There had been many minor, at least by his standards, complaints issued against Snape's manner in the classroom. After all, his normal opening day speech included a part where he called most of his older students 'dunderheads', and implied that the new students were as bad.
So complaints about Snape were all but completely ignored. It would have to take something major to shake the rest of the faculty out of their complacency to even investigate a complaint against Snape; especially as it would invariably devolve into Snape's word against a student.
And even if Snape lost, he would just have to apologize to the student, and could then proceed to get his revenge privately.
The only reason the debate had gone on as long as it did was due to being instigated by a complaint against McGonagall. There was the surprise and novelty because people rarely complained about her, and not through official channels. There was the novelty that every professor knew she was guilty of what she was accused.
And there was the fact that as Deputy Headmaster, she was the highest authority that a student was allowed to talk to unless they were given a password to see the headmaster. Students were prevented from seeing the headmaster by custom; children were as likely to seek him out to make a complaint as normal citizens were to go to the minister without an appointment.
Students were prevented from speaking to him in private; since whenever he wasn't at the high table with all of the other professors, he was behind a locked, password-protected door.
Plus the only time he ever spoke to any students, it was as a speech, or he was delivering discipline, or he was speaking to the head boy or girl (Who were about to graduate anyway).
McGonagall was the highest authority anyone could approach. Even the prefects would have to speak to her or their head of house if they had something the headmaster had to know. So for her to be shown as incapable of even dealing fairly with an eleven year old in her own house was a major issue.
The headmaster neatly sidestepped the issue by pretending that this had all been a routine discussion of Snape's behavior. He assumed McGonagall would resolve her own problem, probably by apologizing to Harry, and otherwise ignored the entire issue of her behavior.
He merely ordered Snape to treat his students fairly, and insisted by force of presence that the matter was closed. It was strongly implied that it would be forbidden for Flitwick to take further action on this matter.
The faculty was used to this type of behavior. The headmaster daren't forbid Flitwick from acting; Dumbledore could threaten to fire Flitwick if Flitwick disobeyed him, but that would mean Dumbledore had officially sanctioned whatever Snape had done, and Dumbledore would be publicly discredited if it ever got out.
If Flitwick went over Dumbledore's head now, however, at worst only Snape would suffer, and Dumbledore could still fire Flitwick for going over the Headmaster's head on a matter that everyone agreed had been settled. Everyone agreed by not objecting when Dumbledore insisted the matter was finished.
As had happened many times in the past, the complaint was dropped pending a repeat. Snape would act as he always had, and the student would learn that it was futile to complain, so there would be no follow-up complaint.
Even Flitwick was desensitized to complaints about Snape. However this was a complaint about McGonagall, or rather McGonagall working together with Snape. If even McGonagall was protecting Snape then something must be done. Flitwick may not have been able to protect his house from Snape's behavior, but at least he didn't encourage it.
There's a big difference between not being able or willing to help his charges, and McGonagall's actively working against her charges.
So even though he let the matter drop in the staff meeting when the headmaster demanded it, he didn't forget it. The next time the first year Gryffindors were having potion's class, he asked the prefects for the classes he was teaching to come to the front of the room.
He was scheduled to teach charms to two of the sixth year houses. Since he had all of the students in those houses in his class, it was inevitable that he'd have 2 prefects, one from each house, in his classroom.
He instructed them that they were responsible for running a quiet study period while he took care of some urgent business. He assigned the class some reading, and gave the prefects instructions on what homework would be assigned if he didn't return before class ended.
Since none of these arrangements were made before the class started, no one else had any idea what Flitwick might do.
Upon leaving his classroom, Flitwick promptly charmed himself invisible, and added notice-me-not charms. He silenced himself, preventing others from hearing him, but still permitting him to hear his surroundings. Then he hurried to the potion's classroom.
Liberal use of charms on the door, including notice-me-not, silencing, and unlocking permitted Flitwick to enter the classroom undetected.
Since it would have been obvious if a late student suddenly appeared in the classroom, there had never been a need for Snape to ward the door to alert him if someone entered, and that would have been the only way he might have noticed his colleague's arrival.
For perhaps the first time in years, someone in authority watched Snape teach, without telling him he was under observation and without being favorable disposed towards Snape.
He saw the petty ways he treated Harry, but still more shocking, he saw the way Snape taught his students. In the theoretical part of the class it was obvious that questions were not allowed, and that for a student to truly understand the material, as opposed to just following the recipes, the student would have to do independent research. Research that wasn't even alluded to in class.
The practical portion was worse, with verbal abuse, intimidation, and liberal blame being handed out to all of the Gryffindors. Upon the class ending, Flitwick slipped out, removed his charms, and dragged McGonagall to the headmaster's office.
"Filius, what is going on?"
"I have just spent the last period watching Snape's class with the first years. I suggest he be immediately fired with cause. He is failing to properly teach his students, he is illegally abusive to all of the students not in his house, and he has done nothing following your instructions to treat Harry properly!"
"Surely it isn't that bad..."
"Bring out your pensieve, and I'll show both of you!"
Throughout the memory, Flitwick kept up a running commentary refusing to allow the others to ignore Snape's inability to properly teach his course. He also pointed out how Snape neglected to provide warnings about possible accidents with the potion they had to brew, and the way Snape endeavored to make it more likely that Gryffindors would make mistakes.
He also kept a verbal tally each time Snape insulted someone.
Upon exiting the memory, Flitwick was still obviously incensed, and McGonagall was quite angry also. Sensing that they were not going to let this drop, Dumbledore asked, "What do you think I should do?"
"Sack him with cause! Poppy can teach the younger classes, and you can handle the newt classes until you find a replacement. Have St. Mungos second another healer to help Poppy with the infirmary."
"Surely we can just put him on probation while we sort this out...."
"I will not allow that man to continue teaching students. You've already warned him to change his behavior several times before, and this is the result. I will not accept probation."
Dumbledore's face turned stern at this example of defiance against his authority. "What do you mean, 'you will not accept it'?"
"I mean that if you try to hang on to him and allow him to teach, I will oppose you. I will write to the board, ministry, parents, and the press over this, and I will resign if I have to. Hogwarts is supposed to be the best wizarding school. If this is what's allowed to pass for teaching, then it is the worst."
"Well, this complaint will have to go through channels..."
"No! Call him up here, now. If he can't give an adequate explanation why he was teaching this way, then you have the authority to suspend him. If I'm not satisfied with his explanation, and I can't imagine how I could be, and you fail to suspend him, I will immediately start writing out my letters. And if you forbid it, I resign without notice!"
"You can't do that."
"Watch me!"
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Fri, 01 Sep 2006 21:41)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.