PoA Chapter Seven

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Malfoy returns to class acting as if he’s the survivor of some heroic battle. Which only Harry actually is, btw.

Even more shocking, Malfoy is marginally interested in girls when he plays the part of stoic sufferer to Pansy. Draco’s such a Mama’s boy.

Snape tells the class to settle down and Harry and Ron indignantly think about how if they’d walked in late they’d have gotten detention because Malfoy’s allowed to get away with anything in Snape’s class. Okay, hold on. No he isn’t. Nobody is. The Trio’s actually probably got a worse record in Snape’s class than Malfoy does—he likes Snape so he behaves.

And here, he hasn’t actually done anything wrong. Even if Snape would have given detention to Harry and Ron here, he’d have been wrong to do so. So it’s not like Malfoy’s getting away with anything.

Malfoy does display enough intelligence to annoy Ron. But that doesn’t take much.

Draco drawls to Snape that he needs something else done so Harry has to do it. If I was Harry or Ron here I’d have started laughing too by this point. Draco’s being a dick, but just the little stinker kind. Ron and Harry react to him like he’s being evil.

This book is generally a favorite because the Sirius reveal is great. But that gives JKR the problem of having no real villain, since Sirius isn’t trying to hurt Harry and neither is Peter. So she comes up with the Buckbeak story instead. Only the Buckbeak story is a non-issue, because it’s basically the story of an inept guy given a teaching position through favoritism who shouldn’t be hiding behind a bunch of kids to save his ass anyway. And that means the villain role falls to a kid whose crime is making a mistake in class and being unsympathetic about the consequences. Even the innocent animal isn’t innocent since it attacks Draco for the same reasons everyone else in canon does.

Harry’s shaking with anger now because Draco says his father’s made complaints about Hagrid. Even if I didn’t like Draco I couldn’t think of this as some huge injustice that Hagrid’s job is in trouble, especially when I know Hagrid is a bad teacher who can’t be fired because of Dumbledore.

This is why the series often depends on seemingly unimportant things like loving Hagrid. If you don’t see Hagrid being fired any differently than Harry sees Trelawney being fired, it’s hard to get worked up.

Oh! Here’s that big moment where Snape threatens to poison Trevor and totally would have done it too because he’s evil! I really don’t think the scene’s meant to be taken as seriously as Ron and Harry take everything in it. Even little kids get that Snape isn’t really going to poison the toad. In the next book he’s threatening to poison everybody.

Seamus reports Sirius has been sighted by a Muggle who thinks he’s just an ordinary criminal. Which he actually is. Okay yeah, he’s a wizard, but get over yourselves, guys. There are Muggles who have killed more people at once than Sirius.

I love the way Malfoy’s such a pariah amongst the heroes that whenever he’s needed as part of the story he’s always got to be forcing himself into a conversation between people who are glaring at him and wishing him dead.

Luckily Malfoy’s face is always twisting into various positions of “malicious,” “mean,” “nasty,” and “malevolent” so we know they’re just reacting to him like the cowardly demon he is. He should really be perched on Harry’s shoulder like an imp.

Can’t help but imagine what Ron and Harry look like from Draco’s pov. I suppose various stages of “morally outraged,” “righteously angry,” “heroically protective,” and “Crucio-level indignant.”

Draco’s bad jokes always have to over-played so Harry can notice (as if he’s not always checking Draco out), but give him a really dramatic moment and the boy knows how to play it just right. He draws Harry into the truth about Sirius “quietly,” “breathing” his lines instead of speaking them. And people wonder why H/D is so popular?

Still, why is Draco the only person telling Harry this story? Besides the obvious meta-reasons? Just like in GoF, Draco’s actually surprised that he knows more about Harry’s life than Harry does. Presidents of the fanclub probably often do!

Also, Hermione pops in and out of the scene after class, because she just Time Traveled. Despite knowing that Time Turners exist, and that they live in a world of magic, it doesn’t occur to Ron to think Hermione’s done anything magical. After all, it wouldn’t be OOC for her to have started Apparating early. (If Hermione heard that theory we all know she’d tell them you can’t Apparate inside Hogwarts.)

Lupin tells them to put away their books, which by now we know is code for “good teacher.”

Lupin mentions Filch, whom the narrator tells us is constantly waging a war against the students. By grumbling at them as he cleans up their messes.

Can’t wait until Harry starts heroically hexing the guy in a few years to put him in his place. Uppity squib janitors are the worst!

Snape leaves the teacher’s lounge when they come in, taking care to get in a last shot at Neville for letting Hermione help him in Potions. Well, really so that Lupin has a sense of what’s going on with Neville so he can give him some of that confidence that is the basis for all ability in good people.

Lupin might have thought he was out of practice humiliating Snape but 20 years later, Moony’s still got it!

Harry finds it hard to answer with Hermione bobbing up and down on the balls of her feet and waving her hand next to him. Hee! Hermione was so cute. A little young for 14 (which she would be by this point) but still.

I once did a post on how books 3-6 are like one book for each house? And this one’s totally the Gryffindor book, so there’s a big theme about courage. Hagrid’s class required some already, but now we’ve got a Boggart, which is pretty entirely about being able to laugh at fear.

A lot of people used to point to Snape’s being Neville’s boggart as proof that Snape really was Satan as a teacher, since he’s beating out every other fear for a kid whose parents were tortured into insanity. To me it more just says that Neville didn’t witness his parents’ torture and he’s had a relatively normal life so has a normal kid fear of a mean teacher.

I love that Harry can’t even think of how to make a Dementor less frightening. Because Nazgul rip-offs are just so terrifying they can’t be funny. Start with a pair of tap shoes and a hoodie and work from there Harry, jeez. Family Guy got a whole character out of it.

Heh. That reminds me of a LOTR fic. I think it was called “The Littlest Nazgul” where Frodo did become a wraith. The other Nazgul were annoyed at having to get him a black pony, and the fact that he called the pony Mushroom.

Seamus’ greatest fear is of course a banshee. If you cut Seamus open every Irish stereotype in the world would spill out.

Lupin’s boggart was the moon, of course.

And again with the courage theme, Harry’s still obsessing over his humiliating faint on the train and thinks Lupin kept him from facing the boggart because he didn’t trust him not to faint again.

I’m going to give some props to Lavender here for wondering why Lupin’s afraid of crystal balls. And JKR for calling attention to it without really calling attention to it.


Things happening twice:
While Ron and Hermione don’t get why, Harry becomes actually interested in Draco when he starts talking about taking action in revenge for your family, which will happen again in HBP.
Harry will also have the urge to show off for Cho the same way Malfoy is here. It just takes him a couple of years.
A Boggart shows up again in OotP.
Neville seems to have as much trouble as Draco when it comes to listening in class, and Potions has been known to also cause violent accidents. Only here it’s not Neville’s fault.

It’s a gun. No it isn’t! It’s Chekov! No it isn’t!
Lupin’s boggart
Since Lavender brings our attention to it, and we hear about everyone else’s, it’s got to be something.
Status: Fired with a mighty bang!
Malfoy’s cryptic remarks
He says if it were his family he wouldn’t just go to school like a good boy.
Status: Fired—he actually would take some action.

OMG, Hermione didn’t get to face her boggart!
What if she has to face one in the future?
Status: Fired, but harmlessly. I can’t remember if it’s at the end of this year or during her OWLS, but she can’t do it right. She should have just thought to make McGonagall’s face break out in pustules that said “Old Maid” or something.





Misdirected Answering
I know the Boggart class was an elaborate set up for a couple of things, but I don’t remember Boggarts ever really being important. Especially once the big tragic scene in OotP points out that adult fears tend to be a lot harder to make funny.

Jabootu Score: 1

Comments

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I don't see why Neville bringing Trevor to class is so blatantly stupid. Don't kids sometimes bring their "familiars" to class, or am I misremembering?

We do see Snape cheering or egging on Draco for basically being a snot to the Gryffs, making Ron cut Draco's roots (why Ron? silly thing to do, except out of pure spite), picking on the Gryffs and therefore setting an example for the Slyths that this is acceptable behavior, etc. The reason why the Slyths don't interfere with Severus's class is because he's one of their own; the reason why the Gryffs do is because he's marked them out from their very first day as his unfavorite bunch. I don't think we see similar behavior from McGonagall, though again I could be misremembering. None of the teachers or students are at all sensible about inter-house rivalry but I do think Snape is the second-worst teacher about it. Hagrid is the worst.

[oryx_leucoryx]

I don't see why Neville bringing Trevor to class is so blatantly stupid. Don't kids sometimes bring their "familiars" to class, or am I misremembering?

Trevor is the only pet that we see in class - once in PS when Flitwick used him to demonstrate levitation and here. The only other situation was when Hedwig delivered Harry a message while he was in class - but he didn't bring her to class, she flew there on her own. And Trevor is most known for escaping from Neville - he isn't a well-controlled pet. In a class like Potions that's a recipe for disaster - he could hop into a cauldron or distract someone into making a dangerous mistake.

The reason why the Slyths don't interfere with Severus's class is because he's one of their own; the reason why the Gryffs do is because he's marked them out from their very first day as his unfavorite bunch.

The reason Hermione interferes in Severus' class is because she has to be 'right'. The reason Harry interferes in Severus' class is because of whatever issue of the day. The Slytherins have a better idea of where Severus' boundaries are. (When they know they are wrong they take care to wait for his back to be turned.) I disagree that Severus picks on Gryffindors in general or any one of them in particular.

I don't think we see similar behavior from McGonagall, though again I could be misremembering.

McGonagall doesn't teach a mixed-House class until NEWTs level so she doesn't face this kind of situation. Nor do we know how she handles students from other Houses in her class. We know she avoids giving Gryffindor students homework before a Quidditch match, we do not know what she does with students of the rival team (no homework? regular amount? double homework?). There's the whole business with Harry playing in first year (while not being punished for public and potentially dangerous rule-breaking), Harry's broom, ignoring Ginny's public crash into Zach's stand in HBP. Also after the Ministry battle - giving Harry and friends all those unjustified House points, while only reluctantly awarding Luna for same (though she does do it).

None of the teachers or students are at all sensible about inter-house rivalry but I do think Snape is the second-worst teacher about it. Hagrid is the worst.

They are the two we see teaching Gryff/Slyth classes in the first 5 books. We don't know if anyone else is better because they are never challenged that way. I'd say Slughorn is the least House-biased, but he has other biases. (OK, maybe Binns is the least biased, but that's because he has no idea who anyone is. Followed possibly by Trelawney.)

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

>McGonagall doesn't teach a mixed-House class until NEWTs level so she doesn't face this kind of situation.<

Actually, I think she does. Rowling just never shows us the fact. Transfigureation for Ginny's year is Gryffindor/Ravenclaw. Luna mentions is directly.

Now, mind you, I think Rowling made that up in an attempt to make Ginny look compassionate and helpful, defending poor Luna, and that it has nothing to do with how the classes actually were conducted or divided up. But she put it there and we have to deal with it.

Unless Harry's class is so speshul that it's just Gryffindors, while all the other years are sharing with either Ravenclaw or someone else.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Hard to say, because we never see or hear a non-Gryffindor in Transfiguration with Harry. If they are there they are awfully quiet.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Well, like I say, I think that Rowling was blowing us a rasberry with this one. But it's there afmd its easier (for me) to believe that Harry found it easy to ignore the Ravenclaws, than that the other years' classes were mixed and his wasn't.

[oryx_leucoryx]

So all we know about Minerva's dealing with inter-house issues in class is that she was willing to forgo homework for both Gryffindor and Ravenclaw before a Gryffindor/Slytherin match. We still don't know what she did regarding homework for the Slytherins before that same match.

OK, both in OOTP and HBP the Gryffindor/Ravenclaw game is critical to decide the championship. If she has both classes together she can't use homework to give one team an advantage over the other, and indeed there is no mention of reduced homework before those two games.

[oryx_leucoryx]

You know, Rowling could have had them share an elective class and there wouldn't be a question of why they are together. It makes sense that sharing electives would vary from one year to the next depending on how many students from each House chose each class.

[jodel-from-aol.livejournal.com]

Actually I'm a little more curious as to why she makes such a point of telling us that some of their core classes are shared, while completely ignoring whether the others are as well. It would have only taken a half a sentance in passing to establish and then she could have frgotten about it unless she needed a non-Gryff character to say something in the class.

After all, it was going to *matter* that the Gryffs shared Potions with the Slyths. The whole storyline seems to have depended on that. I don't know that it mattered as much that they shared Hebology with the 'Puffs -- although it made it easier to bring in a few characters from Hufflepuff when they got dragged into the plot of CoS. (another indication that the first three books were all planned in one long stretch). But just knowing that they shared Transfiguration with the 'Claws would be enough, even if she never made any particular use of it. And we never find out who they shared Charms with.

And, frankly, with important core classes like Charms and Transfiguration, and seven year levels to teach, I cannot see the week's schedule being mauled about to enable Flitwick and McGonagall to take up one class period to teach a single group of 8 students.

Let alone Astronomy, which it taught at night to seven years with seven days to the week.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Hermione doesn't interfere with Severus's class. She volunteers to give the answer. That's not interference, though Snape may find it annoying.

As far as Harry goes, he does interfere, but it was Snape who started it by picking on Harry in a personalized and inappropriate way. All of Harry's bad behavior from that point on is in direct response to Snape's own tarring of Harry as being Not Like Him.

[oryx_leucoryx]

In the werewolf lesson Hermione speaks several times out of turn and without permission. And the information she volunteered was that Severus was wrong in his choice of teaching material. That's interfering.

As for Harry - he sees Severus' attitude in the first lesson as personal picking on him for the same reason he perceives Draco's behavior at Madam Malkin's as hostile. Teachers are allowed to direct questions to non-volunteering students. Usually students take that as a warning to come prepared to class. More attentive people than myself pointed out that Severus' follow-up questions were less potions-specific than the first one. This allows the interpretation that Severus was giving Harry an opportunity to save face (which he could have used if he had done some reading in any related area). Severus' interpretation of Harry's lack of knowledge as coasting on his fame may have better been saved for a private exchange. (OTOH it is in line with what disappointed teachers often say.)

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't consider speaking without permission "interfering" if it's on the subject. The information she volunteered was helpful: it told Snape where the previous teacher had left off. Most substitute teachers (which is what Snape was in that context) wouldn't consider that an interference because most substitutes would want to know that. It's not Hermione's fault that Snape has a bug up his ass about Lupin and decides to throw a solid, sequential teaching method out the window because he wants the kids to figure out that Lupin's a werewolf. And if it was "interfering", it was very minor; his response was both disproportionate and petty.

As for Harry, he sees Severus's attitude in the first lesson as personal because it was personal. Snape singled Harry out for being the Boy Who Lived. And Snape wasn't questioning him about assigned material, or even optional material, but rather future material. There was no need for Harry to "save face," nor did Snape want him to. The whole point of asking a kid on the first day, who hasn't even had any homework, questions about stuff you're not going to get to for months is to embarrass and scare him--not give him a fair chance to show his knowledge or something.

Hermione's interruptions

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

“But, sir,” said Hermione, seemingly unable to restrain herself, “we’re not supposed to do werewolves yet, we’re due to start hinky-punks—”

“Miss Granger,” said Snape in a voice of deadly calm, “I was under the impression that I am teaching this lesson, not you.”

*

“I wonder,” said Professor McGonagall in cold fury, turning on Professor Umbridge, “how you expect to gain an idea of my usual teaching methods if you continue to interrupt me? You see, I do not generally permit people to talk when I am talking.”

So Minerva likewise would not have tolerated this misbehavior from Hermione. Would Hermione even have attempted it with her? Surface respect does have its benefits, however (Harry never learned that one); Snape doesn't take points and denigrate Hermione until the THIRD time she speaks out of turn.

I’ve BEEN a substitute teacher. If I asked a class where they were in the material, then yes, I would consider a student’s telling me to be helpful. A student repeatedly interrupting me to inform me that I’m wrong, however, would not be so perceived.

Snape is “known” by the Gryffindors to covet the DADA position, so they know that he believes himself to be an expert in the field. The professor has just told the class outright that he considers the material Lupin has been covering with them to be too elementary. He is not accidentally skipping some carefully-crafted part of Lupin’s lesson plan (and presumably eager to be set right about his mistake—er, yes, all the students know how much Snape welcomes being corrected by them. Uh-huh.). Rather, he is deliberately taking the opportunity to present more advanced material that he considers they should know, which he has explicitly criticized Lupin for not covering. He has just told them this is his intention.

And Hermione jumps in to say, in effect, oh, but sir, Professor Lupin thinks we should be studying this, not what you say!

She’s not trying to help out Professor Snape. She’s declaring her allegiance to Lupin over Snape as a teacher, same as Dean did moments before with his “best DADA teacher” outburst.

Now, is it reasonable that the Gryffs, including Hermione, like Lupin better than Snape? Sure. How could they not? But don’t confuse Hermione’s classroom misconduct here with an attempt to help out poor Professor Snape in his hour of need, just because she sugarcoats her blatent interruption and criticism of his choice of subject with a “sir”.

Re: Hermione's interruptions

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Actually, this relates to something I only realized on this read-through. Take this bit:

“As I was saying before Potter interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far —”

“Please, sir, we’ve done Boggarts, Red Caps, Kappas, and Grindylows,” said Hermione quickly, “and we’re just about to start —”

“Be quiet,” said Snape coldly. “I did not ask for information. I was merely commenting on Professor Lupin’s lack of organization.”

On the first read, Snape sounds like he's just being a jerk, here. (And I admit, I don't approve of his criticizing another professor to students; it's a problem here as well as when Lupin undermines Snape with the boggart.)

But now that we know more about what's going on behind the scenes, let's think about that bit again.

Lupin is a werewolf. He knows perfectly well that he's going to be incapable of teaching classes once a month.

Chances are, the faculty had already arranged how his days out "sick" would be handled, and that he knew from the start that Snape would be substituting for him. (Or one of the people; God only knows how Snape could teach all of the DADA *and* potions classes.)

But Lupin left no record of what he had covered or what he was planning to cover, knowing that Snape would be substituting for him.

That is less than polite of Lupin. More evidence of Lupin's being passive-aggressive, I would say. Much milder than the stuff about the potion, but there.

I don't approve of Snape commenting on this to the *class*, but he has every right to be ticked off.

Frankly, I could imagine Snape covering werewolves just to nudge Lupin into leaving lesson plans next time. Don't get me wrong; I don't think that's why he did it. But it would be effective.

Re: Hermione's interruptions

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

You are attributing far too much calculation, malice, and frankly intelligence (of a certain kind) to Hermione here. She's not "declaring" any "allegiance" here; she's not savvy enough to do that type of thing (yet). Hermione at this stage is extremely earnest, she believes in the teachers and their basic legitimacy (including Snape's, though she doesn't like him), and she's big on scrupulously following all the rules and doing the correct thing. She sees Snape deviating from the "correct" lesson plan, assumes he would want to know, and assumes it's her duty to tell him so.

This doesn't mean Snape was wrong to tell her not to interrupt. He was right to do that. I'm not saying Hermione's behavior was proper. I'm saying it wasn't malicious, it came from an intent to help and to give the right answer rather than an intent to undermine, and it certainly didn't deserve an insult in response. McGonagall doesn't call Umbridge an insufferable know-it-all, which was the element of Snape's behavior I said was improper.

Re: Hermione's interruptions

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I agree. I think *Snape* is annoyed and taking Hermione's interruptions as being pro-Lupin, but we know Hermione is as pro-Snape as she is pro-Lupin.

Re: Hermione's interruptions

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Do we? I mean, certainly Hermione isn't anti-Snape the way that Harry and Ron are, but actively pro-Snape? I'm not saying you're wrong, but I'm not sure I can think of a sign of that off the top of my head. Could you provide an example or two?

Although maybe there aren't that many signs she's pro-Lupin, either, and that's what you mean.

Dunno; she does have that general "I approve of teachers on principle" thing going on, so it is hard to tell what she thinks aside from that.

Re: Hermione's interruptions

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

I feel like she is--but maybe it's because I'm giving the wrong impression by saying pro-Lupina dn Snape. I basically just mean that I think Hermione's proven many times that she respects Snape as a teacher. There are teachers that she doesn't respect--Trelawney and Umbridge. Even with Hagrid it's clear that she respects him as a person and not so much as a teacher. But Snape she does respect as a teacher, so I think she respects him as a substitute.

[oryx_leucoryx]

Others have already explained why Hermione was out of line. Especially when she talks out of turn repeatedly. As for Severus' motivation for choosing to teach about werewolves: Remus puts on it the spin that his intent was to expose him. Notice the lesson takes place after Remus was being unhelpful about his potion. Severus does not trust Remus. From Remus' behavior wrt the potion Severus has reason to expect non-compliance issues that might result in the children coming across a transformed werewolf, and they needed to know how to protect themselves.

Regarding the first lesson: Would it look differently to you if it turned out that every first lesson of first years Severus quizzed a non-volunteering student, and that more often than not the student got one of the later questions right?

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

For Hermione, see my response

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For Hermione, see my response <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/deathtocapslock/102390.html?thread=3434230#t3434230"">here</a>.

For Snape, we don't need to rely on Remus's "spin" that Snape wanted to expose him. We can look at Snape's own actions. Snape <i>does</i> expose him by simply telling his students, which suggests his earlier actions have the same motive. Snape's concerns about Lupin have some justification, but I think it's clear he wanted him exposed.

Regarding the first lesson: it would look a bit different if that were true, yes. But not wholly, because you can't really erase the context of Harry being the "boy who lived" and the son of Snape's former nemesis. Given that context, singling Harry in particular out looks highly personal even if he picks some student to single out every year.

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

For Snape, we don't need to rely on Remus's "spin" that Snape wanted to expose him. We can look at Snape's own actions. Snape does expose him by simply telling his students, which suggests his earlier actions have the same motive.

That's suggestive, but not conclusive. Oryx's point about Remus appearing to have non-compliance issues is also suggestive but not conclusive, of course. What's good about it, though, is that it gives us reasons for Severus's actions that don't depend on just disliking Remus.

I don't think it follows logically that Severus' earlier actions *must* have the same motive as his telling everyone the secret later. That's like saying, Severus does tell students the secret outright in June, therefore when he talked about information related to the secret in October (September?), his goal was to tell the students outright.

If his goal was to tell the students the secret, that's a long time between October and June when Severus would have realized the students weren't working it out from the info, and when he could have just told them without hints. Particularly since if he wasn't going to hint, he didn't need to be substituting for Remus in DADA. He could have told students in potions, or anywhere that he ran into them.


Although, it also sounds like you're accepting that Severus exposed Remus' secret in June strictly because he disliked Remus. (Maybe I'm misreading.) But considering that Remus had failed to take his potion, for whatever reason, wanting to protect the students could just as easily be the reason there, as wanting to expose Remus as a werewolf.

In which case, Severus might have had the same *sound* motive for his actions both times: Remus was showing signs of being dangerous, and the students needed to be kept safe. The first time, it was a relatively minor sign, so Severus only hinted, in a way that would help protect the students as much as hint at the secret, by teaching them how to protect themselves against a werewolf. The second time, it was a clear sign of danger (actually going without the wolfsbane, for whatever reason), and stronger action needed to be taken.

The thing is, Remus was a potential danger all year long, and Severus disliked him all year long, so we can't rule out either of these possible motives at any point in the book. We can't *prove* Severus' motive, one way of another. But I don't think it's obvious that it was just about getting back at Remus.

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

I don't think it follows logically that Severus' earlier actions *must*
have the same motive as his telling everyone the secret later.

No. However, whatever motive you choose to attribute to his earlier action, that same motive is an equally good explanation of his later action--and vice versa. And it's unlikely that the motive (whether it is a sound concern for public safety or an unsound hatred of Remus) would exist and influence his actions early in the year but not later in the year, or vice versa.

Basically, I think he wanted to expose Remus all along, whether because of public safety or personal spite. I agree that it's entirely possible his motives might have been partially sound, though I think it's probable his grudge strongly influenced his behavior as well.

My initial point, though, was about Hermione and the fact that Snape's sudden focus on werewolves would have been inexplicable to her and would have seemed very much like a mistake about the syllabus.

[oryx_leucoryx]

If his *only* motivation was to expose Remus he didn't need to use the werewolf lesson to do so. The lesson does achieve a constructive goal as well.

I can understand Hermione being ticked off, I had a history of arguing with teachers and correcting them - doesn't mean it was the right thing to do, but I understand the temptation and the frustration. And she deserved to be punished for it (as I did in my day).

[sistermagpie.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think we ever see the Slytherins in class with McGonagall. She does snap at Draco to be quiet during the Apparition lesson iirc, and she gives him detention in HBP for not having his homework, but neither of those are unfair. Snape's reading the Skeeter article to the class and making the Slytherins laugh is imo encouraging their behavior, for instance. (And that's not helping them--Malfoy more often than not gets smacked down for acting the same way outside of class--unsurprisingly!)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Well, I think he had a purpose when he did this - he suspected Harry was involved in the ingredients theft (possibly in the context of Harry's participation in the Tournament, possibly some unrelated mischief Severus didn't yet know about) and wanted to use some level of Legilimency to sort the question out (if it was Harry he needed to know because Harry could be endangering himself, if it wasn't then there was an impostor in the castle and he needed to know that too). So the entire lesson he was using various tactics to get Harry to look in his eyes - the Veritaserum threat does the trick eventually. Some of Severus' actions do have untoward effects in the long run and perhaps he should have thought of other ways to achieve the same goal but I don't think humiliating Hermione or the trio was his goal.