What is with the "Prank" ?

[sunnylove0 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 99466

The recent discussion of the prank has got me thinking about the whole 
business..and into some really disturbing thoughts...now I know this is a sensitive 
topic around here, so bear with me.


Did Snape figure out that Lupin was a werewolf before the prank?  It's not 
exactly cold fusion, you know.....

POA  chap. 17  

" He'll be delighted,"  said Lupin coolly.  " He assigned that essay hoping 
someone would realize what my symptoms meant...Did you check the lunar chart 
and realize I was always ill at the full moon?  Or did you realize that the 
boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"

POA  chap. 18 

" Now my three friends could hardly fail to notice that I disappeared once a 
month. I made up all sorts of stories..."    ".....anyway Snape had seen me 
crossing the grounds with Madam Pomfrey one evening as she led me toward the 
Whomping Willow to transform..."

OOP chap. 28

" Did you like question ten, Moony?" asked Sirius as they emerged into the 
entrance hall.

" Loved it." said Lupin briskly.  " Give five signs that identify the 
werewolf.  Excellent question."

" D'you think you managed to get all the signs?" said James in mock concern.

" Think I did." said Lupin seriously as they joined the crowd thronging 
around the front doors eager to get out into the sunlit grounds.  " One:  He's 
sitting on my chair.  Two: He's wearing my clothes.  Three:  His name's Remus 
Lupin.."


The more I think about it.... DADA, as evidenced by his absorption in his OWL 
paper and his application to teach it year after year is obviously one of 
Snape's favorite subjects, or at least one he takes seriously.  Remus Lupin, the 
best friend of James Potter and Sirius Black, the one who sits by and ignores 
them while they torture Snape, disappears once a month (and always during the 
full moon) led away by the nurse, and not to the hospital wing  but across the 
grounds.   MWPP, even Lupin, talk about it openly when it's possible for 
anyone to hear them... I mean, come on!  JKR has given Snape a reputation for 
putting two and two together, and he has plenty of motive in this case.

But why would he have fallen for Sirius's bait if he knew?  Well....

1)  Snape is a emotional kid (note the nickname " Snivellus" )  in a 
situation where no one seems to give a damn about him. ( Except Lily, who is angry at 
James, and possibly Dumbledore, who has 249-999 other students to worry about, 
though I think he might have done something about it sometime ( does anyone 
wonder why Snape trusts Dumbledore instead of vice versa?  I'd like to know)

At home, He comes from a family where at least verbal and possibly physical 
domestic violence is present, and sits alone in his bedroom with the flies for 
company.

At school, he is unpopular, bullied, can't fly, and his closest reputed 
"friends" are Bellatrix Black and her future DE gang....what emotional support they 
must have given him....

Snape is not taking care of himself,  he's expecting to be attacked at any 
moment....and speaking from personal experience, I've been where it's hell at 
school and hell at home, and, what I'm trying to say is, I would not be 
surprised if suicide was not on his mind even before the prank....and even if it 
hadn't got to that point yet...this is the boy who grew up to spy on Voldemort, for 
whatever reason, and if he had to take a lethal risk to get the torment to 
stop, or just out of revenge, I wouldn't put it past him....   And Sirius walks 
up to him and says, "If you want to know, just prod the knot on the Whomping 
Willow."  In front of witnesses, probably. ( James heard about it, not heard 
it. From who? )  If Snape dies under that tree or comes back to say what he saw 
and who sent him to see it,  Sirius and Lupin, and he believes James was 
responsible too, will get what he believes what they deserve for at least five 
years of hell.  Expulsion.

But fate or Murphy's Law or whatever intervenes.  James saves his life, and 
it gets hushed up.  And Snape becomes a DE, and you know the rest.

Now for heaven's sake, someone prove me wrong.

Amber


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