Boggart performance art

[sunnyskywalker]

There really is nothing like re-reading these books while looking from the adult characters' perspectives. Harry's first Thursday back at school in PoA is an interesting case.

For reference, here's the sequence of events:

• Wednesday afternoon: a boggart conveniently moves into the staff room wardrobe. Lupin asks Dumbledore to have the staff leave it alone so he can use it for class.
  
• Thursday morning Potions class: Snape irritates Harry and Ron by backing Draco's request to have them prepare his ingredients.
  
• He berates Neville for brewing incorrectly, snaps at Hermione that no one asked her to show off when she offers to help, and announces he'll be testing Neville's potion on Trevor. He then conveniently never looks closely enough to see whether Hermione helps after all, and docks five points from Gryffindor when the potion works correctly because he told Hermione not to help (when technically he hadn't).
  
• Thursday DADA: Lupin comes into class after the students and guides them to the staff room, where Snape is waiting alone. Snape reminds Neville of the morning's lesson before stalking off. Commence boggart lesson, in which Neville's boggart unsurprisingly manifests as the fear uppermost in his mind at the moment, Snape.

And for extra clarity, here's the passage covering that dramatic exit:

Professor Snape was sitting in a low armchair, and he looked around as the class filed in. His eyes were glittering and there was a nasty sneer playing around his mouth. As Professor Lupin came in and made to close the door behind him, Snape said, "Leave it open, Lupin. I'd rather not witness this."

He got to his feet and strode past the class, his black robes billowing behind him. At the doorway he turned on his heel and said, "Possibly no one's warned you, Lupin, but this class contains Neville Longbottom. I would advise you not to entrust him with anything difficult. Not unless Miss Granger is hissing instructions in his ear."

So. The staff have all known since yesterday that Lupin's planning a boggart lesson in the staff room. Snape picks that morning to dramatically threaten Neville's pet--and as I think Terri demonstrated, he allowed Hermione to stay nearby to help, never got close enough to officially notice her helping, and then took "credit" for being a horrible mean pet-killer who takes points when you try to help save a friend's pet without, you know, actually having to kill any pets. Hmmm.

He then hangs out in the staff room right before Lupin's lesson, when he could reasonably predict that Lupin would be there checking the boggart before heading to class (which would be why he arrived after the students). Because he's so looking forward to spending time with his old pal? Ha. Right. I'm sure they had quite a snippy little exchange before Lupin went to fetch the kids, just in case Lupin had forgotten that they didn't like each other in school.

Then he waits just long enough to remind Neville of the morning's horrible potions lesson, to really make sure the kid is thinking how scary Professor Snape is right before facing a boggart. And does it in front of the whole class, in front of his former school rival, who will surely respond to this provocation by helping build Neville back up and (as lovely side bonus... I mean, total coincidence) mocking Snape in front of the whole class. I mean, he kept a very close eye on Lupin for years and saw his style up close and personal; surely he has a pretty good idea how Lupin would react, right?

Gosh, it's almost like Snape deliberately manipulated the entire situation so that Neville would produce a Snape-boggart and then come up with some humiliating transformation for it! But why, when the Dark Lord's right-hand man has escaped from prison and is gunning for Harry, would a spy expecting to have to make good with Voldemort in the near future want to make it clear to all and sundry that he's a horrible mean person who misses the good old Death Eater days when torture was more socially acceptable, holds a grudge against the Marauders, loathes Harry, despises Harry's friends, and hates Aurors' offspring?

Oh. When you put it that way... Nicely played, Severus.

No wonder he didn't want to "witness this." He knew exactly what he'd set himself up for.

Comments

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

Not just "aurors' offspring", but the other potential prophecy child!

[sunnyskywalker]

An extra layer to the performance which only Voldemort and Dumbledore can appreciate :-)

[oryx_leucoryx]

And don't forget Terri's idea: Convince Minerva he was capable of any despicable crime he might be required to commit as convincing DE.

Also, remember this potion was assigned as summer homework. Even before Remus was made teacher, Severus wanted to make 100% certain Hermione knew this one inside and out. So I think he was planning on some kind of trickery in any case, but with Remus there he brought it up to 11.

[sunnyskywalker]

Yep, I think that works. As soon as he hears Black has escaped, he looks at what he's assigned over the summer and starts planning a Shrinking Solution performance. Then, when he hears Lupin is going to be teaching, he starts thinking about ways he can play up his hatred of the Marauders in public even more. And when he hears about the Boggart lesson, well, what a great opportunity! If not especially pleasant for him.

Then, should he be required to capture or kill the Dark Lord's right-hand man in order to protect Harry, he'll have a whole year of evidence that no, my lord, he wasn't being disloyal on purpose, he just utterly lost his head when he saw his hated school rival. Look how he couldn't help provoking Lupin in front of a crowd, even when he ought to have known it would end in humiliation for him! And anyway, Black hadn't made any attempt to restore you, my lord, but focused on killing Harry to honor your memory; clearly, he thought himself incapable of restoring you, so it wasn't like this regrettable mistake actually hurt your chances of return...

At least he had a hope of living through that. Maybe.

[hwyla.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I agree with this idea, I think it just as likely that Snape's aiming for a different result, but using the same opportunities.

However, I must admit it's a very plausible theory. And of course, outing Remus at the end of the year can play into it as well since Snape is well aware of the idea of DEs using a werewolf to accomplish their goals. Snape can easily 'believe' Remus wouldn't need to be marked to still be 'valued' by Voldy (*Fenrir*)

Snape could possibly spin everything in the shack as traumatic-stress flashback from his youth. Even if he never intended this the way you suggest, I certainly can see him spinning it that way to Voldy once he returned.

[sunnyskywalker]

Yeah, regardless of his actual motives at the time, I think he could certainly think of this as his cover story later if needed. And of course it could be complicated--he might be genuinely a bit panicked in the Shack (understandably!), and also dimly aware in the background that he's got a good spin for this later, so there's nothing to hold him back.