bullies? twins, padfoot and prongs

[nrenka]

No: HPFGUIDX 118599


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hickengruendler" 
<hickengruendler at y...> wrote:

> Hickengruendler: 
>
> Is he? Well, maybe yes, as a Death Eater, that's possible. But I'm 
> sure he wasn't killing people as a student. If he were, and 
> everybody would have known that, than for sure he would be in 
> Azkaban. The problem is, that we don't know what the Dark Arts 
> really are. Are they just the Unforgivable Curses? Or is it just 
> delving into dangerous magic? Anyway, there's nothing to suggest 
> that teenage Snape was killing people left and right. In fact, 
> canon contradicts this. Snape told Dumbledore, that Sirius proved 
> himself to be able to commit murder at the age of sixteen. If 
> Snape did so, too, and for some inecxusable reason weren't sent to 
> Azkaban, than surely Dumbledore would have reminded him, of that. 

I don't think Teenage!Snape was killing people, but I'm going to be 
very surprised if we don't end up with a picture of Teenage!Snape 
pretty well on the path to becoming a DE by messing with Dark 
Stuff.  (As a side note, I think the Dark Arts are *objectively* 
Dark in JKR's world, even though I can't prove that and would like 
some more info on them, and they are Bad Mojo indeed.  From what 
we've seen of them, they reflect the ethic of force at its very 
worst.)

One might ask some questions about the infamous and enigmatic line, 
in response to Snape's allegations against Black: "My memory is as 
good as it ever was, Severus".  No one knows what that means.  It 
could well be a reminder of "I know what you did", or "I know what 
really happened".  Not a clue.

There's also the various snippets of info on what DE!Snape got up 
to.  From the Edinburgh Festival, the lovely "But you must not 
forget that Snape was a Death Eater. He will have seen things 
that
"  (Don't forget the continuation, where she says "Why do 
people love Snape?  I do not understand this.") :)

There's also the interview commentary from I forget where, where she 
tells us that Dumbledore won't let Snape teach DADA because it 
would "bring out the worst in him", and we have the in-book echoes 
of that, too.  Just think about it.  Dumbledore hired Lockhart over 
Snape, rather than let the latter teach DADA.

I'm aware that none of this impinges directly on Teenage!Snape, but 
given what he turned into and the fairly short amount of time 
involved (although I again note our time scale is a big hypothetic), 
I don't think it's too far to extrapolate that Teenage!Snape was 
potentially something of a nasty piece of work, with his knowledge 
and interests.  Should she prove this wrong, I'll be very interested 
to see how it goes.

Joining the DEs seems to have been an ideologically aware act, even 
if it wasn't one fully aware of everything that was demanded.  Some 
may not wish to judge a character so harshly for joining the band of 
fascists.  I hope JKR gives us a good picture of what the DEs were 
really doing back then--it might bring it up from something of the 
abstract state that it currently inhabits.

-Nora notes that her kitchen is clean and spotless, baby