How did Sirius lure Severus into the Willow? (was: James the Berk?)

[arrowsmithbt]

No: HPFGUIDX 105975

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Brenda M." <Agent_Maxine_is at h...> wrote:
> 
> Bren now:
> 
> WHAT wishful thinking??  I don't *hope* Snape is a vampire, I don't 
> really believe in it, and even if he was I couldn't care less.  I was 
> just trying to illustrate my point that DD BLACKMAILED Snape somehow 
> to keep him quiet.  THAT was my point.  Blackmailing.  And I was 
> merely thinking of a few possiblities as to HOW DD accomplished 
> this.  Yes, I did "invent non-canon situations" but then how much 
> CANON do we have on this now to rely on it?  We don't have much, 
> that's why we started speculating on this to begin with.  And it 
> doesn't hurt to suggest some theories, that is why this board exists 
> anyways.  And no, this isn't what I want either, like I said, I 
> couldn't care less.
> 
> If you could come up with a much better and logical situation 
> supported by canon then I'd love to hear it (and apologize for 
> snapping at you), really.
> 

Kneasy:
This highlights one of the significant divides in fandom, IMO.
OK, an hypothetical case:

Character A is behaving in an atypical way; posters are wondering why.
Generally (and this is very general, a crude example) it may be handled
thus:

1. Scour the canon, find something, anything that may explain the
aberrant actions. Almost anything will do, including inter-actions
with other characters, that can be argued as a possible starting 
point for extrapolation and supposition. But nothing seems
applicable, so -

2. Try re-assessing the characters profile - is he not what he seems?
ESE maybe; have we been handed a clue? Are any previous actions
open to re-interpretation given what we now know?  But insufficient
evidence (or re-interpretation doesn't really work), so -

3a. Guess, or -
3b. Admit defeat.

It's at 3a. that the divide occurs -  and it's more a matter of *degree*
than anything else. Just how  far do you  go?

Except in my (hopefully) humorous posts I feel uncomfortable making
guesses that are more  than very vague. Though  the logic be tortuous
and the canon in paper-thin shreds, back-to-front and twisted in knots,
I dislike making suppositions that don't have at least a little something
behind them.

Others see it differently - and it is a matter of taste, not correctness -
they're willing to make guesses that are fairly specific in nature but,
at the time of writing, have no canon support whatsoever. In my own
mind I call this wishful thinking. This was the sort of guesswork that
produced all the Mark Evans threads. (Something I refused point blank
to get into - canon states that the Dursleys are Harry's sole living
relatives - a flat statement. If you can't believe that we might as well
all pack up and  go home. The same sort of situation looms with HBP;
someone's guess will catch the imagination of posters and for some at
least, the guess will be accepted as canon-in-waiting.)

How does this tie in with my response to your post?
Well, you've made a  fairly specific couple of guesses - blackmail or
throwing Snape out into the cold, cold world during school holidays.
How did you reach them? Any evidence? Any at all? From your own
post you contradict yourself - would the DD you see and admire 
submit to blackmail? Would he deliberately impose physical or 
psychological hardship on a student? The DD I see wouldn't.

At the moment I  have no theories why things happened the way
they did. I  was wondering if anyone else could throw light on the
matter; apparently not. And before I give  serious consideration
to suggestions, I'd like a little canon (or extrapolation from canon)
to go with them please.

> 
> Brenda: Perhaps I should've been more clear. I didn't mean that DD 
> was God in Potterverse, I meant to say he resembles God in many ways, 
> much more than other characters in Potterverse (that we know of). The 
> only fallibility I see in DD was trusting Crouch!Moody. This made me 
> really afraid of Barty Jr actually and I wondered if he was more 
> powerful than DD (but he did have a help of that magical eye.)
> 
> Brenda, anxiously waiting for Kneasy's rebuttal...

Kneasy:
I don't bite; well, not often.
And I really don't think you ought to read post 65696; it'll only raise
your blood pressure.