How did Snape see Lupin the night of the Prank?

[Maria Kirilenko]

No: HPFGUIDX 50681


This is something I just can’t figure out. I spent a half-hour yesterday rereading the beginning of the Shrieking Shack scene and the part where Lupin explains the Prank to HHR, and I can’t understand this: How could have Snape seen Wolf!Lupin if he hadn't actually reached the Shrieking Shack the night of the Prank? 

So, how does the tunnel from the Whomping Willow end? I had always assumed that it ended *under* the Shack, and one could get into the Shack through a trapdoor in its floor. I got that notion from the next quote: “Harry pulled himself out of the hole, staring around.”

That actually makes sense if the passage is underground. The passage to Honeydukes, which also, I assume, was an underground one, ended with a trapdoor in the floor of the cellar.

Slightly before that: “And then the tunnel began to rise; moments later it twisted, and Crookshanks had gone. Instead, Harry could see a patch of dim light through a small opening.” This also doesn’t disprove the ‘trapdoor’ idea.

But look at what Lupin says later on about the Prank: “Well, of course, Snape tried it -- if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf -- but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back, at great risk to his life... Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel.”

It doesn’t make any sense! Why would Lupin be at the end of the tunnel as opposed to the house? Moreover, if Lupin *was* in the house, how could Snape see him if there was a trapdoor in the ceiling? Did Snape actually go *into* the Shrieking Shack? But then Lupin’s words “if he’d got as far as this house” don’t make sense.

Maybe the answer lies in the fact (?) that Lupin didn’t actually *remember* what happened that night, and he had the account of it from Snape, James, and Sirius? Then Snape would say that he saw Lupin, but James and Sirius would say that Snape didn’t really reach the house.

Is this a flint, or am I imagining things?

Puzzled!Maria



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