Unfortunate!Peter

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 118345


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sharon" <azriona at j...> wrote:
><snip>

Azriona wrote:
<snip> 
> Forgive me if I'm wrong, but didn't we have a solid time frame at one 
> point?  I could have sworn The Prank happened in their fifth 
> year...but to go back to the Pensieve Scene, I sort of doubt that it 
> occured before their OWLs (I would think that Sirius would have 
> steered clear of Severus after he tried to kill him).
> 
> Because of that scene, I feel fairly confident now (and certain this 
> has been discused to death elsewhere) that The Prank happened in 
> sixth year.  I don't think it would have happened before the
Pensieve Scene, and therefore could not have happened before the boys
mastered the Animagi spell.  I don't think it could have happened in
7th year, because as prefect, Remus was on the fast track to becoming
Head Boy.  There had to be a reason for James to get Head Boy and not 
> Remus.

Carol responds:
Snape says that Sirius Black tried to kill him when he (Sirius) was
sixteen. Since Snape is unlikely to know Sirius's exact birthday, he's
probably going by his own age at the time and/or by the school year
when all of the students would start out as sixteen-year-olds, i.e.,
sixth year. It can't have been seventh year, because Sirius would
already have turned seventeen by September 1 of that year. 

So, yes, the so-called Prank almost certainly followed the Pensieve
incident, which happened at the end of their fifth year. Quite
possibly it (the "Prank") happened near the beginning of sixth year,
when the pain of humiliation of the earlier incident was still fairly
fresh in Severus's mind. It makes sense that he would have started
following MWPP and found out about Remus going to the Shrieking Shack
at that time, hoping to find out something he could use against them
to pay them pack for his public humiliation.

There are lots of holes in our knowledge, but we can at least be
fairly certain that the Prank occurred in sixth year, I'm guessing
early in the year rather than late.

Carol