Snape's part in death of Sirius

[Anastasia]

No: HPFGUIDX 107994

> Pippin:
> In the Potterverse, poetry will always trump physics. JKR wanted 
> the vision at five pm so that the Ministry would be crowded, and 
> people would be eating dinner at Hogwarts (and not cluttering up 
> the corridors shortly thereafter),  she wanted Harry to take off 
into 
> a blood red sunset, and she wanted his darkest hour to be 
> literally just before dawn. 
> 
> It's a toy universe, as I've said before. Some  things really work 
> and others are just painted on. 
> 
> But one more point in favor of Snape; he wouldn't want to tell 
> Sirius that Harry was in trouble unless he was sure it was really 
> true. He might guess that whatever he said, Sirius would insist 
> on leaving the protection of Grimmauld Place to come to Harry's 
> aid. The last thing Snape needs is for Sirius to come roaring up 
> to Hogwarts to challenge Umbridge. He might have become a 
> hostage for real--or more likely, Dementor fodder. 


Anastasia:
Good thinking, Pippin!

Snape has to be *really* worried before he contacts HQ and sends 
someone after Harry. Sirius is sure to run to Harry's aid at once, 
even if he had to got to the (crowded) MoM. Even if Lupin and the 
others arrived at the MoM it would raise questions. They can't just 
say "Well, we think Potter is someway down there because you see, he 
has these strange visions sometimes, and now he believes Black is 
there with LV."  
IMO Snape thinks that he is the only one able to decide when it's 
worth taking the risk (and he may be, no matter how I love Sirius 
and Remus) and going to the Ministry. 
I don't think that Snape would immediately think about Harry using 
Thestrals. Only when he realized that it took Harry *too* much time 
to get back from the forest (and that can take 1 hour for the way 
in, 1 hour to struggle with Umbridge and perhaps to be found and 
rescued by the DA and 1 hour back = 3 hours) he arrives to think 
that Harry *might* be gone to London. *Might* as he still wants to 
search the forest for him. 
Probably Snape did a good job alerting the Order when he even wasn't 
sure what had happened. That's a lot more than Harry would have 
expected him to do, isn't it?

I assume that many of us like to forget that it is a *book* we're 
talking about. There *are* flaws. JKR is human, folks!

Anastasia