Here's something I posted in a Harry Potter mailing list on May 7, 2003 weeks before the release of book five (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix):
The only teaser that I want (from this stunt by the British publishers) is
whether or not Severus Snape realizes that Hermione Granger is displaying
skills that perhaps he himself displayed while he was a student at Hogwarts.
I tried to imagine Snape while he was in Hogwarts and it just dawned on me
that it's highly likely that he was just like Hermione Granger.
Intelligent, bookish, and showing more than a decent mastery over the
various wizarding skills.
I mean look at Hermione. She's very good in all subjects except perhaps in
Divination and in flying lessons (which is yet unclear because the book have
never really tackled Hermione's broomstick skills). She brewed the
Polyjuice Potion in the Chamber (are we seeing a potions master in the
making?). She taught Harry almost all the spells that the he knows.
And look at Snape. He can do spells without his wand (saving Harry in his
first Quidditch game). He's not bad with his wand, either (duel with
Lockhart). He's the potions master. I even believe that he didn't actually
fancy teaching the DADA classes. Potion seems to be, aside from
Transfiguration, the most powerful branch of wizardry; "put a stopper in
death", bring almost dead people back to life(Voldemort).
I will not be surprise if at the end of book seven Hermione Granger pursues
a career as a professor in Hogwarts (or Durmstrang) teaching Potions.
