Could you have just discovered the fandom's next "triumphant gleam"?
I really hope so.
I mean, yes Snape could just be happy at Harry in trouble at at being accused, but that seems a little roundabout to me. We've seen Snape in that situation before, and if he was concentrating on Harry being blamed I'd think he'd be accusing him and trying to get Dumbledore to do something about it. To me (without re-reading but just going by the quotes) it seems like he's reacting to Dumbledore's examination of the cat with a smile.
He could find just the petrified cat funny, but that doesn't seem quite right since it could be just a student Prank. Unless Snape thinks it's a Slytherin Prank, I don't know if he'd immediately find it amusing. Also there doesn't seem to be any special reason Snape would want to see Filch's cat hurt.
It seems to me it's, as you say, more like the triumphant gleam, and that he would know this was the work of the Heir. This is the first petrification, right? So it doesn't seem like Snape's had a lot of time to have thought the basilisk was loose and not be listened to--that could explain his smile if he feels what he's said would happen finally did.
I admit I really like the idea of Snape having a liking for the Heir of Slytherin as the Head of Slytherin, somehow, and that there's more to the story that just icky bad racist-parallel. But as I said I haven't gone back and read it so I could be way off. Isn't Malfoy described as looking fevered or flushed? It's not the same thing, but I really like the idea of both of them being filled with some kind of excitement that Slytherin is somehow in action, and that this means something special to them beyond what we know.
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I really hope so.
I mean, yes Snape could just be happy at Harry in trouble at at being accused, but that seems a little roundabout to me. We've seen Snape in that situation before, and if he was concentrating on Harry being blamed I'd think he'd be accusing him and trying to get Dumbledore to do something about it. To me (without re-reading but just going by the quotes) it seems like he's reacting to Dumbledore's examination of the cat with a smile.
He could find just the petrified cat funny, but that doesn't seem quite right since it could be just a student Prank. Unless Snape thinks it's a Slytherin Prank, I don't know if he'd immediately find it amusing. Also there doesn't seem to be any special reason Snape would want to see Filch's cat hurt.
It seems to me it's, as you say, more like the triumphant gleam, and that he would know this was the work of the Heir. This is the first petrification, right? So it doesn't seem like Snape's had a lot of time to have thought the basilisk was loose and not be listened to--that could explain his smile if he feels what he's said would happen finally did.
I admit I really like the idea of Snape having a liking for the Heir of Slytherin as the Head of Slytherin, somehow, and that there's more to the story that just icky bad racist-parallel. But as I said I haven't gone back and read it so I could be way off. Isn't Malfoy described as looking fevered or flushed? It's not the same thing, but I really like the idea of both of them being filled with some kind of excitement that Slytherin is somehow in action, and that this means something special to them beyond what we know.