Boggart Snape (was:Re: Snape Wars vs Ship Wars...)

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 144710

Pippin: 
> IMO, if Snape is a murderer, the boggart lesson in PoA loses    
> both its humor and its point. Murderers are not funny, even if   
> they are wearing silly clothes, and if a murderer is threatening 
> you, imagining that he has silly clothes on is not going to      
> help. On the other hand, if you are afraid of someone because    
> they always make you look stupid, then imagining that they look 
> stupid too is golden. 

Jen: If I take the scene outside the story, thinking JKR wrote that 
lesson knowing Snape would actually turn out to be a murderer, it 
might make me think twice for a moment. But within the story, that 
moment is fixed in time. If we were to get more information about 
the lesson, say Lupin really believed Snape was not just nasty but 
dangerous, then the lesson would take on a new slant. Inside the 
story, future events aren't able to color a past scene, only 
discovering different information about the scene can do that. If 
Snape were to kill Neville or even another student later on, Lupin 
might kick himself for helping Neville laugh at what turned out to 
be an actual threat. But hindsight is 20/20.


Unless you are talking about ESE!Lupin here, that Lupin did know 
more than he let on about Snape's past? ESE!Lupin would change the 
boggart lesson for me unequivocally, more than finding out Snape 
turned out to be a murderer several years in the future. Because 
that would change the lesson into Lupin taking advantage of the 
students, pretending to help them with their fears but being an 
imposter. Sort of like re-reading GOF knowing Moody was Crouch. 

Betsy Hp:
> I've been thinking about this, and I think I understand what
> Pippin is driving at.  It's that what Neville is taught in the
> boggart scene is not only wrong, if Snape is ESE or OFH, it's down
> right dangerous.  

Jen: Only if someone in the scene has reason to believe Snape will 
be a dangerous murderer, IMO, or that he is actully still working 
for Voldemort. Otherwise we are giving the characters more 
information than they had at the time of the scene.

Betsyhp:
> So if JKR means for Snape to be an actual danger, someone who'd 
> hurt or kill a student, teaching Neville to *laugh* at him is 
> irresponsible.  Like a parent telling their child to picture a  
> kidnapper in a clown outfit, rather than, you know, run.

Jen: I guess if what Snape said in Chap. 2 about not killing Harry 
only because he was under Dumbledore's nose is true, then I would 
agree with you. But I think that was a whopper of a lie. I think 
Snape wanted Harry expelled, yes, but dead at his hands? No. Not 
even OFH!Snape would want that since Harry is the One. I don't think 
you buy that one either. 

Jen, thinking the lesson may take on a bittersweet quality for her 
during a re-read if Neville or Lupin dies in Book 7.