Sirius Black: PoA Quote

[sbursztynski]

No: HPFGUIDX 135727

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "vmonte" <vmonte at y...> wrote:
> Page 370, U.S. paperback edition
> 
> Sirius to Peter:
> "I'll tell you why," said Black. "Because you never did anything
for 
> anyone unless you could see what was in it for you. Voldemort's
been 
> in hiding for fifteen years, they say he's half dead. You weren't 
> about to commit murder right under Albus Dumbledore's nose, for a 
> wreck of a wizard who'd lost all of his power, were you? You'd want
to 
> be quite sure he was the biggest bully in the playground before you 
> went back to him, wouldn't you? Why else did you find a wizard
family 
> to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren't you, Peter?
Just 
> in case your old protector regained strength, and it was safe to 
> rejoin him..."
> 
> vmonte:
> Did Snape switch sides because he realized that Dumbledore was on
his 
> last legs?
> 
> Vivian


Sue:

Or did he switch sides at all? We still don't know whose side he is
on and we will be 
arguing about this for two years till JKR tells us, once and for all. 

If your implication, here, is that Snape is a coward like Peter, I
beg to differ. Whatever we 
think of him - and I sure wouldn't want him as my teacher if I was a
teenager , I was too 
much like Hermione - he isn't a coward, IMO. Whoever he is working
for, he has been in 
enormous danger - double agents always are. When he left for his
mission at the end of 
GoF, we all suspected he was going to have to go back and persuade LV
he was really 
working for him - a LV who might well zap him immediately, without
bothering to ask 
questions. While DD wouldn't kill a Snape who turned out to be a
double agent for the 
enemy, he would probably end up in Azkaban - an Azkaban guarded by
Dementors until 
recently. I wouldn't be in his place for millions!

There is also his clear contempt for Peter - yes, Peter was one of
the Gang of Four which 
tormented the young Snape, but the impression I got was that the
contempt was as much 
for his cowardice as anything else.