[HPforGrownups] Re: Directly from the manufacturers (was PoA Chapter 14 S...

[devika261 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 20592

In a message dated 6/11/01 8:39:41 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
Zarleycat at aol.com writes:


> --- 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.
> 

I agree with all of this, and I have my own 2 knuts to add.  In GoF in The 
Egg and the Eye, Harry has his late-night encounter with Moody, Filch, and a 
very angry Snape.  Snape, being Snape, is able to figure out from the egg and 
the Map that Harry is indeed present and wearing his invisibility cloak.  I 
went back and re-read this part to see if Snape identifies the Marauder's Map 
as a map, but he does not.  He refers to it simply as a piece of parchment.  
I think this is further proof that Snape does not know, and did not know in 
PoA, what the Map actually was.  
BTW, Snape's Grudge is definitely one of my all-time favorite chapters.  It's 
right up there with The Unexpected Task. :)

Devika
*Redwood, phoenix feather, 8 3/4 inches*


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