James the Berk?

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 105755

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, Batchevra at a... wrote:
> 
> Lupin told us that Snape had seen Madame Pomphrey take him to the Whomping 
> Willow to transform, and was interested where he went. Granted Sirius never told 
> Snape what was going on, but told him how to get through the Willow. What 
> Snape should have known is that the teachers were somewhat already informed about 
> something that should have been kept quiet.Yes, Sirius sent Snape to the 
> Shrieking Shack, but Snape was partly at fault for going. 
> 

There  is one aspect of  this whole affair that (so  far) no-one has
managed to explain:

Just what did Sirius tell Snape and why did Snape believe him?

They  distrusted, perhaps even detested each other, yet we are
expected to believe that Snape would *ask* Sirius to divulge
'secret' information and that Sirius would supply it.
IIRC canon states that Sirius *told* Snape how to get past the
Whomping Willow, so it's not a question of eavesdropping on
a conversation.

Perhaps it went like this:
Snape: "Er, Black, disgusting Muggle and Mudblood lover and
disgrace to a noble pureblood family that you are and who I
have been trying to get the dirt on for years, what's with
Lupin every full moon? I'm sure you're willing to let me in
on the secret."

Sirius: "Of course, slimy, nasty sneak and practioner of Dark
Magic who has dogged our footsteps for far too long. I have
no problem with that at all.  Just press that knot on the trunk,
slime your way up the tunnel and you'll learn everything."

Snape: "Why thank you, Gryffindor creep and bully who has
done everything possible to avoid my nosy-parkering and
whom I hate and distrust with every fibre of my  being. Since
our antipathy is mutual I'll do just that. Thank you for telling 
me exactly what I wanted to know and of course I should have
realised that all I had to do was ask and you would immediately
tell me the truth. Heaven forfend that I should suspect your
motives or your veracity."

Sirius: "Quite all right, you greasy haired git. All you have to do
is ask and of course I'll give you the key to getting one of my
closest friends hounded out of the school. Because you will
be spreading the news of what you  find in there around, won't
you?"

Does not compute.
Snape asking is fanciful; him accepting what Sirius tells him
at face value becomes far-fetched. 

The eventual out-come was not foreseeable at this stage.
Sirius says that he wanted to "teach Snape a lesson." 
Some lesson. The back-lash should have been epic, no
matter what transpired. But it wasn't, for one reason - DD
hushed it up. And this leads on to  the most unbelievable bit
of all - Snape kept his mouth shut. He told no-one what had
happened. Given what we know about Snape, is that credible?
He has information that would get Lupin, Sirius, James, Peter
and DD into really serious hot water and he'd probably end up
looking like a hero to concerned parents - and he does nothing.

How did DD 'persuade' him to co-operate? Threaten to expel him?
Wouldn't work - it would give Snape even more incentive to pop
round to the Daily Prophet offices to offer an exclusive - "Cover-up
at Hogwarts! DD expels pupil whose sole concern was the safety
of fellow students! Board of Govenors to investigate!" 

Snape is a  fairly innocent party in this episode - he's nosy but 
he doesn't do anything that could be classed as wrong, no matter
that his motives were selfish. He's the injured party, the one
with something to justifiably complain about. And he would -
vociferously. Yet DD successfully gags him. 

It certainly adds a new dimension to the Snape/DD relationship.
Why would Snape *ever* trust DD again?

Kneasy