James' Life Debt To Snape?

[judyserenity]

No: HPFGUIDX 35793

> And Cindy said:
> >In PoA, in the Shrieking Shack, Snape explodes at Harry thusly:
> >"Like father, like son, Potter!  I have just saved your neck; you 
> >should be thanking me on bended knee!  You would have been well 
> >served if he'd killed you!  You'd have died like your father, too 
> >arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black."
> >I hope this isn't a dumb question, but are we all agreed that this 
> >means that Snape saved James Potter's life and Snape is miffed that 
> >James never appreciated it?  Does it mean that Snape gave James 
> >information that Black was a spy, but James disregarded it?  Am I 
> >reading this wrong or something?

To which Laura replied: 
> I seriously never considered this at all.  I always just assumed 
> Snape believed that Sirius had betrayed the Potters, and always felt 
> that James should have known better, since he's felt that Sirius is 
> a cold blooded would-be murderer since the Prank.

Well, we have two possibilities so far:

1) Snape told James "Sirius is a spy for Voldemort." James ignored 
him and died. 
2) Snape told everyone "Sirius is an evil git who tries to feed 
classmates to werewolves." James ignored him and died. 

I'd say there's a third possibility -- Snape told James "Voldemort is 
after you" and James listens to him, but then picks Sirius as Secret 
Keeper (Even though Snape told everyone "Sirius is an evil git who 
tries to feed classmates to werewolves.")  This is the version I 
favor.  In other words, I think Snape was the spy who revealed that 
Voldy was after the Potters, but he didn't give any information about 
who might be spying for Voldy. 

Of course, Snape would never refer to Sirius as "Sirius".  We know 
Snape is only on a first-name basis with Igor. 

Judy, who got all overexcited about the Foe Glass thing, and posted 
before reading everyone else's posts, and is now embarassed.