I’m still not sure why Snape wanted to escalate conflict between the bullies and SPHEW, but regardless, we can’t look at his humiliation of Hermione as any evidence of his motives, because it’s not actually his move.
I suspect it’s because we wanted SPHEW to really go after bullies and wasn’t a competent enough plotter to foresee what would happen.
I suspect it’s because we wanted SPHEW to really go after bullies and wasn’t a competent enough plotter to foresee what would happen.