James and Snape was OT:To Jeff

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 82729

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>     But how long was it after the pensive that the other incident 
> occured? A few months? I'm still not convinced that after 
torturing  Snape daily, as Draco does the trio, that one day after 
he might've  performed another prank that suddenly he'd decide 
that he has to go  against his best friend for a geek he hates.

<snip> 
>    Would James want snape dead? Maybe not, but let's not 
forget that  we don't know what spell Snape intended to use on 
James, and that he  started to draw his wand first. I'm guessing 
that James knew about  what was planned much earlier, but 
might've changed his mind, or been  asked to stop it by 
someone else.<<

Harry saved Peter, who helped murder his parents, from Sirius 
and Lupin who were ready to kill. Harry  didn't  want Sirius and 
Lupin to become killers, despite having every reason to hate and 
despise Peter. Might not James have felt the same way? 

Being a bully doesn't mean you'd kill your victim--bullies want 
their victims alive so they can abuse them some more. As 
Quirrell says, Snape hates Harry, but he never wanted him dead.

The precipitating factor for the Prank wasn't something that 
Snape had done, but the fear of what  he could do, now that he 
knew where Lupin went. Snape would be watching the Willow 
and that would put a stop to the Marauders' werewolf 
walkabouts. That gives Lupin the best motive for killing Snape, 
but Sirius might have been persuaded or manipulated into 
helping him do it.

Suppose James had done nothing. Snape's death would have 
seemed to be a horrible accident . There'd be no Snape around 
to say that Sirius had told him how to get into the Willow. The 
Hogwarts governors would want the whole thing hushed up, so 
in the ensuing cover-up, Sirius and Lupin might have escaped 
exposure. A desperate gamble, but for Lupin, who says that his 
friends' company was the only thing that made his 
transformations bearable, it might have been worth it.


 James didn't only save Snape, he caught him out of bounds. 
The Willow was forbidden because of Davy Gudgeon's eye. 
Snape  could have been expelled if he was caught there  again.
Ergo, no more spying, and the Marauders' secret remained safe. 
Whether James  deliberately waited to interfere until Snape had 
entered the Willow, we don't know. 


Pippin