Sirius don't need no stinkin' remorse

[dicentra63]

No: HPFGUIDX 47686

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Steve" <bboy_mn at y...> wrote:
> 
> But Sirius is an adult now, surely he must see that what he did as a
> teen was wrong, and that a deadly joke is no joking matter. I would
> think any person, no matter how proud or how much he may still dislike
> Snape, would have to see that this was wrong. I don't understand why
> he doesn't offer a simple apology like, 'Snape, I was a kid and did
> something stupid. Now I realize how wrong I was. Sorry.'
> 


Apologize??

Are you mad, man??  Don't you know that Real Wizards Don't Apologize?
 It says so right there in post 36556, so it must be true.  :D

No, really.  This apology issue comes up from time to time, and it
really perplexes me, especially in the case of the Pr*nk.  We *so*
don't know what happened, especially in the aftermath thereof, that we
can't really go around saying that "Sirius should apologize to Snape"
or "Snape became disillusioned with Dumbledore when he didn't expel
Sirius."  That's more HPfGU "canon" than real canon, and I don't
accept a word of it. Besides, for all we know, post-Pr*nk, Dumbledore
made Sirius apologize to Snape, but because Snape is a major
grudge-holder, he didn't forgive him.

Consider the following:

When Snape entered Hogwarts, he knew more curses than most 7th years.
 He was *not* someone you messed with; Sirius would know that.  Sirius
would have assumed that Snape would go into the tunnel armed--if he
went at all--and therefore could have defended himself against
Wolf!Lupin.  From his perspective, he wasn't sending anyone to his
death.  In all likelihood, he wasn't, but Snape makes it out to be
that way (which makes an interesting case for his life-debt to James:
it's more manufactured than real).

Sneaking around trying to get MWPP expelled is not as insignificant as
most people make it out to be.  Getting expelled from Hogwarts means
that you never become a fully qualified wizard, so any good employment
opportunities evaporate.  Considering that Lupin was going to have a
hard enough time getting a job as a werewolf, preventing him from
becoming a fully qualified wizard would sentence him to a terribly
desolate future (yeah, worse than he has it now).  Sirius was
justifiably angered by the fact that Snape was hell-bent on ruining
Lupin's (and his, James's and Peter's) life.  He had undoubtedly
confronted Snape about it before, but Snape persisted.

Snape can read a lunar chart as well as anyone else; he must have
suspected the truth about Lupin.  Why didn't he go ahead and tattle
instead of hounding MWPP?

Furthermore, the exchange between Snape and Dumbledore at the end of
PoA indicates that Snape's perception of the incident is not the same
as Dumbledore's. 

"Sirius Black showed that he was capable of murder at the age of
sixteen," he breathed.  "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster?  You
haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill *me*?"

"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus," said Dumbledore quietly.

I don't think Dumbledore saw it as attempted murder.  I don't think he
agrees with Snape on this point at all and is reminding Snape that his
perspective on the Pr*nk hasn't changed with time.

There's too much untold yet to assert that one party is guilty of
attempted murder, or worse, of not apologizing.  We already know that
Sirius is capable of tremendous remorse: if he's not feeling
remorseful about the Pr*nk, maybe it's because he doesn't need to.

--Dicentra, offering the only kind of Sirius Apology we're likely to get