Are there no depths to which Siriophiles wont sink?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 99294

> > 
> 
> Meri again: In the Shreiking Shack he let his petty schoolboy 
 quarrells take over. He wouldn't listen to reason from any of 
them,  and seemingly fully intended to throw not just Sirius, but 
Lupin as  well to the dementors, two perfectly innocent men 
whom he could not  forgive long enough to listen to hear them 
out. <<

ESE! considerations aside, neither Sirius nor Lupin was acting 
like an innocent man. Sirius had broken into Gryffindor Tower 
with a knife, and Lupin had withheld information about Sirius and 
about the map. Worse than that, he hadn't taken his potion and 
was about to transform into a dangerous monster.

There is no canon that Snape heard anything in the shack prior 
to when the door opened. That would mean Snape was present 
when Lupin confessed that he should have turned his 
information about Sirius over to Dumbledore, and that he and 
Sirius had made the map. Snape was *not* present when the 
Trio were told that Ron's rat was Pettigrew, or to see Scabbers 
try to escape from Sirius.  

Granted that Snape lost his temper almost immediately and 
regressed to his teenaged self, and that he was wrong to 
threaten them with the dementors, but he had no reason at all to 
think that Lupin or Sirius was innocent at that point. 

Snape is much more familiar than Harry with the tactics of Lord 
Voldemort--it's not safe to give his servants free rein, because 
they'll trick, jinx or blackmail you if they can. Remember, even  in 
court, with dementors just outside, Bella and her cohorts were 
chained to their chairs. 

As for Snape's insult of Hermione, no, it wasn't right. But after
all, three or four months earlier, Harry, Ron and Hermione 
thought themselves perfectly capable of  taking on two full grown 
Death Eaters, and now they want Snape's help to deal 
with...Draco Malfoy? Gimme a break!

Pippin
who wonders what would have happened if Harry had let Snape 
take Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew up to the castle.