New thought, old topic

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 21926

Well, one can only hope it's a new thought.

My husband is just about through PoA (rejoice with me!), and in casting
a glance over at him as he was reading, I noticed he was at the scene in
Snape's office, just after Draco has reported seeing Harry's head in
Hogsmeade. It was the part where he's discussing the map with Lupin.

I had posted before, eons ago, my problem with this scene--if Snape
knows who the authors of the map are, then his questions to Lupin seem
very odd and veiled and not in character. If he doesn't, how does he
know enough to be worried that Harry got the map directly from the
manufacturers? I could never resolve this.

But I had a new thought. Snape pretty clearly does not know *who* Moony,
Padfoot, Wormtail, and Prongs were. But they were using those nicknames
"internally" while still at school. So it occurred to me that it was
abundantly likely that Snape had had jokes or tricks or amusing hexes or
something played/cast on him that were signed or identified by those
aliases. He knows those names, indeed, from past days, and I'll bet his
past experience with those names is what leads him to think the map is a
danger and/or Harry's obtaining it from the makers is bad.

*However,* I'll bet he has no idea who the real people behind those
aliases are, which is why he could speak that way to Lupin, as if he had
no idea. He didn't. But he *had* seen the four aliases before.

This is borne out in the conversation between Lupin, Harry, and Ron
immediately after they leave Snape's office. Harry asks, "Why did Snape
think I'd got it from the manufacturs?" and Lupin answers, "Because
those manufacturers would have wanted to lure you out of the school"
(paraphrasing a bit). The implication is clear that Lupin knows two
things: (a) that Snape knew both the names and the character of the
mapmakers, and (b) that Snape didn't know Lupin himself was one. This
implies a bit of past history.

So I'm throwing out to the group my theory that Snape had had prior
experience, probably bad, with jokes or other stuff from "Moony,
Padfoot, Wormtail, & Prongs," recognized those names, and considered
them a danger and possibly affiliated with dark magic. BUT, Snape did
not know *who* Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail, or Prongs actually *were,*
which explains the way he discusses the map and the manufacturers with
Lupin the way he does. Nothing in Snape's manner indicates he had any
idea that Lupin was one of those mapmakers; he consulted him because he
was the DADA teacher and a pro in the field.

So, have I explained the oddness? It seems right to me.

--Amanda, excited about maybe explaining something!