[HPforGrownups] Odd parallels

[Amanda]

No: HPFGUIDX 36714

Dicentra spake thusly:

> Now this got me thinking... I've noticed some interesting parallels
> between Shack Night and the Prank.  For the Prank we have Snape trying
> to get Lupin in trouble and Sirius occasioning his entry into the
> tunnel. He is later saved by James.
>
> For Shack Night we have Snape trying to get Lupin in trouble again and
> Sirius occasioning his entry into the tunnel (indirectly, because
> Lupin went in when he saw Sirius go in).

Snape's primary motivation was not to get Lupin in trouble, so much as to
collar Sirius (pun intended, sorry, couldn't resist). That Lupin seemed to
be involved, just as Snape had believed, was gravy.

>  Snape must know that Lupin
> is on the verge of transforming (he saw he hadn't drunk his potion,
> and he knows what day it is), so for protection he dons James's
> Invisibility Cloak.  I had always assumed that he put the cloak on for
> eavesdropping purposes, but at the mouth of the Whomping Willow, he
> didn't know there was anything to eavesdrop on (although he may have
> thought Lupin was going to meet Sirius).

No, but he *did* suddenly realize that Harry could be down there. It's clear
from his comment to Harry when he decloaks that he knows darn well whose
cloak it must be now. So I think he put it on as an extra "edge" until he
could case the situation and determine the best course of action.

> He must have been afraid of
> running into a werewolf again and therefore went into the situation
> invisible.  Saved by James again, Severus. What do you think about
> that, ya oily git?

Hardly. Snape clearly considers himself enough to take on both Sirius and
Lupin; he does. All the Cloak did was let him be more choosy about picking
his moment.

As I said, though, the cloak lying there *would* have tipped him off to the
fact that Harry was in there, too. And regardless of his primary motivation
(to catch Sirius and prove Lupin's complicity), Snape was *also* trying to
get (at the very least) Harry out of the situation. I won't for a minute
pretend he wasn't aware that saving the kids would augment the acclaim for
catching Sirius & Lupin; he'd have to be an idiot. But the point is, he was
more than willing to face two very dangerous wizards uncloaked. I doubt he
thought the cloak was anything more than a handy aid.

In fact, he probably sees it as a balance, rather than two for James--James
saved him from the werewolf, now he saves James' son--twice he says to Harry
that he's saving him:

"Get out of the way, Potter, you're in enough trouble already," snarled
Snape. "If I hadn't been here to save your skin ---" (PoA, 360 [US]), and

"Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be
thanking me on bended knee!.." (PoA, 361 [US]).

When Snape speaks to Hermione, a page earlier, he says only that she is out
of bounds and facing suspension. It is to Harry that he speaks of having
saved him, and he says it twice. In the truest sense of the heat of passion,
too; this must resonate deeply for him. It must gall the hell out of him
that Harry doesn't acknowledge it, even in passing.

But the point is that Snape would not have considered this as James' bailing
him out again. Far from it. Nor can I; Snape wasn't using the cloak for
protection and would have confronted Sirius and Lupin without it.

> I don't think Sirius was just going to have a laugh at
> Snape's expense.  I think he did something that in Sirius's eyes was
> worthy of some nasty revenge.  And judging by what makes Sirius tick
> (loyalty) Snape probably betrayed someone Sirius cared about deeply.

This I will give you, to a degree. Althought Sirius' character has a bit of
the impulsive to it, much of that feeling comes from this very source. It's
possible that at sixteen he simply didn't think of the consequences, but
maybe he did and judged it worth it, based on the offense. [whether this was
his to judge is another argument entirely.] We have, for a detailed
description of the "prank," mostly Snape's fleshing it out, and Snape has
been known to misinterpret things before. Once or twice.

--Amanda, B.S.