A motive for Sirius (finally!)

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48324

I believe I have come up with a  motive for The Prank that doesn't 
make Sirius look like a psycho but doesn't require  Snape to 
have done anything  worse (in those days) than Sirius says he 
did. 

Lupin says that the Animagi made his transformations bearable. 
What if he means that literally? What if he couldn't bear the 
thought of transforming without them?  The Animagi couldn't 
have continued to visit the Willow once Snape knew about it. 
What if the prospect of losing their company drove Lupin to 
despair? 

If  Lupin was on the verge of suicide (as troubled teens all too 
often are), could Sirius have seen The Prank as the only way to 
save his friend? It might have seemed to Sirius that they had 
nothing to lose. Even if Snape died and Lupin was held 
responsible, at least Snape would have been paid back, and 
what could  anyone do to Lupin that was worse than what he 
planned to do to himself?

Sirius could have thought that Lupin might  have been let off, and 
his secret concealed, even if Snape had died or been injured. It 
seems from the Trio's defense of Buckbeak that unlike a human, 
a Beast is not held responsible if it attacks when provoked. And 
entering a werewolf's enclosure on the night of a full moon 
would probably count as provocation. Aragog doesn't seem to be 
worried that his children will be held responsible for eating Ron 
and Harry because they wandered "so willingly into  our midst." 
Of course, as we've seen, the Ministry doesn't always honor this 
rule, but perhaps Sirius had more faith in wizard justice back 
then. 

I think that his attempt at murder did haunt Sirius in Azkaban, and 
he made up a defense for it, something like Gollum in LOTR, 
(not that I think Sirius was that bad).  Snape was spying, Lupin 
wouldn't have wanted to die if Snape hadn't been spying on him, 
Sirius *had* to do something to save his friend, it would have 
served Snape right if he *had* died, and so forth.

Sirius' vehement sneer, "It served him right," followed by the 
rather lame explanations as to why, could actually signal a 
change in Sirius' thinking.  At that moment, Sirius realizes that 
the justifications  which seemed  convincing to him  in Azkaban
might be  faulty from his new,  parental perspective. 

The alternative explanation, simple teenage thoughtlessness, 
doesn't seem quite convincing to me as a reason  for the adult 
Sirius to cling to the  belief that Snape had it coming.

 
Pippin
fancying a red robe