So a part of me wanted to argue, "But if Severus were not rather insensitive to anything beyond protecting his charges' bodies, if he were concerned about their moral growth as well, why did he fail so miserably with his Slytherins?
"Okay, his hands were as (or more) tied in dealing with them as with the BWL. I mean, some of them were reporting immediately to living Death Eater relatives!
"But still, it's canon that all the Slytherins are all cheating scum. Start to finish. Can't find, in canon, a one of the Slytherin students under Snape's tutelage worth spitting on if they were on fire. (Er--unless one entertains some of, say, MY wilder speculations about Draco.)
"So, either Snape wasn't paying attention to their moral development, or he failed miserably in his efforts to influence them. Or, of course, like Albus with the Gryffs, he influenced them, yes indeedy, but in entirely the wrong direction.
"Choose one."
Only then I thought, "Except--I'd already speculated that Severus had been using House Points, and the competition for the House Cup, to try to influence the students in his charge. Before the opening of canon. Which is why they'd had that six-year winning streak. Only, that tactic was fatally undermined by Albus at the end of book one. And then reiterated at the end of book two. Slytherins who'd worked like hell all year for that Cup had it arbitrarily taken from them at the end by the headmaster and given to Potter.
"By book three, Slyths who still wasted any of their ambition on school achievements wouldn't be bothering to work for the house cup; just to hold on to the Quidditch Cup.
"And then if they lost that too, they'd give up on school-sanctioned ambitions altogether. And lose respect for the head of house who'd either cheated them deliberately or been stupid enough to have them put such effort into winning an unwinnable prize, in a game that was rigged from the start."
So. If something like THAT was going on, there should be evidence visible even to Harry. A change after first, second,or third years, in how Slytherin students are demonstrably behaving.
Of course, Harry doesn't usually notice other students. He notices his main rival Draco (and sometimes Draco's followers), and he notices Quidditch.
So. Draco. In Harry's first year, Draco hatches two schemes against Harry: he challenges him to a fake duel, and then sets Filch to look for him. And then later when he realizes the Trio are accomplices to Hagrid's highly-illegal dragon-hatching, he tries to catch them in the act.
Please note that in both cases, what Draco was trying to do, was to arrange for legitimate authority to catch Harry in a real act of wrongdoing. The first time, he set Harry up for that act (by a betrayal of schoolyard codes--having set the dare, he should have come out to duel Harry). But the second time, Draco was absolutely in the right: Harry and his friends were involved in, and covering up for, a crime. In fact a serious crime, and one that had already injured a student (Ron) badly enough to send him to hospital.
So Draco's initial reaction to Potter was to try to catch him in legitimate wrong-doing, and let the authorities handle him appropriately.
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timeasmymeasure
Severus and the Slytherins
Date: 2015-08-17 06:13 am (UTC)"Okay, his hands were as (or more) tied in dealing with them as with the BWL. I mean, some of them were reporting immediately to living Death Eater relatives!
"But still, it's canon that all the Slytherins are all cheating scum. Start to finish. Can't find, in canon, a one of the Slytherin students under Snape's tutelage worth spitting on if they were on fire. (Er--unless one entertains some of, say, MY wilder speculations about Draco.)
"So, either Snape wasn't paying attention to their moral development, or he failed miserably in his efforts to influence them. Or, of course, like Albus with the Gryffs, he influenced them, yes indeedy, but in entirely the wrong direction.
"Choose one."
Only then I thought, "Except--I'd already speculated that Severus had been using House Points, and the competition for the House Cup, to try to influence the students in his charge. Before the opening of canon. Which is why they'd had that six-year winning streak. Only, that tactic was fatally undermined by Albus at the end of book one. And then reiterated at the end of book two. Slytherins who'd worked like hell all year for that Cup had it arbitrarily taken from them at the end by the headmaster and given to Potter.
"By book three, Slyths who still wasted any of their ambition on school achievements wouldn't be bothering to work for the house cup; just to hold on to the Quidditch Cup.
"And then if they lost that too, they'd give up on school-sanctioned ambitions altogether. And lose respect for the head of house who'd either cheated them deliberately or been stupid enough to have them put such effort into winning an unwinnable prize, in a game that was rigged from the start."
So. If something like THAT was going on, there should be evidence visible even to Harry. A change after first, second,or third years, in how Slytherin students are demonstrably behaving.
Of course, Harry doesn't usually notice other students. He notices his main rival Draco (and sometimes Draco's followers), and he notices Quidditch.
So. Draco. In Harry's first year, Draco hatches two schemes against Harry: he challenges him to a fake duel, and then sets Filch to look for him. And then later when he realizes the Trio are accomplices to Hagrid's highly-illegal dragon-hatching, he tries to catch them in the act.
Please note that in both cases, what Draco was trying to do, was to arrange for legitimate authority to catch Harry in a real act of wrongdoing. The first time, he set Harry up for that act (by a betrayal of schoolyard codes--having set the dare, he should have come out to duel Harry). But the second time, Draco was absolutely in the right: Harry and his friends were involved in, and covering up for, a crime. In fact a serious crime, and one that had already injured a student (Ron) badly enough to send him to hospital.
So Draco's initial reaction to Potter was to try to catch him in legitimate wrong-doing, and let the authorities handle him appropriately.
Well. Poor sap. He learns.