Nitpicky Snapethoughts - Snape's hysteria in PoA

[foxmoth at qnet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 15216

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., MMMfanfic at h... wrote:
er.
> 
> Bear in mind that Snape wasn't, how should I put this ... mentally 
> stable during the last few chapters of PoA.  He's acting, for 
> unexplained reason, quite OOC. 

	I have a theory about Snape's behavior... he says,to Harry, "You'd 
have been well served if [Sirius had] killed you! You'd have died like 
your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black..."

	Suppose what happened was this: sometime before the murder of 
James and Lily, Snape began to suspect that Sirius was the double 
agent. Snape couldn't prove it, but secretly warned James. Snape has 
thought all this time that James ignored his warnings and chose Sirius 
anyway and Snape is referring to this in the quote above. 
	The idea that  James did in fact change secret-keepers provoked a 
hysterical rejection from Snape because if Snape did accept it, he 
would have to believe that he himself was responsible for James' and 
Lily's deaths. 
	Later, Snape might have learned from Dumbledore that Sirius 
independently suggested changing secret-keepers, which would have made 
it easier for Snape to accept the truth. 

Pippin