Shrieking Shack in PoA was Re: Who's at fault for Snape v. Harry?

[Irene Mikhlin]

No: HPFGUIDX 68449


darrin_burnett wrote:

> 
> But, again, we are talking about the kids who beat all the teachers' 
> obstacles to get the Stone AND who figured out -- when apparently, a 
> long list of Headmasters and Headmistresses couldn't -- how to get to 
> the Chamber of Secrets.

I wonder if Snape knows about Harry's heroics in CoS. With what we know 
about Dumbledore's modus operandi, it's not at all obvious.

> These kids, whether Snape likes it or not, and, I daresay he DOESN'T 
> like it, have a knack for solving things.
> 
> Look at the words used to describe Snape in that scene. All the 
> emphases will be mine.
> 
> pg 253: "Severus, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently. "You 
> haven't heard everything - I can explain - Sirius is not here to kill 
> Harry - "

These kids could not believe Lupins's story for several pages.
He needed to throw all the trust he built with them during the year,
plus "Harry, I was your father's friend" at them to make them listen.
And still it was not enough for Ron, who only listened at wandpoint.

With Snape, he has zero trust foundation, and now I quite agree with
you - whatever Lupin was saying at this point would not matter.

I read the thread about Marauders' map, and I really think Lupin is 
paying for his mistake there.

This whole year he was behaving exactly as 15-year old. When he was a 
prefect, he ignored his duties out of the loyalty to his friends.
In PoA he, out of loyalty to the memory of his friends, does not inform 
Dumbledore about Sirius abilities and ignores his duty as a teacher to 
put school security above all. And this reaches culmination in the 
"Snape's Grudge" chapter, where Lupin takes Harry's side as if he was 
his friend who needed help getting away from punishment.

So yes, it would be so much simpler if Snape would just listen, but it's 
hard to blame him when he does not believe one word coming from Lupin now.


> And the fact that he didn't want Dumbledore anywhere near the case, 
> as evidenced by Snape serving as judge, jury and executioner by 
> planning to call the Dementors straightaway, tells me he knew in his 
> heart of hearts something was fishy about the story.
> 
> Now, Snape does, interestingly enough, take Sirius back to the castle 
> after Harry 2 drives off the dementors. My guess is that Snape, by 
> this point, doesn't want to be dealing with so many dementors by 
> himself while having to watch over three unconscious kids. (Yes, I'm 
> giving Snape credit for not wanting Ron, Hermione and Harry to get 
> their souls sucked. Maybe he thought it would hurt his chances for a 
> promotion.) 

Yeah, lots of tedious paperwork. ;-)

If we agree that actions speak louder than words then I think we can 
allow that he didn't plan to call the Dementors on Sirius and wanted to 
bring him to the castle alive all along.
As a scary person that can identify with Snape sometimes, my take on it 
is that he wanted Sirius to beg for his life.
Another ugly but understandable motive is that he wanted to see 
Dumbledore eating his hat.


> I do give credit to Snape for something though. I wonder if he truly 
> does believe the kids were under Sirius' spell when they attacked 
> him, yet he tells Fudge that they were.
> 
> Several reasons why this could be the case:
> 
> 1) He truly does believe Harry was under the spell.
> 2) He knows that, if it comes out how irrational he was in that 
> shack, Harry and the kids will come out looking better.
> 3) He figures that not even Harry deserves to be punished by Fudge.
> 4) He wants to look more magnanimous. "Potions Professor Protects 
> Persuaded Potter" would look great in the Daily Prophet.
> 4a) It's highly humiliating to get knocked out by three kids and 
> having them under the sway of Black sounds better.
> 5) Deep down, he admires the kids' balls.

Or maybe he thinks the story is so far-fetched that even Potter would 
not believe it without Confundus.
I really want to hear more about this spell, apparently it's above OWL 
level. So if Snape truly believed it was involved, that's another reason 
not to listen to a word Hermione says: for all her cleverness she 
wouldn't recognize this spell or know how to fight it.

Irene