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

[phoenixgod2000]

No: HPFGUIDX 135985


 
> Christina:
> 
> Why not?  If Snape knew that Lupin was a werewolf, I think the 
*first*
> thing he would do would be to march right up to the Marauders and 
say,
> "Guess what, guys, I know your little secret, and you'd better stay
> out of my face or I'll tell the whole school and anyone else who'll
> listen."  Or better yet, he might make some kind of offhand 
comment to
> another Slytherin, "Hey, did you notice that the Lupin kid is 
always
> sick at the full moon?" and bam, that kid talks to some other kids 
and
> figures it out, or mentions it to his parents and that's the end of
> Lupin at Hogwarts--and nobody could even trace it back to Snape!  
Even
> *better*--Snape prints out hundreds of "The Lupin kid's a werewolf"
> flyers and stealthly scatters them around the school.  Lupin's 
secret
> is out, Snape gets to snicker in his little corner at the downfall 
of
> the Marauders, and Snape escapes any sort of punishment.  I find it
> impossible to believe that Snape would sit on such juicy 
information
> (about his enemies, no less) from his own free will.

I think the reason why Snape wouldn't use those tactics is that they 
are too anonymous.  Snape is someone who is obsessed with seeming 
powerful in front of others. He practically salivated over the 
thought of getting a medal in PoA, the way he derives enjoyment from 
lording his power over students, the way he reacts to the word 
coward, the way he insists on 'Professor' being every third word out 
of students mouth, it all points to someone who has serious 
status/control/power issues. Now imagine that person as an arrogant 
teenager and is it a huge stretch of the imagination to believe that 
he would go after the werewolf, seeking to either kill or capture 
it? Imagine the personal glory, imagine the name he would make for 
himself, imagine the response he would get from the other students. 
Even more so if the werewolf was one of your hated bullys.  I think 
Snape would much rather go after Lupin personally than using 
anonymous methods that won't garner any accolades.

His ego wouldn't allow anything else.

phoenixgod2000