Positive image of James. Was: Re: Snape and Lupin's Character Arcs

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 119416



> Pippin:
> I don't see how anybody who remembered what James had 
 been like before seventh year could have had a positive image 
of  him. Even Sirius thinks he was an arrogant little berk. <
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Oh? This is because of ONE scene? I certainly disagree. It will 
be  interesting to hear the testimony of some other people who 
knew James  before his seventh year. Sirius thinks that he was a 
berk only when  they talk about Snape.<

Pippin:
McGonnagall said, "I don't think we've ever had such a pair of 
troublemakers." She doesn't think much of troublemakers, so I 
wouldn't call that a positive image.  Lily said that James was just 
as bad as Snape. 


Alla:
> But this is all beyond the point. The point is that even if James 
was  very bad person, Snape has no right to tell Harry so, at least 
untill  they are in a different setting than Hogwarts. This is 
unprofessional and sadistic. Just my opinion, of course.<

Pippin:
In PoA, it comes up *only* in the context of the Marauder's Map  
and Harry going outside the school, apparently to meet with 
Black. Snape isn't allowed to tell Harry that Sirius and Lupin were 
his father's friends, and know what might lure him out of school. 

In Snape's mind, James's arrogance led him to cooperate with 
these friends in a prank that could have ruined James's life. 
Later James refused to believe that one of these friends could 
be a traitor, and it got him killed. Snape *has* to warn Harry, 
because he sees that Sirius and Lupin could destroy Harry the 
way they destroyed James.

In OOP, they weren't at Hogwarts, and Snape was talking to 
Sirius, not Harry. Sirius certainly wasn't behaving as if the context 
were professional. To his credit, Snape doesn't bring his old 
suspicions of Sirius and Lupin  up in OOP, but that doesn't keep 
Sirius from treating him as if he was still a Death Eater. 

Pippin