snape, draco, duelling and serpent spell

err interesting i always thaught that snape told draco the spell but mabey snape thaought with that spell draco was bound to win.

Draco must have known the spell, and possibly snape reminded it of him, as you cant just fire a spell without knowing the wand movements can you?

I'm kind of thinking a few possibilities 1. Snape told Draco to do a different spell but Draco went ahead and did the Serpensortia one.

2. Snape did tell Draco to do the Serpensortia spell to just give Harry a bit of a scare. Kind of like taunt but a discreet kind of taunt where it is brief but to the point. Remember being head of Slytherin house, Snape has a lot of pride in his slytherins and so he may have just wanted Draco to give Potter a taste of humiliation??
3. Snape could be having some inner conflicts though it isn't really visable in this book as much
4. A very rare probably impossible thing but maybe Snape can see Harry's potential and maybe at first he was wanting to test him but right afterwards he thought better of it??

These are just a few of my observations and thoughts.
Jesse

I thought Snape wanted to test Harry's abilities. Maybe he knew that since Voldemort was a Parselmouth, perhaps that carried over to Harry?

Nahh, Snape's too slick and cunning hence why he's a Slytherin. Snape wanted Draco to show Harry up cuz he hates Harry.

I agree with Jesse. I think that he just wanted to freak Harry out. And then when Harry acted like he couldn't handle the snake Snape "came to the rescue".

WytchKitty wrote:

I thought Snape wanted to test Harry's abilities. Maybe he knew that since Voldemort was a Parselmouth, perhaps that carried over to Harry?

I think this is probably true - i mean slimy as he is, snape is pretty clever, and this theory would work on whatever side snape is really on too

I dont think draco knew it, though i think perhaps he knew of it, and it was a ploy of both snape and draco to make harry look foolish. i also think that perhaps snape wondered whether harry had the ability of parseltoungue though im not entirely sure of this

I think he whispered something like "Don't let him get you, Malfoy." Or get up and fight like a man."

I really don't think he wanted the snake thing to happen. Unless he wanted to see if Harry was a parcelmouth like Voldemort was. To see if powers of Voldemort's powers really did get transferred to Harry.

This is an excellent question.

I agree with Snapes_Girl. He was probably just yelling at Malfoy for falling in the first place. Like "Get up Now!" or "You can beat him"

I never though of your question though, it was a good one.

i dont think snape knew about the parseltounge thing b/c when he and everyone else found out they were all scared and snapes face i belive it said had turned white.

maybe snape being able to read minds could have known all the while that Harry could talk to snakes and he proberly said hed get rid of it becuase he knew lockhart would try and give harry time to talk to the snake meaning that harry would then show himself up

but lockhart didnt know that harry was a parseltounge

How could he have read anybdy's mind if nobody including Harry knew he was a pareseltongue?

I think (like someone said before but I don't know who) that Snape told him another spell, but Draco just went ahead and did the serpent one

I always thought,since Voldemort could talk to snakes and Snape knew it,he wanted to see if Harry was the same way,i mean after reading the 4th book ithought about it.