Prank

[Richard]

No: HPFGUIDX 80294

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sylviablundell2001" 
<sylviablundell at a...> wrote:
> Richard wrote:
> It is perhaps wiser to be calm at a more distant time, even if the 
> events call for thunder and lightening at the time they happen.
> 
> Now me (Sylvia)
> That is just my point.  There doesn't seemto have been any thunder 
> and lightening at the time the "prank" happened.  All very well for 
> DD to take a calm and forgiving attitude many years after in 
talking 
> to Harry, but what sort of a punishment did he hand out at the time?
> I acknowledge that children can get up to really dangerous things. 
My 
> own certainly have and I have myself, but it never involved 
> deliberately putting someone at risk of death or serious injury.
> And now I'm starting to worry about why Snape's father never did 
> anything about it.  It all sounds like a really nasty cover-up with 
> the golden boys getting off scot-free and poor bloody Snape feeling 
> more alone than ever.  
> Sylvia (who is sorry to get so mad, but bullying makes me more 
angry 
> than anything in the world)

me (Richard) thinks ...

We don't know that they WEREN'T punished at the time.  All we are 
ever told about the incident is that it happened, Sirius starting it, 
James short-circuiting it, and Snape holding a grudge ever since.  
Snape, as the intended victim of the prank, might well think Sirius 
essentially unpunished if the punishment didn't include an extended 
stay at Azkhaban.  We also have no clue as to what Snape's parents 
may or may not have done.  So, to conclude that Sirius was NOT 
punished would be to impute material into the story that isn't 
there.  Further, we do not know whether Dumbledore even knew of this 
happening AT THE TIME.  He may well have learned of this well AFTER 
the fact, when "the statute of limitations" had expired ... meaning 
Sirius was no-longer a student whom Dumbledore COULD punish.

I've always had problems with bullying myself.  The first fight I 
ever had was when I was five.  A neighbor of the same age told a 
female friend (also of the same age) that he would beat her up if she 
didn't say she liked him.  She wouldn't, he tried, and I beat the 
c*** out of him on the spot.  (It was the start of a long-strong 
friendship between the girl and myself.)  In fact, every fight I've 
ever had has been protecting someone from a bully.  But, I don't see 
this as bullying.  Why?  Well, we don't have a whole lot of evidence 
either way, apart from a few stray comments and the Pensieve 
episode.  We DO know that Snape routinely tried to jinx James (and 
presumably Sirius), just as James returned the favor.  Two or more 
people with a serious antipathy towards each other, and who keeping 
acting upon that antipathy, is a slightly different matter, even if 
it is still horribly immature, reprehensible, etc.

So, the point?  I think you are condemning Sirius based upon 
inferences not wholly supported by canon.


Richard