The Spying Game and the Shrieking Shack (Those Darn Kids)

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 39692

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "porphyria_ash" <porphyria at m...> wrote:
>>
> some questions about the purpose of what you call Snape's "those   
> darn kids" performance at the end of the night. If his only goal   
> was to convince Harry that he hated him, wasn't it a little        
> excessive? Snape usually does a perfectly good job of convincing   
> Harry that he hates him with a whispered threat; he doesn't need to 
> get utterly hysterical about it. 

> I think you might have suggested that he does it for Fudge's        
> benefit. How does this help anyone? <Snip>
>>

One of the problems Dumbledore has is that if Fudge sat down and 
applied some serious thought to 'how did Sirius Black escape?' he 
actually has all the pieces of the jigsaw.

Hermione had to have special permission *from the Ministry* to have a 
Time Turner. So it's possible for Fudge to discover  that Harry and 
Hermoine *could*  be in two places at once.

Fudge also knows Buckbeak mysteriously vanished earlier. Black can't 
apparate in or out of Hogwarts, but a hippogriff can fly...

And then Hermione and Harry might be expelled (probably not 
imprisoned - they are under age and Confunded)  for helping a wanted 
murderer to escape. Which would *really* ruin everything.

You're right, Snape's 'those darn kids' IS a little excessive if all 
he wants is to do is convince people he hates Harry. He's multi-
tasking again [grin].

Brits tend, on the whole, to make serious accusations with as much 
reasoned calm as they can force themselves into. Accusations made by 
someone who has lost their temper are regarded as a lot less 
reliable. Someone who's lost it as badly as Snape appears to in this 
scene is, as Fudge says, "quite unbalanced" (PoA p. 307) - and thus 
what Snape says is completely untrustworthy.

What Snape says is also competely true. But Fudge goes away with the 
idea firmly planted in his brain that accusing the children is the 
sort of idea that would only be entertained by demented lunatics like 
Snape.

>>
> I agree that at the beginning of the infirmary scene Snape does a
> lovely job <snip> So why screw that up by a) making Fudge think    
> Snape is unbalanced and b) putting the idea in Fudge's head that   
> Harry might be working for the bad guys? It certainly doesn't help 
> matters at the end of GoF <snip>
>>

Yes, Snape's performance does backfire on them a year down the line 
in GoF. That's why Snape and Dumbledore then give Fudge as much 
concrete evidence as they can, to the extent that Snape actually 
reveals his Dark Mark.

But in this scene they're not thinking about 'a year down the line', 
they're thinking about the problems they have right now, and they 
have relatively little time to come up with something.  Hermione 
tells us how much time there is between Snape heading towards the 
castle with the stretchers and Dumbledore telling them to use the 
time-turner - 45 minutes (PoA p. 301). 

45 minutes where they also have to get the kids to a hospital bed, 
divert Fudge and interview Black. Snape and Dumbledore's plans were 
likely to have been made in a hurried series of snatched 
conversations and asides, followed by an awful lot of improvising.

Furthermore, a highly disappointed and rather concussed Snape is 
really in no state to be making very fine judgement calls on the 
exact long-term effect he's having on Fudge. His performance gets 
them out of the hole they're in *right now*, and that is likely to be 
all he's thinking about.


>>
<Snip>
> But you point out that Dumbledore laughs at this, which brings me  
> back to my original impression that Dumbledore is actually quite   
> sadistic towards Snape at this point, mocking him here and cruelly 
> throwing his past in his face shortly prior to this ("my memory is 
> as good as it ever was"). Which seems like strange behavior for two 
> people supposedly in cahoots. <Snip>
>>

Dumbledore isn't appearing to enjoy himself when he talks about what 
*he* remembers. The description is that he says it 'quietly' (PoA p. 
287). He's telling Snape that Snape may think one thing based on his 
memories of Sirius Black, but Dumbledore has to make a decision based 
on Dumbledore's own memories.

I think Dumbledore's appearing to quite enjoy himself *later* because 
he IS quite enjoying himself by then. Snape is giving a wonderful, 
extremely effective performance. He's doing it despite the fact that 
he's horribly disappointed at Black's escape and is convinced Black 
is guilty. He is, in short, showing that he trusts Dumbledore quite 
as much as Dumbledore trusts him - and given Snape's suspicious 
nature that has got to be a very good moment for Dumbledore. No 
wonder he can't help showing he's delighted.


Pip (who wants to thank Porphyria for her compliments and hopes that 
her formatting problems get well soon).
Squeak