The "face-value" theory of PoA -- now with shiny acronym! (LONG)

[bluesqueak]

No: HPFGUIDX 45401

Brilliant analysis, Marina! I freely admit that it's going to be a 
swine to fight against, because `face-value' readings are always are


However (flinging strict canonism to the winds, since you said that 
was OK):

<Snip explanation that PRESSURE COOKER assumes no master–plan on the 
part of Dumbledore.>



--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "marinafrants" <rusalka at i...> wrote:
> In the absence of a master plan, Snape's reactions in PoA have to 
> be taken at face-value -- that is, we have to assume they are  
> genuine,and not part of a carefully constructed performance 
> designed to further a strategic goal.  The question then is, do 
> make sense in that context, given what we know of the character's 
> his reactions history and psychological makeup from all the  
> books?  I believe the answer is yes.
> 
> Let's go over what happens, shall we?  The whole thing begins when 
> Snape brings the Wolfsbane potion to Lupin's office only to find 
> that Lupin isn't there.  As Snape explains at the beginning of Ch. 
> 19 of PoA, he then sees the Marauder's Map on the desk, and it 
> shows Lupin running toward the Shrieking Shack.  This confirms the 
> suspicions Snape has been nursing all year: "I've told the 
> headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend 
> Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's proof." (Pg. 358, US 
> paperback edition) 

No problem here. [Apart from the lack of master-plan of course :-) ]
DISHWASHER would argue about Snape's *aims* at this point, but agree 
about his actions. Lupin is certainly not a co-partner in 
DISHWASHER, and Snape is certainly suspicious of him, whether 
Dumbledore is or not. 


> This is a rare moment for Snape: for once, his duty 
> (protect the school from a dangerous maniac) leads him in the same 
> direction as his desire (get revenge on Black and Lupin, and prove 
> to Dumbledore that he's been right about them all along.)  So 
> Snape  rushes out of the castle and heads for the Whomping Willow, 
> where he  finds Harry's cloak.  (Time-traveling Harry and Hermione 
> actually see him do it.)

Again, no problem. Snape's desire for revenge on Black (and Lupin) 
is accepted in the original post. It is Snape's hatred of the child 
*Harry* that may be for tactical purposes; DISHWASHER assumes that 
Snape loathed James Potter, hated Lupin, and would quite cheerfully 
feed Black to the Dementors if only he wasn't under orders


> 
> The cloak tells him that Harry (and, almost certainly, Ron and 
> Hermione) are in the Shack with Black and Lupin.  This creates a 
> complication: there are students in danger, children he has a duty 
> to protect, even if they are dunderheads.  So he can't just rush 
> through the door and blast everything in sight, he has to be 
> careful.  Snape puts on the cloak, sneaks into the Shack to see 
> what's what, and finds Black and Lupin befuddling the children 
>with  a pack of apalling lies.  So he reveals himself and confronts 
> Black and Lupin.
> 
> At this point, Snape is in a very precarious position.  He's 
>facing  two powerful evil wizards, one of whom is likely to turn 
> into a bloodthirsty monster at any moment.  He's outnumbered, and 
> responsible for the safety of three ungrateful brats

So he ties up *both* of the powerful evil wizards, conjures up two 
stretchers, and tells the kids to stop messing about, and help him 
get Lupin and Black back to Hogwarts.

No?

Drat
 we were getting on so well
 ;-)

Wandering into motivations, rather than actions, why doesn't he do 
this Marina? He allows himself to be, as you say below, argued with, 
distracted, and got in the way of, by three annoying brats when he 
has at his wandtip a spell he's just used on Lupin, and which would 
give him a bit of breathing space to deal firmly with the brats.

In a face value reading, we also have to accept that Snape ties up 
Lupin at this point because Lupin annoys him. It does not say in 
canon that Snape ties up Lupin because Lupin (as every other 
character insists on forgetting in this scene) is a werewolf who 
hasn't taken his potion, and it's a full moon. Good wizard, bad 
wizard, washing dishes by hand or by magic, Lupin is just plain 
dangerous at this point - but canon does not *say* this is why Snape 
ties him up.

Black, apparently, despite having blown up an entire street, 
murdering twelve innocent people and being all round evil [from 
Snape's pov], is not dangerous enough to warrant being tied up, but 
can be held at [I cheerfully admit a potentially deadly] wandpoint - 
where a moments inattention while Snape is arguing with the kids 
could result in Black deciding that attacking Snape could just be 
worth the risk.

Nope, it's a face value reading. Snape covers Black with his wand 
because 
well, he just does, that's all. 



> who, instead of 
> discretely making themselves scarce, keep arguing with him, 
> distracting him, and generally getting in the way, no matter how 
> often he tells them to shut up.  And then, to add injury to 
insult, 
> the brats go and knock him unconscious.  

Yes, indeedy, being knocked unconcious *was* insulting wasn't it? 
After all he'd said to them, too - about feeding Black to the 
dementors, about feeding Lupin to the dementors, about feeding
drat, 
there isn't anybody else left to feed to the dementors, lets start 
insulting Harry, instead. And then Harry's dead parents.

Gosh, if you read Snape's lines at face value, you might almost 
think Snape *wants* to make Harry lose his temper


Which is exactly what DISHWASHER argues. [grin].

I will pass over in silence the Trio's remarkable duelling ability, 
since in a face value reading it is completely obvious that three 
thirteen year olds with very little practice in duelling can defeat 
an adult wizard trained in duelling. (Snape's inability to move 
quickly enough is probably an example of paralysis dramaticus, as 
Pippin would say). Besides, Snape was rather occupied at the time – 
he'd forgotten to tie up Black, after all.

> 
> Unfortunately, he's unconscious long enough to miss all the visual 
> proof of Pettigrew's existence and Sirius' innocence.

Pity, that. ;-)

> 
> He wakes up outside.  Lupin is gone, Black and the dunderheads are 
> lying around unconsious.  Here is Snape's chance to carry out his 
> earlier threat and call the Dementors in for Sirius.  But now that 
> there's no immediate danger, Snape can afford to think a little 
more 
> clearly, and he knows perfectly well that Dumbledore wouldn't 
> approve of him handing over an unconscious prisoner to be Kissed.  
> Dumbledore hates the Dementors, after all.  Plus, Dementors aren't 
> always easily controllable.  Who's to say that once they're done 
> with Black, they won't go for one of the kids as an after-dinner 
> snack?  Or Snape himself?  By bringing Black in alive, Snape can 
> live up to Dumbledore's standards, eliminate unnecessary risk, and 
> the end result will still be the same; Black will only be kissed a 
> little later.  So Snape conjures up some stretchers and floats 
> everyone back to the castle.  (Again, time-traveling Harry and 
> Hermione actually see him do this.)

Ah, another problem with the face-value reading. Which you've dealt 
with very well – giving a plausible motivation for Snape which does 
account for the embarrassing fact that his behaviour when he thinks 
Harry is unconscious and therefore *not* observing him is different 
from his behaviour when he thinks Harry *is or may be* observing him.

Yup, that's fine. He screams his head off in the Shack, and in the 
Hospital later, but in this particular moment he is perfectly calm, 
in control, and able to consider the consequences of his actions.
[ To be fair, he is pretty calm at the beginning of the Hospital 
scene, before Black's escape. ] 

Take them back to Dumbledore, good idea. Pity he didn't have it 
earlier, when he was not tying Black up – the Trio would have agreed 
to that like a shot [grin]. Oh, Black actually *suggested* going 
back to the castle, didn't  he?  Even said he'd go quietly. Ah. 
Still, as you say, Snape's calmed down by now, he's sure to change 
his mind about Black's idea...

> 
> At this point, Snape is sitting pretty. (Well, as pretty as Snape 
> ever gets, anyhow, which isn't very. <G>)  Black's been captured, 
> Lupin has proven himself untrustworthy, Harry and friends owe him 
> their lives, and Fudge is ready to pin the Order of Merlin on  
> him. Life is grand... and then it all falls apart.  Black 
> disappears, and Snape knows, he *knows,* dammit, that Potter was 
> behind it, but he's too angry to immediately figure out how.  
>(I'm  assuming that he, along with the other teachers, knows about 
> Hermione's time-turner.)  It's at that point that he loses it and 
> starts his infamous "you pesky kids" rant, and really, who can    
> blame him? 

I certainly wouldn't – it's an entirely plausible reaction in a face 
value reading. It's Dumbledore's reaction I have the problem with, 
not Snape's. 

[I do have a problem with the way Snape, who has spent the last 
three books apparently trying to get Harry expelled, is so 
extraordinarily tentative when faced with someone [Fudge] who may 
well have the power to *insist* Harry be expelled. However, it is 
not yet canon that the MoM does have that power
, so we'll ignore 
that objection.]

> So he stands there ranting and raving, until Dumbledore makes his 
> remark about Harry and Hermione being "in two places at once," and 
> it's at that point that the penny drops. Note that once Dumbledore 
> says this, the fight goes out of Snape immediately. 

Sorry, Marina, but Snape shuts up the second Dumbledore says `That 
will do,Severus' – there is a dash in Snape's dialogue which 
indicates that Dumbledore stops him in mid-flow. By the time 
Dumbledore talks about Harry and Hermione having been `in two places 
at once', Snape has *already* been silent for about eight lines of 
dialogue.

Snape may be seething at the `two places at once' crack, but he has, 
in fact, shut up the moment his headmaster gave him a direct order 
to do so.

A point about some of the  previous dialogue, since I remember 
Richard saying that it is Fudge who says `Severus – be reasonable –`

If you go through Fudge's dialogue in this Chapter, and in Chapter 
21, you will find that Fudge addresses Snape as `Snape', or in 
extreme exasperation, `man' or `fellow'. He never calls him 
*Severus*. Only *Dumbledore* in this scene calls Snape by his given 
name. Giving the dialogue before the door bursts open to Fudge is an 
easy mistake to make, because it is not attributed to either 
Dumbledore or Fudge. 

[I suspect this is deliberate, and that JKR wants the reader to make 
exactly the assumption Richard makes. 'When this gets out - ' sounds 
a lot more Fudge-ish than Dumbledore-ish ].

It is interesting dialogue, once you realise it's Dumbledore's – 
because in a face-value reading Dumbledore is not only `amused' at 
Snape, he is taunting him, and actually lying to him.

The line is: 'He must have Disapparated, Severus, we should have 
left somebody in the room with him. When this gets out – `.

This is Dumbledore speaking. Dumbledore who knows perfectly well 
that Black didn't Disapparate, and that he himself just arranged his 
escape. Dumbledore who in a face-value reading of all the texts, 
told Harry in PS/SS that he `will not, of course, lie
'


 
>   No more 
> yelling, no more trying to convince anybody.  He stands there for 
> a few moments, looking from Fudge to Dumbledore, then abruptly 
>turns  and leaves.  Why?  Because Dumbledore's words clue him not 
> only on how Black's rescue was done, but also on the fact that 
>*Dumbledore  was in on it.*  At that point, Snape is stuck.  He 
> understands that no matter how much he argues, Dumbledore is not 
> going to back him up on this one.  And when it comes right down to 
> it, Dumbledore is the man in charge.  So Snape does the only thing 
> left to him and retreats from the field.  (And vents his 
> frustration the next day forcing Lupin's resignation.)

Which, by the way, he does brutally, efficiently, and apparently 
without any histrionics. No screaming that `Lupin must go'. He just 
does it, in a way that, in a face-value reading, effectively check-
mates Dumbledore. But, in this same face value reading, he can't 
work out an equally efficient method of getting Harry expelled. Not 
even for Taking Without Owner's Consent a flying Ford Anglia 
 

> 
> So there you have it.  Note that this theory does not assume any 
> important events or conversations happening "off-screen."  If  
> canondoesn't say it happened, then it didn't happen.  In keeping 
> with the  kitchen appliance theme of this topic, I hereby dub this 
> theory PRESSURE COOKER: Presented with Remus' Evil, Snape's  
> SomewhatUnhinged; Refuses Explanations, Confronts Outrageously 
> Overt Killers; Embarrassment Results.
> 
> All we need now is for somebody to come up with a Kitchen-Sink 
> theory, and we'll be all set.

> Marina
> rusalka at i...

I did try to think of an acronym, but I'm truly terrible at them 


Pip

[In a later post you said about Snape:
It would be far too easy if the whole thing could be explained away
with "oh, he was only pretending." 

Far too *easy*? I wish! [grin] ]