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.