Agency in the Shrieking Shack

[koinonia02 <Koinonia2@hotmail.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52183

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Risti <pretty_feet51 at y...>" 
<pretty_feet51 at y...> wrote:
> --- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, GulPlum <hp at p...> wrote:
> > I have several fundamental objections to MD (and variants).


I'm not going to refer to any theories by *MD* or any other 
abbreviated form. There are just too many going around to keep up 
with :--) 

I have read some of the theories going around and find some of them 
kind of believable and also very interesting. Yet I do have a problem 
with the idea that most of the Shrieking Shack was just some big 
plan. I think we are missing a very important point when we do that. 
It's the hate between Snape and Sirius. It is a genuine hate and not 
an act by Snape. Snape hates Sirius and I truly believe some of it is 
because Sirius was the Potters' Secret-Keeper. When the Potters died 
their death somehow affected the life of Snape in a big way. Snape 
wants revenge and he finally gets that opportunity in the Shrieking 
Shack. There has to be more to the hate between Snape and Sirius than 
just little school pranks. The Shrieking Shack is our first time to 
see just how much those two really hate each other.  


 
> Ahh, but you see, I use this very example as proof of just how 
> important the life debt is.  Snape very obviously hated James 
> Potter.  Snape would have hated James just as much during his years 
> as a DE as he does when Harry meets him, if not more.  For the 
> record, I'm talking about the time *before* he becomes Dumbledore's 
> secret agent.  In PoA, Snape threatens Sirius with 'Give me a 
> reason,' he whispered. 'Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I 
> will.'(p 264, PoA, softcover).  IMHO, Snape is threatening Sirius's 
> life.  By the nature of the wording of the threat, I'd say that he 
> knows Sirius knows that he can and has killed a person at wand tip 
> before.
> 
> Well, James Potter certainly should have been at the top of Snape's 
> list of 'people to kill' when he was a DE.  According to the way 
the 
> DE's activities are explained in the beginning of GoF, he didn't 
> really need to have a reason to kill a muggle lover like James.  So 
> why didn't he?  Before all that Secret Keeper business and 
Voldemort 
> realizing that *he* wanted to kill James.  Because Snape had a life 
> debt to James, and therefore couldn't kill him.

I'm not going to discuss the life debt here but the idea that Snape 
is one who has killed before. IMO I don't think that Snape is 
necessarily telling Sirius *you know I have killed before*. I think 
he is more or less saying *YOU know why I would love an opportunity 
to kill you*. This is not an act. Notice, however, that Snape never 
did follow through with his threat even though he had an opportunity.

Though canon states that Snape was a DE I don't see where it says 
that ALL DE's had to and did perform murders. I still can't see 
Dumbledore hiring a teacher who performed numerous cold-blooded 
murders. I also can't believe that Dumbledore would hire someone who 
didn't kill James ONLY because of a life threat. Who would want a 
murdering lunatic teaching children? Dumbledore would surely be 
constantly wondering if Snape was going to turn to his old way of 
murder and I just don't see it. I don't think Snape is a murderer. 
But then only time will tell.

Koinonia