[HPforGrownups] Re: So Why didn't Dumbledore Punish Sirius?

[Monika Huebner]

No: HPFGUIDX 48272

On Fri, 13 Dec 2002 03:07:59 -0000, "pippin_999 <foxmoth at qnet.com>"
<foxmoth at qnet.com> wrote:

Angela said:

> > I am a Sirius-supporter to the end.  I'm glad that he was not 
> punished for the prank, but I do not understand WHY he got away 
> with it?  Maybe he didn't.  Maybe he was punished, but the 
> punishment for something like that would probably be expulsion.  
> <<
> 
Pippin replied:

> We don't know if Sirius admitted to  anything except telling Snape 
> how to get into the Willow.

I always understood from what Lupin was saying in PoA that Sirius
apparently didn't do anything else. It was up to Snape to use this
information like he did. Don't get me wrong, I don't think Sirius
should have told him how to get into the Willow, but it's not like he
dragged him there. As for not getting any punishment (which I doubt),
I explained in a message I sent last week why they weren't all
expelled IMO. Dumbledore did it to ensure Lupin could stay at Hogwarts
and finish his education. And I still think he didn't take it for
attempted murder. 

Think of the scene in PoA when Malfoy and his friends try to frighten
Harry to death by playing Dementors during the Quidditch match. That
could have very well killed him if Dumbledore hadn't slowed his fall.
Where they expelled? No. If I remember well, they only got detention,
and Slytherin lost 50 house points. Was this attempted murder? I don't
think so, either. It was a very immature schoolboy prank (a bit like
telling Snape how to get into the Willow), but it doesn't prove that
Malfoy is capable of murder at the age of thirteen, to paraphrase what
Snape said to Dumbledore at the end of PoA. He didn't think of what
would happen to him if Harry died, maybe he didn't even imagine Harry
*could* die by falling off his broom. I'm not a Draco defender by any
means, and I certainly don't think he is the mirror of what Sirius was
at school, but I can see a parallel here. 

> The realization that Sirius had indeed known about Lupin all 
> along would give an additional reason for Snape to lose it in the 
> Shack and add some extra fire to Snape's "You haven't forgotten" 
> speech in the Hospital Wing.

I think Snape must have known all along that Sirius knew about Lupin,
or him suspecting Lupin to be in on the joke doesn't make a whole lot
of sense to me. Why should Sirius tell him where to go if he didn't
know what was waiting for him there?

Monika