more Prank, explaining Sirius

[Erin Ridgeway]

No: HPFGUIDX 34977

<snip various enlightening discussions regarding Sirius and the infamous 
Prank>

I completely agree that m'boy Sirius's impulsive, reckless, stupid teenage 
actions were just that, and I do think he was in the wrong in sending Snape 
off to face Remus. However, I don't think that Sirius is cold-blooded enough 
to try to get Snape killed, and I also don't think he realized how far the 
Prank could go. Therefore, I would like to present a Theory.

I don't think it's likely that Sirius casually moseyed up to Snape one day 
and freely handed him the information that he wanted. Snape is a suspicious 
person by nature, I think, and would take anything Sirius handed him with a 
grain of salt. Instead, I theorize that the two of them had an angry blowout 
in which Sirius lost his temper and told Snape exactly how to go about 
getting to Remus. Because Sirius told him what he wanted to know in the heat 
of anger, Snape figures that the information is probably true. After all, 
Snape spent a lot of time watching the Marauders and probably has a pretty 
clear picture of their personalities.

So. Sirius stalks off, and after he cools down he starts thinking. He 
realizes he probably shouldn't have told Snape all that. But then he starts 
to rationalize what he did. He reminds himself that even though Remus is a 
werewolf, he's still Remus. He *knows* what the textbooks say about 
werewolves, but surely Remus wouldn't be like that, even in wolf form. He 
simply cannot wrap his mind around the idea that Remus isn't Remus when he's 
in werewolf form, or that Werewolf!Remus might kill Snape. And after all, he 
and James and Peter had been cavorting around Hogwarts and the surrounding 
area with him (granted, they were in Animagus form, but still...) for more 
than a year, and he'd never tried to hurt them. So surely Werewolf!Remus 
would recognize Snape, scare the heck out of him, and send him packing, tail 
between his legs (har), leaving the Marauders to mischief as usual.

He mentions the Prank to James later that evening and laughs it off, because 
he's convinced himself that there's no way that his soft-spoken, gentle 
buddy Remus could ever *really* be a bloodthirsty monster, and isn't it 
funny that Snape's going to get the pants scared off of him and that'll 
teach him to sneak around. Now James, who doesn't have any reason to 
rationalize because he's not at fault,  realizes that Sirius has done just 
about the stupidest thing he could possibly do, so he bolts off to rescue 
Snape, leaving Sirius to roll his eyes at James's overreacting. He doesn't 
realize what could've really happened until Dumbledore/James/Remus/whomever 
rake him over the coals for it, then he feels the proper remorse. As a 
result of the Prank, though, Snape becomes even more insufferable, so Sirius 
isn't about to apologize. He feels guilty, so subconsciously, he decides 
that it's way easier to reaaaally hate the guy than to tell him he's sorry, 
and anyway, he should've known better than to go if Sirius told him to, duh. 
Sirius talks himself into believing that he wasn't really the one who 
screwed up, Snape was as much at fault as he was, and therefore, he's not 
the one to blame, not entirely.

Sirius's continued references to Snape's sliminess and nosiness, his 
insistance that "he had it coming", and his intense hatred of Snape for 
essentially no good reason seem to me to be a defense mechanism. Way down in 
the dark recesses of his soul, Sirius knows he did something very wrong, but 
he's not about to admit it, because his brain is convinced that Snape 
deserved it, and that nothing would've really happened to him anyway.

And there, ladies and gentlemen, is my Theory. Be gentle, I've never put 
forth any sort of theory before.

Erin, who would very much like a SINISTER membership

[I'm afraid I've sent this twice, I'm sorry. My internet connection is 
extremely finicky.]

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