Catching Cupid's Snitch

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 35327

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:
> (Hey... maybe it was Florence Lestrange-to-be who planted the 
Prank idea into Sirius' head when Snape had the temerity to get a 
better mark than her in Potions!).  This still doesn't sit with 
Sirius' character, to my mind.  He's a Take Direct Action type.  
He's a Speak Without Thinking Type.  The Prank is just too indirect 
a way of avenging himself on Snape.  No festering by the lake 
cooking up a Prank for Sirius.  I think his spilling the info about 
the Willow is much more likely to be an unpremeditated, hotheaded 
comment made without thought of consequences.
> 

I agree that Sirius is not the type to do murder by premeditated 
prank.  If he really decided that Snape needed killing, he'd rip his 
throat out and have done with it.  But this can easily be reconciled 
with the Cupid's Snitch theory.  You see, Snape, egged on by his 
unrequited feelings for Florence, sharply steps up his efforts to 
snoop on the Marauders.  He figures Florence might warm up to him if 
he "avenges" her by getting her ex and all his Gryffindor friends 
expelled.  In a short time, he goes from being a minor annoyance to 
being a major nuisance.  Sirius, already pissed at Snape 
for "corrupting" Florence, is quickly approaching volcano status.  
One day the two of them bump into each other in a corridor.  A 
shouting match ensues.  Threats, insults, and an occasional hex are 
traded.  And in the middle of it all, Sirius rashly blurts out the 
bit about the Whomping Willow and storms off, obliviously turning a 
corner just in time to avoid a particulary nasty curse that Snape 
has hurled at his retreating back.  

This also explains why Snape is so convinced that the prank was a 
murder attempt.  To his suspicious Slytherin mind, the circumstance 
certainly make it look deliberate.  After all, Sirius certainly had 
the motive, didn't he?  And it's the sort of thing Snape himself 
might've done, if given the means and opportunity.  Of course Black 
did it on purpose, the bastard!

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com