[HPforGrownups] Responsibility for the prank (was the Veritaserum theory)

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 34893

On Thursday, February 7, 2002, at 08:27 PM, Liz Sager wrote:

> Tex wrote:
> > > managed to lure Sirius
> > > away from his friends, and somehow arranged for Sirius to have
> >amnesia
> > > about the whole thing.
> >
> >No amnesia needed. Sirius probaably wouldn't admit he'd been
> >had.
>
> Agreed. Sirius would NOT admit that he'd been tricked, especially by 
> Snape,
> if that is indeed the case (I might be totally be wrong about what we're
> even talking about. If that's the case, I apologise.)
>

I'm wondering why all this speculation about whether Snape somehow 
provoked Sirius into sending him into the passageway with Lupin. I 
thought the book was pretty clear that it was Sirius's idea. Lupin is 
actually the one who tells the story, in Sirius's presence (ch.18, PoA):

"Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick 
which involved me--"

To which Sirius replies that it served Snape right for sneaking around 
always trying to get them expelled.
Lupin continues, adding "Sirius thought it would be -- er -- amusing, to 
tell Snape all he had to do was prod the knot..."

Lupin clearly lays the blame for this on Sirius' peculiar sense of 
humor. He sounds annoyed here, as well he should be since he was an 
unwilling participant. But if there were extenuating circumstances, 
wouldn't Sirius admit to them, if only to excuse himself in Lupin's 
eyes? That is, if he could have said that Snape somehow browbeat or 
tricked him out of the information, then that might make Lupin less 
disgusted in Sirius. Furthermore, Sirius seems to jump at any chance to 
portray Snape as creepy and slimy, so wouldn't it support his argument 
if he could also accuse Snape of literally forcing the prank into 
existence through cunning or a dirty trick of his own? I think the fact 
that Sirius never contradicts Lupin's account and can only counter that 
Snape deserved it for being annoying and meddling proves that Sirius 
does consider the prank to have been his idea in the first place.

> Liz (who thinks Lupin must have been pretty hacked at Sirius after that
> prank)

Yeah, imagine coming back into human form and realizing you've eaten one 
of your classmates. Then what would have happened to him? Off to the 
werewolf pound.

~~Porphyria


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