OoP: I'll do it: In defense of James (spoiler)

[jenny_ravenclaw]

No: HPFGUIDX 62587

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "darrin_burnett" <bard7696 at a...> 
wrote:

> It is not made clear when exactly Snape discovered Lupin was a 
werewolf. Speculation has that it was that night -- Snape was so 
furious that he did one of the most colossally stupid things I can 
think of, he actually went where Sirius pointed him to go to find out 
about Lupin.
 
But if he didn't discover the truth about Lupin until later, then 
these memories would seem to have to be accurate recordings and not 
shaded by interpretation.
 
Remember, Harry overhears the Marauders talking about Lupin being a  
werewolf. Snape apparently can't hear this, so it shouldn't be in his 
subconscious.
 
That would follow then, that this is being magically recorded. Harry  
didn't have to sit next to Snape the whole time, as he did with  
Dumbledore in the trial in GoF.>

I tend to agree with you, Darrin, but I think it is possible that what 
Harry sees in the Pensieve is a biased memory.  A biased memory, 
though, doesn't necessarily erase the feelings Snape had about the 
experience.  It is precisely his feelings, IMO, that make this scene 
so disturbing.

If this scene is a memory of Snape's, and he didn't know yet that 
Lupin was a werewolf, it doesn't mean that his memory didn't add a 
speculation about the conversation the Marauders had about their 
exams.  Haven't you ever said to someone "...and I just *know* she was 
saying such-and-such" even if you didn't exactly hear the 
conversation?  Or later, after having time to think about something 
you experienced, you say to yourself "They must have been talking 
about blah blah blah before they came up to me" and from then on, that 
is what you believe?  Snape's thoughts may have affected his memory of 
that day.

However, what Snape remembers most about that afternoon was how the 
Marauders made him feel: helpless and humiliated.  We can dispute the 
events but we cannot dispute Snape's feelings about them.  That's how 
I justify the fact that Harry can hear a conversation that Snape could 
not.

Did that make any sense?

--jenny from ravenclaw, who thinks Snape's Memory might be a good name 
for a band ***************************