Does Snape owe Harry his life after PoA? (Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: Who's at fault

[mkaliz]

No: HPFGUIDX 68038

Mary wrote:

> It seems to me that Snape doesn't feel that he *should* be indebted to
> James for saving him from Sirius's prank in school either, but there is
> some evidence (Dumbledore's word, at the moment) that nevertheless he is
> indebted -- reluctantly indebted, very angry about being indebted, but
> indebted nonetheless. 
> [ other stuff snipped ]
> The situation with the James-Snape debt is instructive: in JKR's world
> the last minute action of someone who was closely involved in creating
> the dangerous situation in the first place is still sufficient to create
> the life-debt bond.

Hm. It didn't seem to me that James was all that involved in creating
the first situation in the Shack--that was Sirius' doing. I agree that
there is clearly some kind of "immediate peril" that triggers the
activation of a magical life debt. However, I'm not convinced that the
situation with Harry, et. al in the Shack is of the same 'kind' as the
event that involved James. 

I'm willing to be convinced, but I'm just seeing differences that seem
to be important. For contrast, look at the fact that according to
Dumbledore, Pettigrew incurred a debt to Harry during the same scene.
Perhaps I shall go reread both scenes on my lunch hour!

--kai