"The Spying Game" problems and some Destiny vs. Choice

[prefectmarcus]

No: HPFGUIDX 39720

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "porphyria_ash" <porphyria at m...> wrote:
> Since Pip (who must be exhausted by now) hasn't answered Marcus 
yet, 
> I'm going to give it a shot based on her theory. Pip, if I'm 
> misrepresenting you here, please forgive me! Also, I argue some 
> additional points at the end of this post.
> 
> 
> If I understand Pip's version of events correctly, Dumbledore 
needed 
> 1) Peter to escape back to Voldemort and 2) for Sirius to not be 
> properly exonerated because he couldn't provide Harry the kind of 
> magical protection available at the Dursleys. Putting aside for the 
> time being the issue of whether this is far-fetched (VBG, but I 
still 
> like this theory), lets think about what would have happened if 
Snape 
> had not intervened at all. It would have been quite likely that 
they 
> would have managed to do what Harry intended in the end: the whole 
> party would have made it back to the castle with Peter alive and in 
> rat form, they would have demonstrated his animagus quality to 
Fudge, 
> and possibly he would have been incarcerated and Sirius set free. 
> Possibly. But it was a possibility that Dumbledore didn't want to 
> take according to Pip's theory. 

Snape is only awake for four pages out of more than forty from the 
time the Harry and Herminone meet Black to Lupin's transformation.  
So he only managed to slow things down 10% at the very most.  Now how 
much more could a competent!Snape do while cloaked?  If push came to 
shove, he could always decloak back at Hogwarts' park.  Everybody 
would assume he had been waiting for them or had just come on the 
scene, and nobody would be the wiser.  If Snape was trying to control 
events, why would Snape and Dumbledore want to choose Pip's scenario 
rather than the one I just laid out?  

> 
> Marcus again:
> 
> > As to deliberately provoking Harry, when does Snape NOT 
deliberately
> > provoke Harry?  He always does his level best to goad Harry, Ron, 
> > Hermione, and Neville.  Why should the S. Shack be any different?
> 
> Regardless of what Snape has in mind, his provoking of Harry always 
> does have the same function: it makes Harry more stubborn, more 
> uppity, more single-minded and tougher. It works here just as well 
as 
> it works the rest of the time. 

Yes, but why should he count on his poking and prodding to provoke 
Harry to attack now when it hasn't before?  You cannot argue that his 
antagonizing HHR is a sign of his true mission because that is how he 
always treats them.

> ~Porphyria, who at least thinks Pip's theory deserves an acronym


If Dumbledore and Snape had the goals as outlined by Pip, there are 
far simplier ways to accomplish them, or at least more controlled 
ways.  When Dumbledore allowed a first year to face down Voldemort 
and his minion, it was in a Hogwart's dungeon.  Why not a similar 
situation?

Marcus