Harry's detention - James saved Snape's life incident

[colebiancardi]

No: HPFGUIDX 135954

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sherry Gomes" <sherriola at e...>
wrote:
> > bboyminn:
> >
> > Why was it a crime? Why was it attempted murder? Sirius didn't throw
> > Snape to the 'wolves'. Snape went by his own choice and of his own
> > accord knowing full well that he was acting against the wishes of the
> > administration. All Sirius did was tell him how to get past the
> > Whomping Willow. How is that a crime?
> >
>
this was my post(colebiancardi - original)
> Because Sirius KNEW that Lupin was dangerous. Snape did not. I
> quoted the passage from Lupin, because EVEN Lupin knew it could have
> killed both Snape & James. James saved Snape's life, at great risk to
> his own....Hence, the life-debt that Snape owed James. Those things
> aren't given out lightly. Sirius set up Snape - he knew Snape would
> go looking. True, Snape didn't HAVE to go, he could have stayed in
> his dorm. But Sirius knew that Snape would go - he taunted him -
> probably even called him coward. And we know what 16 year old boys
> are like - hell, even some grown men & women have issues being called
> a coward. Snape wanted to know what Lupin was up to - he did not
> know that Lupin was a werewolf. If he had known, he wouldn't have
> gone. I don't think it even crossed his mind that Sirius would go so
> low as to *murder* him. Perhaps Sirius didn't think that Snape would
> get hurt - perhaps he thought as you have posted - Snape has his wand,
> knows magic, and so forth. But, remember, even the MMPPW couldn't
> face Lupin as themselves when Lupin turned into a werewolf. They had
> to go to their animal forms. Snape, as far as we know, is not an
> Animagus.
>
>
>
>
> Sherry now:
>
> You are forgetting the infamous pensive scene. The one Harry saw,
>when he shouldn't have. That took place in fifth year, and since
the >so called prank happened when they were 16, it is most likely in
the >sixth year. In the pensive scene, Snape's memory, the marauders
are >talking about Lupin being a werewolf. There's no way Snape
didn't >know it, or at least guess.

have to disagree - there were other things in that scene - such as
James writing on his paper the initials LE - that Snape would not have
known about. In the book OotP, "Harry mananged to keep Snape in sight
while straining his ears to catch the voices of James and his friends".

Snape was busy, "absorbed in his own examination paper". I doubt he
heard the gang.


>Sirius was wrong, but he was guilty of >
>being a reckless brash teenage boy, not a murderer.

yeah, a reckless brash teenage boy who had murder on his mind, it
seems. Why else taunt Snape to go after Lupin? Why didn't he tell
Snape that Lupin was a werewolf? You think that if Snape emerged from
his little jaunt to the WW and having a cup of tea with wolfy Lupin,
that would not have gotten someone kicked out of school? Like Lupin,
the werewolf? Do you think that Sirius intended Snape to discover the
secret and not have Snape killed or turned into a wolfy himself? The
news about Lupin would have been shot around the WW, if Snape had
emerged unharmed and if James hadn't saved him. The fact that James
saved Snape's life is the only reason why Lupin's secret didn't get
out. DD made Snape promise not to speak a word of it, and I am sure
the life-debt had a lot to do with it. sure, Sirius is *lacking* in
judgement, but how many 16 year olds do you know would put someone up
to a *prank* that could have ended horrifically, and not just for
Snape, but for Lupin and James, as well.

I am not saying that the deeds that *adult* Snape did weren't worse
than Sirius's *prank* (and I am sure they were much worse), but
*teenage* Snape, even with all of his hexes & curses (hey, Ginny does
her infamous bogey-bat curse all the time, it seems), does not seem to
deserve this type of treatment, based on what we have seen.  Sure,
Snape hates MMPPW, but it seems that he was ganged up on by them quite
a bit.  and 4 to 1 odds don't look good for MMPPW, as that makes them
out to be bullies.   


colebiancardi