is probably born from Rowling being a TERF), with Lupin teaching an entire class (or the whole school, since word spread like wildfire) that gender- and sexually-based attacks are cool and fun.
- Did nothing to help Neville out after the opportunity of making fun of Snape at the start of the year
- His Patronus lessons were bad [explain why] [drained Harry, not effective, Harry got hurt; compare to Harry's DA Patronus classes]
- as Ron looked on the verge of vomiting or fainting due to his leg being broken (and Sirius jumping on it), Lupin did not bother to ease his pain, but later had him walk shackled to Pettigrew (which was so stupid it led to Pettigrew’s escape)
- has no apparent issue with executing a begging, crying adult man in front of three children
- Fucked up Pettigrew's transport to Hogwarts by shackling a known, fugitive rat Animagus to Ron and himself instead of using Petrificus Totalus then Mobilicorpus. Pettigrew escapes, Sirius is wounded, Ron gets hit with Confondus, and be aware that it was only Lupin's luck that nothing worse occurred [the Trio and Sirius were nearly mauled to death by a werewolf, Pettigrew could have blown up and killed either of them, or even mind-killed Ron like Lockhart attempted the year before… you get the idea]
- is negligent with his Wolfsbane for a whole week - Snape has to nag him about it. This, and neglecting to stay in the Shack when the moon was fully up, leads to him transforming in front of the Trio. If not for a plothole, Lupin would have transformed in the castle before he could see Pettigrew on the Map. Had Sirius been a little weaker, he and the students could have been mauled to death.
- endangers everyone for an entire year by covering up for a mass-murdering terrorist just to look good, even after said murderer has infiltrated the castle twice, once almost killing a sentient portrait and once pulling a knife on a 3rd year student who also happened to be the best friend of the son of Lupin’s own, deceased best friend.
We expand on all that in the Reveal of a Secret series.
McGonagall
the Head of Gryffindor House and the Deputy Headmistress, thus making the problems of Gryffindor students her direct responsibility:
- never punishes Harry for breaking rules ; while the reader knows Harry just tried to defend Neville, McGonagall doesn't, and yet her first reaction to seeing James Pott–I mean, Harry Potter flying without the surveillance of Mrs Hooch is to make him part of her Quidditch team in the hopes of winning the House Cup, rather than ensuring students don't try Harry's dangerous stunt later on, let alone ensuring Harry isn't ostracised for special treatment and/or that his peers don't perceive an injustice in the enforcement of the school rules – and not once considering that Quidditch might represent an actual health hazard for an 11 yo wizard and that’s maybe why 1st years are forbidden to play. As we will see later, what counts most for McGonagall… is winning Quidditch
- in the spirit of her obsession with Quidditch: forces Harry to become Seeker without asking him if he wants to, threatening him with punishment (expulsion?) if he doesn’t practise hard to have her team win
- in the process, ignores Draco’s attempt to steal Neville’s Remembrall, so he too is never punished
- punishes Hermione even though she was almost killed by a Mountain Troll (which is punishment in itself) and doesn’t escort her to the Infirmary wing just in case she was badly hurt
- pulls 1st-year Draco by his ear (that’s physical abuse, right? you wouldn’t Snape doing that to Hermione, right?) in addition to assigning detention and docking 20 points… and doesn’t give those points back or apologise when it turns out he wasn’t lying
- For breaking curfew once, McGonagall docks Harry, Hermione and Neville 150 points, thus making them a target for hatred.
The results:
“Harry didn’t sleep all night. He could hear Neville sobbing into his pillow for what seemed like hours . Harry couldn’t think of anything to say to comfort him. He knew Neville, like himself, was dreading the dawn. What would happen when the rest of Gryffindor found out what they’d done?”
Then, Harry gets ostracised and bullied by everyone in the school. As for his friends:
“ Hermione and Neville were suffering, too. [...] nobody would speak to them either. Hermione had stopped drawing attention to herself in class, keeping her head down and working in silence.”
You read it right: Hermione, the “insufferable know-it-all,” is so depressed that she stops participating in classes for a long while. And this time, because that’s McGonagall’s doing and not Snape’s, no one cares .
Considering that the only people who knew what made Gryffindor lose 150 points were Harry, Hermione, Neville and McGonagall, and that these kids certainly wouldn’t want to admit how bad they fucked up and would try to make themselves as discreet as possible, we can deduce that the one who likely spread word about how “Harry and a couple other stupid first-years” had lost those points is McGonagall, thus making her actively fuel the mass bullying.
Not only does she suddenly triple the amount of docked points just because Harry was surprised she was removing 50 at once, she makes it as if they’re the shame of Gryffindor House.
‘I’m disgusted ,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘Four students out of bed in one night! I’ve never heard of such a thing before! [You sure?] You, Miss Granger, I thought you had more sense. As for you, Mr Potter, I thought Gryffindor meant more to you than this . [...] I’ve never been more ashamed of Gryffindor students .’
Talk about emotional abuse. Hermione would be especially sensitive to that kind of shaming. I wonder why her Boggart turned out to be McGonagall and not Snape, huh…
McGonagall even acknowledges that Neville had been tricked by a lie that Harry made up, but he still counts for 50 points removed apparently – again, just for being out of bed once. It’s even worse when you realise that for the same breach of rules and for lying to a teacher, Draco only got 20 points removed.
- As if it wasn’t enough, she sends those 1st years to the Forbidden Forest at midnight, to find a unicorn-slaying horror, under the supervision of an irresponsible, immature and semi-dangerous man-giant who isn't allowed to use magic (she acknowledges this herself), during a time where “it’s dangerous to walk around school at night” (which she says as well).
The next step is sending those children on a minefield for being late in class.
Four 11 year-old students got a traumatising experience in a Forest filled with werewolves, Acromantulas, all kinds of man-hunting creatures and something so dangerous that it murders unicorns to drink their blood. Harry almost gets killed and later has nightmares about the Forest detention. With such insane punishments, why do you think Hermione's Boggart was disappointing her own Head of House, instead of the Mountain Troll or the Basilisk that nearly killed her? Filch, who openly wished to torture students, was delighted with McGonagall’s idea of a punishment. Sending kids to the Forbidden Forest was horrible enough that the Carrows – the DE teachers of Harry’s 7th year who regularly practiced physical torture on children – could think it was evil for Snape to do it to the Silver Trio in DH. The Forbidden Forest punishment is an absolute shitshow.
McGonagall gets away with it because Harry and Hermione are so broken they think they “deserved what they’d got”, and later on she’s written off as “strict but fair”. Needless to say, if Snape had been the one sending those 11 yo children to the Forbidden Forest, we’d never have heard the end of it.
- When told that Malfoy insulted not only George’s family but Harry’s dead mother, McGonagall outright says that she doesn’t give a fuck about it, that George’s whole family and Harry’s dead parents can be insulted for all she cares, that both her students’ behavior was disgusting; then she gives them a week’s worth of detentions and shouts: “You deserve it!”
She also yells and smashes her desk when berating George and Harry. Again, she's (violently) upset because her image as Gryffindor Head of House was tarnished at the end of a Quidditch match, which is why she has no difficulty reporting that anger on her students.
- But of course, she would never consider actually banning George and Harry from playing Quidditch after beating up a competitor on the playing field (which a teacher and/or a referee would have done if confronted with violence and anger issues from the players).
- Doesn't notice 1st-year Ginny’s obvious distress
- Never checks up on Harry to see if he’s doing alright with the Dursleys when she doubted he could fit among them
- Allows Ron to study with a broken wand and does nothing about it, but buys an expensive, top-model broom for Harry so she can display the House Cup at her desk, even though Harry would have had no difficulty paying for that broom while Ron’s family is known to struggle financially and materially (Ron had to inherit his brother Charlie’s ash wand), so clearly, ensuring a student can learn the material effectively without putting others and himself in danger is not her top priority. Also no, Ron doesn’t deserve to have his education compromised and be punished for an entire year – let alone dangerously – for the Flying Ford Anglia stunt, especially since McGonagall decided he and Harry didn’t need to be punished severely for that.
- After Filch’s cat was discovered Petrified, Snape defends the Trio from accusations of having done it. When asked why they didn’t go back to the Halloween Feast after the Deathday Party – notice that Snape doesn’t punish them for going there instead of the Great Hall like everyone else – Harry believes he won’t be taken seriously if he explains that he heard a disembodied voice and chased it through the school. And so he lies. Snape isn’t fooled:
“I suggest, Headmaster, that Potter is not being entirely truthful,” he said. “It might be a good idea if he were deprived of certain privileges until he is ready to tell us the whole story. I personally feel he should be taken off the Gryffindor Quidditch team until he is ready to be honest . ”
If they had followed Snape’s suggestion, Harry might have told the truth and the staff would have investigated on which cat-Petrifying creature the boy heard – perhaps a snake, since it was recently discovered he could talk to them. Would Harry really be ready to protect his meagre lie at the risk of missing Quidditch? Snape knows that he wouldn’t. But instead of giving Harry the time to consider telling the whole truth, for his own safety too, and despite the importance of the information he’s hiding, McGonagall immediately steps in:
“Really, Severus,” said Professor McGonagall sharply, “I see no reason to stop the boy playing Quidditch. This cat wasn’t hit over the head with a broomstick. There is no evidence at all that Potter has done anything wrong.”
Dumbledore and McGonagall end the investigation before obtaining proof that Potter was indeed innocent even though he likely broke rules when not rejoining the Halloween Feast and definitely did when he lied to his teachers, and even though it is capital for the witnesses to tell everything. And most importantly, they lost the opportunity to discover valuable information on the true culprit of the crime. Harry will never tell the whole truth to the professors tasked with their protection, all because McGonagall was too horrified at the mere prospect of depriving Harry of his Quidditch-playing privileges even for a little while.
- catches Harry and Ron wandering the hallways alone, at a time when teachers escort students everywhere because of a monster Petrifying students, 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 Neville out of the common room for weeks 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.
As her Head of House, she should have been aware that a student with anxiety and trauma-induced memory issues would have trouble with a frequently-changing-password system. And even if she hadn’t been aware, she should never have put Neville in such danger and distress.
And thing is… she was aware!
‘As you’re all in my house, you should hand Hogsmeade permission forms to me before Hallowe’en. No form, no visiting the village, so don’t forget! ’
Neville put up his hand.
‘Please, Professor, I – I think I’ve lost – ’
‘ Your grandmother sent yours to me directly, Longbottom ,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘She seemed to think it was safer. Well, that’s all, you may leave.’
- She never compliments Neville, not until he nearly dies in the DoM against Voldemort
- McGonagall is seemingly aware that Neville’s family treats him like trash yet she does nothing but suggest to Augusta, in 6th year, that maybe, perhaps, she ought to be proud of her grandson for once
- Lets Harry practice Quidditch outdoors in PoA despite the danger he is in, because, as she explicitly says, she wants the Quidditch Cup so bad
- Is quick to allow Harry the newest top-model broom ever – the Firebolt – in third year, as though he didn’t already have an advantage thanks to his Nimbus 2000 broom (“strict but fair” my ass)
- Harry almost gets killed in Quidditch matches several times; never intervenes
- Removes fifty points from Slytherin – fifty! – and threatens them with Dumbledore, for impersonating Dementors to scare Harry, because it could have cost a Quidditch match, ensuring that Gryffindor wins even more points.
‘An unworthy trick!’ she was shouting. ‘A low and cowardly attempt to sabotage the Gryffindor Seeker! Detention for all of you, and fifty points from Slytherin! I shall be speaking to Professor Dumbledore about this, make no mistake! Ah, here he comes now!’
- Shouts at Dean Thomas because he was annoyed that they were already preparing their OWLs in 4th year, and compares him with the know-it-all of the class to make a point that he’s incompetent (as the rest of the class would be then). What she did right there is not only a low-blow but also incredibly dangerous for Hermione, because it could encourage her peers to ostracise and bully her, the teacher’s pet.
“We don’t take O.W.L.s till fifth year!” said Dean Thomas indignantly.
“Maybe not, Thomas, but believe me, you need all the preparation you can get! Miss Granger remains the only person in this class who has managed to turn a hedgehog into a satisfactory pincushion. I might remind you that your pincushion, Thomas, still curls up in fright if anyone approaches it with a pin!”
- Admits she treated Peter poorly because he wasn't as talented as his friends – repeats this mistake with Neville, and gives her first (backhanded) compliment only after Neville nearly died fighting against Death Eaters.
- Prior to the Ministry attack, humiliates Neville because she doesn’t want to look bad in front of the foreign delegations – making it as if he could shame, not just Gryffindor House, but the whole school on his own:
“Longbottom, kindly do not reveal that you can’t even perform a simple Switching Spell in front of anyone from Durmstrang!” Professor McGonagall barked at the end of one particularly difficult lesson , during which Neville had accidentally transplanted his own ears onto a cactus.
- Though she did intervene to un-Transfigure Draco while Moody was torturing him, she never sends Draco to the Infirmary, never checks up on him later, and she does not lift a finger when Moody takes Draco by the arm and forcefully drags him to the dungeons.
Moody slammed Draco onto the stone floor repeatedly, but all McGonagall has to say about it is that Transfiguration shouldn’t be used on a student – not that, mayhaps, beating an animal or hurting a student is, to use her words, “disgusting”. Instead, she tells him that he ought to take Draco to his Head of House if he wants to punish him accordingly. Moody does just that, not only to punish Draco some more, but also to threaten his Head of House, the one teacher whose job it is to defend the Slytherins, and McGonagall's own friendly colleague. And McGonagall – Head of brave , noble Gryffindor House – lets him do. Her intervention here is vastly insufficient, especially for a Deputy Head.
Malfoy, whose pale eyes were still watering with pain and humiliation , looked malevolently up at Moody and muttered something in which the words “my father” were distinguishable.
“Oh yeah?” said Moody quietly, limping forward a few steps, the dull clunk of his wooden leg echoing around the hall. “Well, I know your father of old, boy... You tell him Moody’s keeping a close eye on his son... you tell him that from me… Now, your Head of House’ll be Snape, will it?”
“Yes,” said Malfoy resentfully.
“Another old friend,” growled Moody. “ I’ve been looking forward to a chat with old Snape... Come on, you…”
And he seized Malfoy’s upper arm and marched him off toward the dungeons.
Professor McGonagall stared anxiously after them for a few moments, then waved her wand at her fallen books, causing them to soar up into the air and back into her arms .
- Vanishing kittens in class, anyone? We should count animal abuse, right?
- Punishes Harry for losing his temper with Umbridge right after Umbridge gave him detention already, proceeds to do the same thing in front of him.
“She’s taken points off Gryffindor because I’m having my hand sliced open every night! How is that fair, how ?”
- Displays latent prejudice against Muggles (PS) [quotes, especially when in front of students]:
- ‘I heard it. Flocks of owls ... shooting stars ... Well, they’re not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. [ie “they’re usually/mostly stupid”]
- ‘I’ve come to bring Harry to his aunt and uncle. They’re the only family he has left now.’ ‘You don’t mean – you can’t mean the people who live here?’ cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. ‘Dumbledore – you can’t. I’ve been watching them all day. You couldn’t find two people who are less like us. And they’ve got this son – I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harry Potter come and live here!’
- ‘Shhh!’ hissed Professor McGonagall. ‘You’ll wake the Muggles!’
- Another quote–OotP? HBP?
- Sends the Slytherins in the dungeons (check; prejudice against Slytherin)
- The worst two sets of troublemakers in school history were her charges – with the Marauders in particular being such atrocious bullies they felt free to try to kill their classmate then sexually assault him – and she failed to control them.
We could partially forgive Dumbledore since his position was, at times, impossible. Hagrid has the equivalent of a 7th grade education and zero teaching experience, and as a half-giant, his concept of risk is not entirely human, so again, some of his actions are understandable. But McGonagall is not masterminding a war or spying, she doesn’t have enduring, debilitating trauma, and she’s a fully qualified witch and an experienced teacher, head of house, and deputy head - there are few mitigating factors for her, if at all.
So let me make things clear.
If Hagrid is not a child abuser in your books or in the HP narrative, then Snape cannot be one either.
If Snape is a child abuser who deserves to be fired and bullied by everyone for making Neville feel bad, then McGonagall is a monster who deserves to be put on trial and thrown in jail for multiple instances of mortal endangerment of children , get her teacher diploma revoked indefinitely, her inboxes over-filled with hate mail, her name listed in TV for being the crazy woman who sent four children in a forest filled with man-eating spiders and whatnot just for a one-time minor infraction – and that's just the tip of the iceberg . [Illustrate with Neville standing out in corridors]
You can’t throw Snape into the pits of hell for making Harry, Neville or Hermione upset in Potions class, and then turn around and pretend that somehow it doesn’t count when it’s McGonagall or Hagrid doing it. Not even on the excuse that if the protagonist doesn’t hate them for such treatment then we ought not ourselves – we know how victims of abuse tend to minimize what they suffered (especially if they were gaslighted, invalidated, or were never taught that it was Not Okay) and how abusers take advantage of it . [illustrate] Just because a victim doesn't resent their abuser or believe that what was done to them was problematic, just because the victim of a toxic dynamic loves and comes to defend their abuser… doesn’t cancel the fact that it was abuse. Particularly, I believe, when children were the targets.
Harry is tolerant of criminally abusive teachers as long as they seem to like him, and putting him in mortal danger is not reason enough to hate them and put in question their value of students' wellbeing. How much does this have to do with Harry being so desperate for love that he can forgive abusers as long as they feel nice to him? Like a dog that suffers the worst kind of abuse: where both violence and affection are given, the latter ensuring the victim is [sous emprise], mind-trapped in the relationship.
See, this is the kind of thing that makes people prefer Snape. At least he doesn't pretend to be nice and is not excused nor glorified by the narrative for doing horrendous things. Quite the opposite in fact.
Rowling once said , as a covert argument against Snape, that the “worst, shabbiest thing you can do” is to bully children. [Quote/link] Even though at the same time, she was writing something worse than a teacher bullying their students: teachers (including “nice” ones) who prove to be a life-threat to them, either through their incompetence, entitlement, cowardice or violence [sort teachers through these boxes]. She has also omitted to say that one of the best things you could do as a teacher is to save and protect the lives of said students, especially if at the cost of your own life. Which is exceptionally rare to find in real life.
Safety is Snape’s top priority, as should be any teacher’s.
- He stops Ron from hitting Draco [calm compared to McGonagall's OotP outburst]
- Discourages Lockhart from making Neville duel his peers on the fear he might seriously hurt them or himself (with prior evidence of Neville hurting himself and his classmates by accident)
- Upon hearing that a student had been taken into the Chamber, he was so distressed that he had to grab a chair "very hard" to endure the news (even though his Slytherins alone were not in danger)
- he’s the one who nags Lupin to drink his potion, and not the other way around
- In an attempt to save the Trio, he runs to face an alleged mind-wrapped mass-murdering Death Eater and his werewolf accomplice on the verge of transformation, in the same place he was almost murdered in as a teen by the same individuals
- When the egg opens in GOF, he runs toward the sound of someone screaming as though they’re being tortured in the middle of the night
- The next year, he interrupts the Occlumency lesson the moment he hears a girl or a woman screaming above his office then runs to her help when it happens again (it’s Trelawney getting fired)
- The next year again, he runs toward Myrtle’s cries of a murder, not knowing who was hurt or how and what danger he might face there
- Runs towards Myrtle’s cries that someone has been murdered in the school, which enabled him to save Draco from Harry’s messy Sectumsempra
- he supplies Umbridge with fake Veritaserum (which saved Harry, Sirius, and probably lots of other students)
- Orders Harry to release Neville when he thinks Ron and Harry are fighting him
- saves Neville from being choked by Crabbe, antagonising Umbridge further even though she'd just put him on probation
- Upon hearing that Montague finally reappeared from limbo into a toilet bowl, he leaves Harry to attend to the student (wrongly trusting him not to peer into his Pensieve and leave as he was told)
- he agrees with Dumbledore to kill him in an attempt to spare Draco’s soul
- Makes an unbreakable vow to protect Draco, and keeps it (mind you: he never had to make a vow of suicide if he failed, he’d already agreed to protect Draco as much as he could, but I guess it wasn’t enough for him, he had to promise death to himself if he failed his mission of protecting Draco)
- Steers Hermione and Luna out of harm’s way before the Astronomy Tower battle against the DEs
- And 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 wouldn’t be attending next year, so this had nothing to do with the original mission, Dumbledore just trusted him that much, and rightly so - nobody is reported to have died during Snape's year as headmaster, even though it was being run by Death Eaters at the peak of Voldemort’s overtaking of the British Wizarding World, which is more than can be said for Dumbledore or his predecessor. Within this, he sent the Silver Trio to Hagrid as a form of "punishment" for trying to steal the sword, risking cover to spare them a session of torture.
Only in one of these cases is Harry even in the picture (that Snape knows of before springing into action). In one case, he leaves Harry to go see what’s going on. We could also mention that Snape:
- is the only teacher who bothers to try and save Harry from a jinxed broom in first year, becoming referee in the second match to prevent Harry from further harm despite the humiliation it must have represented, and despite the fact he's not at ease with flying on a broomstick
- Keeps an eye on Harry all throughout the year to protect him from Quirrell; for that matter, made a direct confrontation with Quirrell to discourage him from attempting anything funny (we as a reader know the danger Snape has put himself in because Voldemort was listening and watching everything he did, and Snape had to answer to all that bullshit in GoF when Voldemort reincarnated)
- he attempts to teach Harry Occlumency to shield him from Voldemort’s mind assaults despite the danger it represents since Voldemort can spy on him through Harry's eyes
- sends a rescue party for Harry and his friends at the Ministry while he searches for the group in the Forbidden Forest for hours in case they’re still there
- After killing Dumbledore, Harry tries to curse Snape, including an attempt at Crucio, yet Snape risks breaking cover to spare Harry pain. And his reaction is visceral: [quote, with audio]
- Guides Harry to the Sword of Gryffindor to help him in the fight against Voldemort – you might say that this is just his job as a spy, and it's true, but isn't he spying in the goal of saving as many people as he can, especially Harry, and taking down the threat that Voldemort represents against his students and colleagues? I'd say it accounts for something.
We could include multiple instances of Snape saving students at little risk to himself or to his cover by brewing Potions or using his Dark Arts expertise:
- he prepares the Mandrake Restorative Draught to cure the Petrified [Snape spraying Sir Nicolas with the draught]
- He’s the one who taught students the disarming spell Expelliarmus when it became evident they were learning nothing of use in Defence class (Harry gives credit to Professor Snape when he and Ron protect themselves from Lockhart's first attempted Obliviate: quote); it'll become Harry's signature spell.
- In an elegant demonstration of Slytherin pride, he advises Draco to use Serpentsortia. This prevented Harry from getting harmed with Expelliarmus, Rictusempra or another offensive spell without any option to protect himself (thanks to Lockhart's incompetence). Snape immediately walks over to vanish the snake. If Harry hadn't shown he could speak in Parselmouth, Snape might have advised Draco to use Protego when it was Harry’s turn to attack, which Draco would have done loudly, indirectly teaching everyone in the room how to use the Shielding Charm (which would have definitely helped the Trio in their upcoming adventures). In one unofficial lesson, Snape would have taught all the students – notably Harry – how to protect oneself, and how to disarm the opponent.
- he’s likely the one who had to brew the “ten different potions” meant to heal Hermione after she got hit by Dolohov’s Dark curse, as well as the Skele-Gro that healed Harry's arm, just as he brewed the Mandrake Restorative Draught on the reason that he was "the Potions Master at this school"
- He saves Katie Bell from Draco’s cursed necklace (where Pomfrey would have failed)
Does saving staff members count? Because if so:
- he stuns Flitwick in DH to hide him from the Death Eaters that are flooding the castle in HBP
- he saves the Headmaster from an early death by the Horcrux and later, spares him a painful death at his demand (Dumbledore repeatedly asks Harry to fetch Snape after he is gravely poisoned by the Drink of Despair: perhaps he trusted Snape to heal him, perhaps he trusted Snape to euthanize him in dignity).
Here is Harry describing the feeling that Snape's Patronus gave off:
“Her presence had meant safety. ”
Indeed.
When Harry asked why Snape saved him in first year, Dumbledore decided to make up a lie about Snape owing James a life-debt – but Snape never acknowledges and so never operates under this so-called life-debt, notably since he believes that James tried to kill him in the first place and only got cold feet at the last moment [quote], which is quite true since we know James already said that his very existence was a crime (in other words, that Snape should die), repeatedly assaulting him for the mere fact that he exists. [quote]. If the mere fact of preying on Snape throughout their whole education isn’t indicative enough for you that James didn’t value Severus as a human being with the right to dignity and have a safe, violence-free and happy life, remember that bullying is a prime cause of suicide among children and cannot be written off as a trivial thing or “self-defense”. Besides, the very concept of a “life-debt” is chilling: no one owes anyone else their life, no one is entitled to another’s life even if they saved them. Imagine saying Peach owes her body and life to Bowser just because he saved her this one time for a death trap he helped setting up after a lifetime of relentless sexual harassment.
I understand Dumbledore couldn’t tell Harry that Snape was protecting him at all costs because he swore to ensure Lily's death would not be in vain, but that he needed to make up a lie, instead of simply saying “all teachers are expected to save students even if they hate them”, proves that Snape, compared to everyone else, went above and beyond the call of duty in Hogwarts to protect the students.
He never lays a hand or a wand on a student (unless you count that time Harry invaded his most traumatic memory and put Snape’s spy position in real danger, and even then Snape tried to control himself) , which is more than we can say for other Hogwarts teachers. Those teachers don’t lift a finger to protect the children, and they sometimes actively endanger them. The only one who arguably protected them as much as Snape is Dumbledore, and it falls short because oftentimes he’s the very man who enables evil to run through the school and the kids to be put in mortal danger. In PS, 11 yo Harry argues that Dumbledore set up his meeting with Voldemort:
‘D’you think he meant you to do it?’ said Ron. ‘Sending you your father’s Cloak and everything?’
‘Well,’ Hermione exploded, ‘if he did – I mean to say – that’s terrible – you could have been killed .’
‘No, it isn’t,’ said Harry thoughtfully. ‘He’s a funny man, Dumbledore. I think he sort of wanted to give me a chance. I think he knows more or less everything that goes on here, you know. I reckon he had a pretty good idea we were going to try, and instead of stopping us, he just taught us enough to help. I don’t think it was an accident he let me find out how the Mirror worked. It’s almost like he thought I had the right to face Voldemort if I could...’ [🤡] [“the right for children to have babies” clip]
In DH, Harry will do a 180° on that opinion:
‘Look what he asked from me, Hermione! Risk your life, Harry! And again! And again! And don’t expect me to explain everything, just trust me blindly, trust that I know what I’m doing, trust me even though I don’t trust you! Never the whole truth! Never!’
[...] ‘He loved you,’ Hermione whispered. ‘I know he loved you.’
Harry dropped his arms. ‘I don’t know who he loved, Hermione, but it was never me. This isn’t love, the mess he’s left me in. He shared a damn sight more of what he was really thinking with Gellert Grindelwald than he ever shared with me.’
It's such a shame that Harry shortly goes right back to kissing Dumbledore's arse.
I've seen antis argue that it doesn't matter if Snape saved children because he was a bully to them. Here comes the problem: If you consider that saving the lives of children is dismissible or at least less valuable than being nice to them, then you are arguing that putting them in mortal danger or even trying to kill them is less reprimandable than giving them acidic comments in class, which is absurd. Objectively speaking, saving the lives of children is far better than being a kind teacher, so it also outweighs being a bully to them. I'm not saying that saving them entitles him to bully them, that's an unacceptable conclusion; but Snape has repeatedly shown that he genuinely cares for the welfare of his students , and he never pretends that it's okay for him to be mean just because he saves them. Thus, if you want to conclude on the morality of Snape as a teacher, notably based on the above list of all the ways he has protected the people of Hogwarts as well as the context under which he operates (which we will later expand upon), then he did far more good than bad and can be summed up as a good teacher overall, or alternatively, a teacher who did good and bad things, but mostly good things .
Going on a bit of a tangent here, but this may be important to establish:
In an attempt to scoop out Snape's merit as a teacher of protecting children with his life, so that we are left with the sole impression of teacher Snape as a bully, you might be tempted to disregard all the times Snape saved children and colleagues because that's part of his spy job – or rather, soldier job [a spy doesn't directly save people, they only rely information and enable their side to take control over the enemy [?]]. That is true, but it is also, undeniably, part of his job as a teacher, who must also protect those at his charge.
Even if that statement is unproven by the text and is just another, irrelevant, "What If" rhetoric, you could say that if Snape wasn't a spy, then he wouldn't have saved those children... But if Snape wasn't a spy, then he wouldn't have become a teacher in the first place and the accusations of him being a bully towards kids would be non-existent (and the kids themselves too).
Either we focus on Snape as a spy, and his behaviour as a teacher falls to the background because it is secondary to and informed by his role as a spy, or we focus on Snape as a teacher, and we must accept that Snape was a pretty remarkable professor with great child-defending habits to outshine his attitude, despite the deeply unfavourable context that he had to operate under . This also applies when you focus on Snape as an adult human being.
Regardless of the perspective under which you want to judge Snape saving children, you must take into account the fact that since the beginning and till the end , Snape willingly , explicitly , took the same decision of protecting all of the students as much as he could, and he went through with it . [Hilltop scene; Snape in Dumbledore's office; Snape angry at Dumbledore; Headmaster Snape dead in boat room with the Trio around him]
The key point is the same in the end: he cared about his students to the death . ["Snape gripped the chair very hard" / "Everyone from the Ministry downward…" / "You raised him like a pig for slaughter" / "Lately, only those whom I could not save"]
Just as the bad he did cannot be neglected, the good that Snape did as a teacher, a spy and a human being, cannot be forgotten . Not unless you want to admit you're arguing under a toxic mindset where redemption and betterment are impossible, where the bad will always matter more than the good, where the lives of children have little to no value to you, only the fact they get to leave this world with candies in their pockets. [Screenshot to show where this argument comes from]
__
So.
Is Snape the worst teacher in Hogwarts? Is he truly worse than people like McGonagall, Slughorn or Lupin? Evidently not. In fact, compared to them all, he’s a pretty good professor.
We can count roughly 23 other teachers in Harry’s generation – 25 if we count Filch the janitor and Pince the librarian: Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Sprout, Slughorn, Hooch, Binns, Burbage, Babbling, Vector, Sinistra, Grubbly-Plank, Hagrid, Firenze, Trelawney, Quirrell, Lockhart, Lupin, Moody, Umbridge, Amycus and Alecto .
If we consider (logically) that not protecting the students and sometimes actively endangering them is far worse than some petty insults and inappropriate teaching methods, then it means that Snape is better than Lupin, Hooch, Dumbledore, McGonagall, Slughorn, Hagrid, (fake) Moody, as well as of course all the obviously evil teachers, which would be Quirell, Lockhart, Umbridge, Amycus and Alecto. That’s 12 teachers in total. 13 members of the school staff if we add in Filch. [+ unknown teachers will be “unclassified” for not knowing if they’re good or bad in class]
That means that Snape is, at the very least, for the mere standard of investing in the welfare of his students and respecting their right not to be put in mortal danger , better than half of the teaching staff (12), better than almost all of the famously “nice” ones – by a good margin too. And I'm sure that if Snape had received proper psychotherapy, actual education on teaching, taught in a healthier school as well as been freed from his military service, he would have been even better .
Now, if you count every time teacher Snape saves or protects a child as a bonus that sets him apart from the teachers… ehhhhhh….. [joke: Snape skyrockets in scale, the "ceiling" of the screen breaks and explodes]
You might be tempted to argue that a good chunk of the “nice” teachers participated in the Battle of Hogwarts, so that makes up for it right? Well, I’m not sure. After all, isn’t it the general consensus that one good deed at the last minute does not make up for years of bullshit, especially when you fight for selfish reasons (which would be: to save your own ass too)? [screenshot] Or are we to understand that everything Snape did as a teacher is excused, since he too participated (and died ) in the Battle of Hogwarts to protect the students? You choose. Either way, Snape has saved lots more people, more consistently , so even this won't make the difference in the end.