McGonagall and Lupin's reaction to Harry's story (Was: It's over, Snape is evil

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 138495

Alla wrote:
> As others suggested, the fact that all Order Members turned out on 
> him REALLY fast makes it very hard for Snape to pass the information 
> to the Order.

Carol responds:
Sorry for the ruthless snipping, Alla, but I also noticed the very
swift turning against Snape--suspiciously fast, in fact, almost as if
it were planned and they were in on some secret that they were keeping
from Harry, as if they were acting. Slughorn (not an Order member) was
the only one to have anything like a natural reaction. ("I taught him.
I thought I knew him.") 

The rest, even Lupin, who has always attempted to be reasonable and
fair about Snape ("I neither like nor dislike Severus but he made the
wolfbane potion and he made it perfectly") suddenly acts as if he's
known or suspected all along that Snape was never loyal to Dumbledore.
McGonagall does the same thing, essentially, "Well, what do you
expect, with his background?" And yet she taught young Severus Snape
for seven years, worked with him as a fellow teacher and fellow Head
of House for fifteen years, worked with him to help expose Barty
Crouch, followed his lead in exposing Lockhart, on and on. All of
their conversations in the books have been civil, almost friendly. 

And yet, in marked contrast to Hagrid, who protests that Harry is
mistaken about Snape until he actually sees Dumbledore's body, she
immediately starts making excuses for why she trusted Snape
(Dumbledore always said he had an ironclad reason for trusting Snape).
And when Harry gives the supposed reason, worded rather differently
from Dumbledore's version (which is still quite possibly not the real
or complete reason), they immediately see Dumbledore as something very
like what Draco calls "You stupid old man." On the whole, they're
acting exactly like the villagers in "The Riddle House" in GoF: "I
always knew that Frank Bryce couldn't be trusted."

What exactly is going on here? Why would they turn so quickly against
a fellow Order member whom Dumbledore trusted so implicitly? Not one
of them seems to think that there might be more to it, that Snape
might have been trapped into comiting murder or that he might have
been protecting Draco. They all assume the worst: premeditated murder
and treason. It's just too quick. They should question it as Hagrid
did and remember things about Snape that make them question this
abrupt change from extremely cunning spy or double agent to DE
murderer. Not one of them seems to see that such a move is completely
out of character for Snape, who never gives away his position--and who
works, always, through words instead of actions (even as he parries
Harry's curses in a scene they don't know about).

I don't like it. It makes me wonder if Lupin turned against Sirius
Black equally quickly when fifty witnesses testified that they saw him
commit murder.

I'm not concerned here with the complex question of Snape's motives
and the degree to which he's guilty. I just don't understand this
unnatural reaction on the part of everyone except Hagrid and Slughorn.

Don't they know that the natural first response when a colleague is
accused of murder is "It can't be true!"?

Maybe some of them know more than they're telling Harry. Or maybe JKR
is setting them up for a surprise when their facile acceptance of
Harry's Evil!Snape story turns out to have been at least partially
unfounded.

Maybe, it's only an indication that no one in the Order trusts Snape,
and, as Alla points out, he's going to have a very hard time passing
them the information he will certainly be in a position to collect. Or
maybe it's just to show that nobody trusts him, period. We've already
seen Bellatrix's doubts, which stand in for those of Voldemort and the
DEs who whisper behind Snape's back. We've also seen Draco's for what
they're worth. The first two suspect (with some justification) that
Snape is loyal to Dumbledore; Draco (being a bit confused in his
priorities and not the best judge of people) thinks that Snape is
after his "glory." Snape, of course, is now in a position to
(seemingly) prove Bellatrix wrong. But if we look closely at
"Spinner's End," we can see that Snape is carefully deceiving her in
several important regards or telling a convenient truth ("I'm not the
Secret Keeper") that may conceal the real truth (I wouldn't tell you
if I could).

But I'm getting offtrack, sorry! I want to know if there's more to the
mass rejection of Snape by his fellow Order members than meets the
eye. Can they really suddenly think that he's always been evil after
all the risks he's taken for the Order? Is there more to this scene,
which strikes me as a false note in the narrative, than just a shared
mistrust of Snape by both sides and a very bad position for Snape if
he wants to continue working with the Order? 

Was anyone else bothered by this scene? Did anyone else feel that
McGonagall and Lupin, at least, were acting out of character?

Carol, hoping that Lupin will somehow learn about the Unbreakable Vow
and realize what would have happened to Dumbledore, Draco, and
possibly Harry if Snape had died