The thing I dislike most about Snape is his treatment of non-Slytherin students. In each HP book Snape has gotten more and more insulting and vile towards his students during his classes, esp Harry, Hermione, Ron, and even Neville. While we don't know about his treatment of Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs (I think), we do know he was awful to Gryffendors. My ? is, how could he get away w/that? Publicly insulting a student, in class, during a lesson, just to humiliate them, is very unprofessional, to say the least.;) None of the other teachers treated the students this way...how could he get away with it? Do you think it's really possible none of the other staff, including Dumbledore, knew he was doing this?? Obviously this is done on purpose by JKR to make him an unlikeable character, and it worked big time for me! :D

Any thoughts? Do you think it will be explained away as an 'act' so V wouldn't suspect him of spying for D? Or is he just really that mean-spirited, and jealous of Harry to boot?

I think that maybe the kids are too afraid of Snape to complain. Who knows what he is capable of doing??? And as much as they may trust Mcgonagall she can be a little intimidating. She doesn't seem the type that would allow a student to "bad mouth" another teacher. So I think the kids just take it in stride.

Sue

Well, Snape did show preferential treatment towards Slytherin students and bias against other students....particularly those from Gryfindor. But, I don't recall him ever doing anything that I would consider out of bounds other than he just wasn't that pleasant.