Sirius "joke" on Snape

[Rosemary]

No: HPFGUIDX 6195

In PoA, Lupin describes how Sirius thought it would be "funny" to 
                 tell Snape how to get past the Whomping Willow, so that
Snape 
                 would find himself confronting a full-grown werewolf if
he tried 
                 to spy on the "Marauders" again. Does the idea that
Sirius played a 
                 "joke" on Snape that would almost certainly have led to
his death if 
                 James had not intervened really disturb anyone else
with regards to 
                 Sirius' character? Might there have been some better
reason than 
                 Sirius' simple dislike for Snape, some specifc event,
that would have 
                 led Sirius to go that far? We have not, after all, been
given many 
                 specifics of the relationship between Snape and the
Marauders; other 
                 than the fact that Sirius considered him a slimy little
worm, we are 
                 given no real reason (though there is really no reason
good enough) 
                 for Sirius to have wanted to actually put Snape's life
in serious 
                 danger.

                 Any ideas? 
                 Alexandra 
	>>Does the idea that Sirius played a 
  "joke" on Snape that would almost certainly have led to his death if 
  James had not intervened really disturb anyone else with regards to 
  Sirius' character?<<

     Well, Sirius *is* a disturbing character. He knifes the fat lady,
he slashes Ron's curtains, he breaks Ron's leg in the process of
abducting him, and he's ready to visit vigilante justice on Pettigrew.
IMO, he has a tendency to act on instinct and attempt to rationalize his
behavior afterward.

>>Might there have been some better reason than 
 Sirius' simple dislike for Snape, some specifc event, that would have 
led Sirius to go that far<<

	There has been lots of speculation on this list as to the underlying
reasons for the antagonism between the Marauders and Snape, some
involving sexual jealousy. I think all the Jerry Springer scenarios,
while fun to contemplate, miss the point.
 	Sirius was sixteen years old and death at that age  is a  meaningless
abstraction, whereas the consequences of being discovered out of bounds,
illegally transformed and in the company of a werewolf would seem to him
much more drastic and immediate. As in, Omigod they'll tell our PARENTS,
we'll get kicked out of school, they'll snap our wands, they'll SEPARATE
us. 
	 Snape's spying would have put pressure on the Marauders' relationship
with each other. Perhaps Sirius began to fear that one of them would
want to back out, or crack and confess everything to Dumbledore, even if
Snape didn't manage to find them out. 
	I like the idea that Snape had/has secrets of his own. Wouldn't Snape
have guessed Remus's secret as easily as Hermione did? Did he actually 
suspect what would be waiting for him at the end of the tunnel and have
a plan for dealing with it, a plan that James's heroic intervention spoiled?
Pippin