Prank revisited. WAS: Harry begins to act like someone I know

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 99172

 
> Snow wrote:
- going off a bit on Sirius' benefit of the doubt:
> There are always two sides to a story and we really don't know the 
> whole story behind why that joke occurred and why Sirius said it 
> would have served Snape right. We were only given a one-sided view 
of 
> that whole scenario. What did Snape do to provoke such a response 
> from Sirius? He must have done something to one of Sirius' friends, 
> most likely James, for Sirius to have said it would have served him 
> right. Served him right for what!
> 
> I don't think we have been allowed to know that whole scene anymore 
> than the scenes in the pencieve in Snape's office. You can 
defiantly 
> misinterpret if you don't have all the facts. Like Harry feeling 
> sorry for Snape because he was viewing what he saw from Snape's 
view 
> of "his" worst memory. To bad there wasn't a pencieve thought from 
> James' point of view so you could have seen the other side of the 
> coin. Harry does ask Sirius and, if Harry was listening, was told 
> that Snape never missed an opportunity to curse James. What are 
some 
> of the things that Snape did to James? It's just a bit one-sided 
> here. We are allowed to see what has happened to Snape but not some 
> of the things that Snape obviously did to James. 

<snip>

Marianne:

Just another example of JKR's tendency to dole out information a 
little bit at a time so that we don't get the complete picture until 
the proper moment in the series.  I had felt that we would find out 
something nasty about James simply because we hadn't heard anything 
negative about him, except from Snape.  Now, in OoP, not only are we 
presented with a "living" example of James' bad behavior, we are also 
shown things about Snape's past that make him more sympathetic.  Or, 
if not sympathetic, at least as someone who has also had instances in 
his life that were very painful.

The fact that Sirius engaged in bullying Snape also reinforces some 
readers' opinions that Sirius did indeed try to murder Snape using 
Remus as the weapon.  I personally think that has not been proved yet.
Who knows? Maybe it was a premeditated attempted murder. 

OTOH, JKR's penchant for showing characters in one light, only to 
reveal something different later may also be at work here. She's 
highlighted some of Sirius' negative characteristics in OoP, which 
also makes it easier for some to believe in Sirius!Attempted 
Murderer.  JKR had Harry, Molly and Hermione all make the point 
throughout the book that Sirius is reckless. Was she engaged in 
simply trying to make that point in giant letters so we would be sure 
not to miss it? Or was she doing a massive head-fake to settle that 
thought fimly in our minds, only to undermine it in a later book?  

I await the revelations of the back-story of Snape and Sirius and the 
Prank with great impatience and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that 
it comes in Book 6 and not 7. Somehow, I doubt that what JKR 
considers "the whole story" will really be enough for us to satisfy 
all the questions we have now, and will come up with later.

Marianne