Man the canons Re: Snape vs. Sirius (was: Snape's Stubbornness)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 127256


Canon:
"Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age sixteen," 
he breathed. "You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? you haven't 
forgotten that he once tried to kill me?"

"My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus," said Dumbledore 
quietly" - POA, p.391

Pippin:
Like everyone else, I've been putting the emphasis on "memory" in
Dumbledore'ssentence, and supposing he means,"I remember 
what happened as well as you do, Severus, so don't try to snow me."
 But what if the emphasis belongs on "My"?

 What if Snape honestly can't remember how he got into the tunnel?
Suppose he doesn't remember anything between prodding the willow
 with a stick,to see if Sirius was by some chance telling the truth, 
and seeing the werewolf at the end  of the tunnel?

That 'end of the tunnel' bit has always puzzled me. Lupin says that
Snape was heading toward the shack, and if he'd got there he'd have
met Remus. So how was it that Snape only saw Remus at the Willow end? 
If Snape had heard Remus coming for him down the tunnel, wouldn't
 he have run, making James's rescue effort unnecessary?

There's some canon that the wizards believe shock can cause amnesia.
Lockhart tells the boys that people will believe they lost their
memories at the sight of Ginny's mangled body. It's not too dissimilar
 to some old-fashioned RL beliefs about insanity: no nineteenth
century novel was complete without a mad scene, generally brought
 about by shock. 

In that case, Dumbledore wouldn't be able to tell whether Snape's
memory loss was the aftereffect of some befuddlement spell that had
caused him to enter the tunnel, or whether Snape had entered the
 tunnel of his own volition, and lost his memory at the shock of
seeing Remus transformed. 

Then Dumbledore would simply be reminding Snape that in the absence
 of evidence proving guilt, Sirius must be regarded as innocent. 
This has excellent possibilities.  It would be much more dramatic to
reveal the truth by having Harry solve a mystery than by having
someone tell him. He could also suspect that Snape actually did know
something that would exonerate Sirius and was using occlumency to
hide it from Dumbledore.

Personally, I think Snape *was* magicked into entering the tunnel,
but I can think of  reasons he might have done so of his own volition.
Snape might not have needed much excuse;curiosity has taken common
sense to the mat more than once in the Potter books, especially
where teenage boys are concerned. Harry stuck his nose into Snape's
pensieve despite the fact that he knew he was being an idiot to do
it. 

There's also the possibility that Snape thought it was all a bluff:
They're trying to make me think there's a werewolf in there so that
 I'll wet myself and run away screaming and they can have a good
laugh at my expense. Sort of like Draco's trick with the fake
dementors.

Or maybe the Marauders were always teasing Snape for looking like he
 was part vampire (whether he actually was or not) and the
possibility  of being able to come back with, "I wouldn't talk,
werewolf!" was too tempting to ignore.

As to how James found out, Sirius isn't the only source. Snape might
 also have told someone. I like to think it was Lily, but Snape could
have just bragged to his mates that he'd been told how to freeze
 the willow's branches,and when the word got around James  put two 
and two together. 

Pippin