Directly from the manufacturers (was PoA Chapter 14 Summary)

[Zarleycat at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20582

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., foxmoth at q... wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Rosmerta" <tmayor at m...> wrote:
> 
> > If you remove that one sentence ("directly from the 
manufactuers") 
> > from the chapter, everything else Snape says and does before and 
> > after (even the shrieking shack scenes later on) seems to 
indicate 
> > that he of course knows who James etc. were but *doesn't* know 
them 
> > by their nicknames, Moony Wormtail Padfoot and Prongs. In which 
case, 
> > what the heck *did* Snape mean with his "manufacturers" line? 
> >
> 
> 	Suppose that Snape recognizes the *parchment*, not the 
knicknames, 
> from his school days. He doesn't know that Filch confiscated it. He 
> doesn't know it's a map, but has always suspected it has something 
to 
> do with the way the Marauders were able to slip in and out of the 
> grounds.
> 	When Snape finds the parchment on Harry, he suspects that 
Sirius 
> has given Harry the parchment in hopes of luring him out of bounds. 
He 
> calls Lupin, probably expecting that Lupin will identify the 
parchment 
> and that it came from Sirius. Lupin, who knows that Filch had the 
map, 
> pretends not to recognize it, thus arousing Snape's suspicions that 
> Lupin and Sirius are in league. At that point, Snape lets loose 
with 
> his "from the manufacturers" line, meaning Sirius and Lupin. But 
since 
> Snape doesn't know who MWPP are, and Harry obviously doesn't 
either, 
> Snape hasn't got anything concrete, so he has to let Harry go.
> 	I expect Snape doesn't reveal that he's seen the parchment in 
the 
> past because he too was out of bounds or spying at the time.
> Pippin

I've always thought that Snape knew who MWPP were from his Hogwarts 
days, assuming he probably heard them refer to each other by these 
names.  He obviously didn't know about the Animagi transformation, as 
he is surprised when he sees Sirius transform from his dog state in 
the hospital scene towards the end of GoF.  Plus, I'm sure that the 
insults the map displays towards Snape contain words he has heard 
before from the Foursome.  I think that in this scene Snape was 
hoping that Lupin would be surprised to see the map, and perhaps let 
something slip that Snape could take to Dumbledore as proof that 
Lupin was indeed helping Black get into the castle.

Marianne