What is brave? (WAS Re: Snapers vs. Sirists; Snape knew about the passageway)

[lucky_kari]

No: HPFGUIDX 35149

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ck32976" <ck32976 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "lucky_kari" <lucky_kari at y...> wrote:
> > Snape isn't brave because he possibly feels brave? Now, I know 
that 
> > you can be brave and not feel it, but since when did feeling it 
> mean 
> > you weren't brave?
> 
>     I just reread this post.   I must have only skimmed it quickly 
> before, because I guess I didn't quite understand what you meant. 
>     I didn't mean that Snape was not brave because he "feels" brave. 
> I actually don't think that is what I said at all.  I was trying to 
> say that snape was not acting out of bravery, he was acting out of 
> revenge and the need to prove himself.  I don't think that Snape has 
> never acted bravely, I just don't think that was the case in this 
> particular instance. 

Does anyone ever act particularly out of bravery? Bravery is an 
attribute of actions not their originator, unless you're really weird. 
 Revenge, especially, no matter what its morality, has always been 
thought to be a matter of especial bravery. 

For example, my Yahoo Identity. It took so long to get a normal one 
that wasn't already taken, that I finally just made up one that no-one 
would ever pick: lucky_kari, even though I've never thought of myself 
as Lucky Kari, a character from an Icelandic revenge epic, who runs 
around killing people who killed his friends and in-laws. :-)The 
anonymous Icelandic author thought this was really brave, and I 
suspect he's right, though I don't much care for the sort of morality 
shared by Kari, Flosi, Njal, Snorri, and the rest of the epic's 
characters.

> I also don't think that he needed to fear 
Lupin 
> at that point, because he knew that the moon had not 
> been "revealed".  He saw Lupin going for the Whomping Willow, and 
saw 
> it as his chance to show that he was right about Lupin.  

Lupin and Black were highly skilled wizards. Of course, he needed to 
fear them. Notice, though, how quickly he disposes of the two. Another 
argument for Snape's competence.

>He was not 
> going with the express intent of giving him the potion.  
> 
>      Actually, now that I think about it.  Did Snape have the potion 
> with him, or did he leave it in Lupin's office? I remember that 
Snape 
> said that Lupin had forgotten to take the potion, and that's why 
> Snape went to his (Lupin's) office.  If Snape had the potion with 
> him, wouldn't he have given the potion to lupin?  I would think that 
> while in the process of "turning Lupin in" he wouldn't really want 
> him going and transforming on him. I don't know.  I just never 
> thought about it before.  Can anyone shed a bit of light on this for 
> me.  

"You're wondering, perhaps, how I knew you were
here?" he said, his eyes glittering. "I've just been to your office,
Lupin. You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful
along. And very lucky I did... lucky for me, I mean. Lying on your
desk was a certain map. One glance at it told me all I needed to
know. I saw you running along this passageway and out of sight."

No mention of the potion's presence or non-presence, but it seems it's 
not there, since Snape doesn't seem concerned about it, and Lupin 
doesn't pick it up and drink it. 

So, we can add Snape to the number of people who were very stupid that 
night, eh?

Eileen