[HPforGrownups] Shack Flints, a drop of SUCCESS (Was: Odd parallels and FEATHERBOAS)

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 36745

Cindy is at the point of finding the whole Shrieking Shack incident 
Flinty, so I wanted to add a couple of thoughts which might or might not 
clarify.

Cindy asked:
> What doesn't make sense to me is why Snape leaves the castle at all
> if he's not going to bring the potion?  Snape doesn't know there is a
> cloak available, he doesn't know the trio is out at night, he doesn't
> know about Black.  Snape has to believe Lupin is going to the Shack
> to transform because there's no foundation at all for Snape to
> believe anything else. 

Marina replied:

> Yeah, that does seem a bit, uhm... plot-driven, doesn't it?  My
> fanwank for it is that the potion is volatile, so that shlepping it
> from Hogwarts to Hogsmeade would destroy its magical properties; and
> that Snape was hoping to catch up to Lupin before the transformation
> and bring him back to the castle to take the potion. 

For one thing, I think Marina is right about the potion. When we first 
see Snape deliver the potion to Lupin, Snape makes a point of telling 
him to drink it up right away. Lupin does, while the goblet is still 
smoking. That makes me think that the potion has to be drunk while it's 
still hot or while whatever chemical reaction it's doing is still going 
on. So taking it to the Shack wouldn't have worked. I agree also with 
Marina that taking Lupin back to the castle might have been Snape's only 
option, and that might have been what he intended to do if he'd simply 
discovered that Lupin had zoned and was just taking a long meditative 
walk that night. Snape might know exactly when Lupin is supposed to 
transform, and IIRC there would have been plenty of time to get Lupin 
back to the castle before he transformed if he came willingly.

However, I don't think that Snape imagines that Lupin was going to the 
Shack just to transform in peace. Cindy says that Snape must imagine 
this because he has no foundation to believe anything else. I disagree. 
When Snape arrives at the Shack practically the first thing he says is: 
"I've told the headmaster again and again that you're helping your old 
friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof. Not even I 
dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your 
hideout --" Snape *has* suspected Lupin all along of being in league 
with Black, and to me this line means that when he saw Lupin making a 
mad dash for the Shack that he immediately figured he was up to no good. 
I believe he went to the Shack expecting to find Black there as well.

Marina added:

> This also fits in with hints given earlier in the book that Snape is
> still afraid of Lupin.  Maybe that fear's been eating away at him,
> and Snape was actually looking for an excuse to face the werewolf
> and prove to himself that he no longer needs arrogant Quidditch
> jocks to rescue him in such situations.

I like this, although I'm not sure where you see hints of Snape still 
being afraid of Lupin. I'm totally willing to believe that Snape was 
trying to redo the past by confronting Lupin and thus redeeming has past 
mistake in his own eyes.

I have no trouble believing that Snape would have recognized James's 
cloak. They are very rare, Snape probably observed James using it when 
they were kids and he probably knew that Dumbledore wound up hanging on 
to the cloak to bequeath to Harry when the time came. This all strikes 
me as reasonable.

The Shack scene is weird and complicated, but not completely Flinty. :-)

OK, since don't want to make a one liner reply to Eloise's recent reply 
to me, I'll do it here. Darling, I will defer to your version of SUCCESS 
if you let me have my way defending Snape's actions on Shack night. :-) 
Any chance of a deal? What if there's a fifth of single malt in it for 
you?

~~Porphyria, who, deciding she really needs a vacation, stops by the 
liquor store to pick up a case of Tequila, a gross of paper umbrellas, a 
nice smoky Islay for Eloise, and finally heads down to the shore to see 
how that Fourth Man Hovercraft purchase is coming.


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