The Prank -- A New Thought

[bohcoo]

No: HPFGUIDX 80493




I have been reading all the wonderful posts on The Prank and don't 
recall seeing quite this slant on things. So, here goes:


In COS, ch. 18, pg. 357, Lupin speaking about Snape and The Prank:
"'---if he'd got as far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown 
werewolf -- but your father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went 
after Snape and pulled him back, at GREAT RISK TO HIS OWN LIFE...'" 
(My emphasis.)

Now, since James had been running around with Werewolf! Lupin for a 
couple of years by the time of the Prank, where was this "great risk 
to his own life?" Not from Werewolf! Lupin. Couldn't this "great risk 
to his own life" have come, instead, from a Transformed Snape? 

Since Snape was more schooled in the Dark Arts when he arrived at 
school than most 7th year students, doesn't it make sense that he 
would have also learned how to Transform somewhere along the way? 
Canon is loaded with hints that Snape is either a vampire or a bat. 
These could all be red herrings, true, but I rather doubt it. There 
are just too many mentions of it. 

So, my theory is that Snape is probably a vampire and can Transform 
into a bat and that Sirius and James knew it.

(I also think this is how Snape is able to spy undetected on 
Voldemort and company, but that is another post. . .) 

The scene Sirius probably pictured at the end of the tunnel when he 
sent Snape in there was of his old friend Werewolf! Lupin jumping and 
snapping around at a frantically flapping Bat! Snape, confident that 
a bat could easily escape from the jaws of a werewolf, even if Snape 
did leave an abundance of bat droppings all over the tunnel -- and, 
come to think of it, all over poor Lupin as well.  That is something 
a 16 year old would think hilarious -- and, not even remotely life-
threatening to anyone. In essence, a good Prank.

However, James, at "great risk to his own life" from being bitten by 
a vampire/bat, went after Snape and pulled him back -- not because 
Snape was in danger but because Lupin was -- of having his cover 
being blown.  

Snape, livid at having been played for a fool, accuses Sirius of 
attempted murder. All this did was make James's actions become heroic 
and translate into a lifesaving action.

So, in my opinion, Sirius did not intentionally do anything life-
threatening by pulling The Prank. He did jeopardize his friend's 
cover, which was amazingly thoughtless and stupid, though.

Snape is the one who has given it the slant and built it up into 
something it wasn't.

In my opinion.

Bohcoo