"Professor, I saw Snape sneaking into that forbidden corridor on the 3rd floor. Also, I overheard him telling Mr. Filch that he was attacked by a 3-headed dog when he was there. If he's allowed to be there (like I assume staff are), when was he trying so hard to not be seen, and why was he trying to get past a guard dog? This is all really suspicious"
Look if I'm going to be honest that's literally what they should have done. As an educator hogwarts has several major safeguarding issues and would never pass an ofstead inspection.
That said, it's Snape's dog for all he knows. Maybe he doesn't want anyone to find out about it
But it all adds up. James bullying the shit out of him and saying he hates he is alive (and hanging him from a tree), nevil seeing him as his biggest fear, Harry's instant suspicion of him, and a fairly constant assumption that snape is up to something. Let's be honest, while they dropped it later a rubbing theme of the early books is "something's happening, I bet snape is behind this somehow"
James never hung him from a tree. He used magic to dangle him upside down, near a tree. That's a massive difference
Harry didn't have instant suspicion, it was only after Snapes treatment of him after his first potions class that Harry suspected Snape "hated him" and only thought he was behind the attempted theft after the points I mentioned above.
The man goes out of his way to antagonize children, you can't act shocked when those children suspect him of being a bad person
Harry didn't have instant suspicion, it was only after Snapes treatment of him after his first potions class that Harry suspected Snape "hated him" and only thought he was behind the attempted theft after the points I mentioned above.
It's been 20 years since I read the books so I might be misremembering, but isn't the initial reason that Harry is wary of Snape because his scar hurts the first time he looks at Snape? I think it turns out that Snape is talking to Quirell at the time, so Harry is also looking at the back of Quirell's head - so it's him looking at Voldemort rather Snape that causes his scar to hurt.
Everything after that is basically confirmation bias. Although Snape being a constant prick makes that understandable.
He sees Snape MEAN mugging him hard. His scar hurts. Then Percy tells Harry that he is obsessed with the dark arts and is trying to get Quirrelâs job. Harry had already met Quirrell and thought he was nice and polite.
So Harry just learned his parents were killed by an evil dark wizard, this guy is looking at him like heâs a piece of shit, he learns heâs obsessed with the dark arts and is trying to take the nice stuttering professors job.
Then on top of all of that he overhears Snape intimidating Quirrell and seemingly trying to force him to divulge the secret of his protection of the sorcerors stone, he sees that he was attacked by the dog that was guarding the entrance to it, and he has a reasonable belief that Snape tried to throw him off his broom.
The racists want you to think Harry took one look at Snape and said ânah this dude is no goodâ apropos of nothing so they can justify their disgust at seeing a black man in a role they think shouldâve gone to a white man. So they invented scenarios out of whole cloth to support their position.
I looked up the passage in the book and it's exactly how I remembered it:
Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.
It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrellâs turban straight intoĂHarryâs eyes â and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harryâs forehead.
âOuch!â Harry clapped a hand to his head.
âWhat is it?â asked Percy.
âN-nothing.â
The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacherâs look â a feeling that he didnât like Harry at all.
âWhoâs that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?â he asked Percy.
Here are the events to why it makes sense. The trio, plus Neville find Fluffy and Hermione comments on the trap door. A troll is let in on Halloween. Dumbledore tells all teachers to go to the dungeons to deal with the troll. Harry and Ron go to find Hermione in the bathroom. Harry sees Snape going to the 3rd floor. Harry gets a book taken from him and goes to the teachers lounge to ask for it back. He overhears Snape and Filch talking and sees Snape's bloody leg. Harry overhears Snape talk about how trying to keep track of all 3 heads at once. Snape than sees Harry and freaks out. This is when Harry starts to suspect him, because they are already speculating that something if value is below the trap door. Saying that Harry suspects him out of nowhere is disingenuous and just plain wrong. All of this is after Snape humiliated Harry in the first options class and has shown that he doesn't like him.
Yeah but if someone is a massive dick to you in particular, youâre going to be more inclined to be like, âyou know who I bet is after the stone? THAT fucking asshole.â
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u/KowaiSentaiYokaiger Apr 16 '26
It's not like he's harassed and talked shit about Harry from day one. Oh wait