yeah cause implying that a bunch of 11 year olds are “dunderheads” will definitely make aforementioned 11 year olds want to be in your class.
because singling out an 11 year old and mocking him in front of half the students in his year for his fame because his parents died is going to make that 11 year old respect you.
because proceeding to ask a first year with no magical experience whatsoever questions that you know he doesn’t know the answer to and won’t need to know the answer to until his 5th year won’t humiliate that child and make them hate that class.
because calling an 11 year old an “idiot boy” for messing up their first attempt at a potion is going to make the students put effort into that class.
because saying this:
“You—Potter—why didn’t you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he’d make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That’s another point you’ve lost for Gryffindor.”
to an 11 year old that you don’t know at all because you’re assuming he’s like his father is totally acceptable and will make that student like you.
i’m going to assume you’ve never been stuck with a teacher that you’ve disliked for a long period of time. when a teacher goes out of their way to make a spectacle of you, you really start to struggle in that class. you start to think “why bother, they’re going to find something wrong with it anyways” on every assignment. having a shit teacher can make you hate a subject you liked. snape’s petty treatment of his students from day one and continued mistreatment (re: any incident involving neville, bullying hermione, threatening to slip harry veritaserum in the great hall, favoring students in his own house, etc.) had a massive impact on their performance in class. once harry got a teacher who encouraged him he did fine. notice that in the 6th book when harry is trying to get the memory from slughorn his performance starts to slip a bit because of a) his preoccupation with the memory and b) slughorn starts to avoid him even in lessons.
yes, he had snape’s old book and that helped, but that just goes back to the second comment: why didn’t snape use his knowledge to help his students? it’s obvious he’s knowledgable about potions, so why not put his findings to good use? why not choose to do something good with his life? we find out when harry unwittingly (and unwisely) uses sectumsempra: snape was too preoccupied with the dark arts to do anything productive with his talents. even when he’s doing potions and adding notes to his book, something he’s good at, he’s still thinking about the dark arts. he’s drawn to them. we’re literally told this by percy weasley:
“But everyone knows it’s the Dark Arts he fancies.”
he likes the dark arts and he’s always been drawn to them. we see it when harry goes into snape’s memories, when lily tells him she has a bad feeling about the people he’s hanging around with, people who want muggleborns like her (his supposed best friend and love of his life) dead and snape just brushes her concerns off because he’s found people that make him feel powerful.
snape was tired of being bullied, he was angry that his muggle father left him and his mother to struggle, and he found something he liked and was good at. he didn’t become voldemort’s right hand man by being bad at the dark arts, he was good at it and being good at something gives you power. he was going to show everyone what he was capable of and then they’d be sorry for treating him badly. but in seeking power, snape gave up love. how he thought he could delve into the dark arts and hang out with future death eaters and still have a relationship with little muggleborn lily evans, i have no clue. then there’s the fact that he was perfectly fine with giving voldemort information saying to kill a baby, until he realized it was lily evan’s child. then he goes to dumbledore and asks him to save her. forget the child and her husband who she presumably loves and would be miserable if they were killed. save lily evans, the woman he blew any chance with by turning to the dark arts, because he can’t get over some childhood crush and his resentment for her husband. forget the child that he knows for sure is going to be killed, save lily.
and he only thinks of harry once dumbledore points out his selfishness. do you really think snape would have risked his life again and again and become a spy for dumbledore had the prophecy been about neville? do you really think he’d have protected a kid had he not had some leftover feelings for the kid’s mother?
i’d like to acknowledge that yes, the work snape did for the order was extremely dangerous and invaluable. yes, dumbledore manipulated snape just as much as he manipulated harry. yes, snape had a horrible childhood and harry’s father was horrible to him when they were kids. none of that justifies the path snape chose in life. none of that makes him a better person. does it make him an interesting character to read? oh hell yes. snape’s story line was one of my favorites because of how horrible it is. a tragic story about a double agent that no one suspects until the very last few chapters of a series? i’m a sucker for that. does that make me like him any more? fuck no. if i met someone like severus snape in real life i’d run as far away as possible from them. i don’t want an adult with attachment issues who is cruel to kids and disregarded the opinions of someone he loved in my life. severus snape is an interesting character but a horrible person. it’s ok to acknowledge both of those facts.
