Sirius and Prank again? Fools Rush in where Wisemen Fear to Go

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 129918

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214"
<dumbledore11214 at y...> wrote:

> Bboyminn:
> 
> I have to believe you can see the moral difference in these cases, 
> and further have to believe you can see the degree of shift in 
> blame. In no case is anyone blameless, but in the first two cases, 
> a greater share of the blame falls on Snape.


> a_svirn:
> You mean that Snape deserved to be eaten or bitten by a werewolf 
> because he was a slimy Slytherin busybody?

 
> Alla:
> 
> I am really hesitant to speak for Steve, but I think he meant that
> IF Snape went to the tunnel on his own and we have NO indication as 
> far as I can remember that Sirius tied him up and dragged him to the
> Shack, THEN Snape was at least very stupid to do so.
> 
> It does not mean that he deserved to be provoked to go there, but
> again as far as we know nobody forced him to. Am I being confusing? 
> Sirius may as well have an intent to send Snape there, but if he was
> warned about danger beforehand, the story becomes  a bit different.
> 
> Just speculating here of course.
> 
> Alla.

bboyminn:

Thank you, Alla, you are absolutely right. 

First, in none of my scenarios or in my posts have I ever said that
Sirius bore NO responsibility, because he does. But Snape made a
choice, he made a choice to override a security measure that was
obviously put in place for his protection; the Whomping Willow.
Further, you can't convince me that Snape didn't logically conclude
that the Headmaster did not want students going near that tree or
tunnel, and most certainly did not want students entering the tunnel.
Snape made a conscious choice to put himself in harms way and to go
against the rules put in place to protect him. Snape bares some
responsibility.

As Alla pointed out, Sirius did not tie Snape up and throw him into a
dean of werewolfs. Snape went of his own free will.

I realized that my scenario titles were messed up a bit, 'Reverse
Psychology' and 'I told you so' are the same one; it's 'Reverse
Psychology' and 'Eavesdropping'. In those cases Sirius simply made
somewhat neurtal information available and Snape made a choice to use it. 

In the 'Lily Ploy', Sirius is much more cold and claculated in his
actions. In the first two, he uses truth to entice Snape, but in the
third, he really tricks Snape into going by giving him false
information specifically and directly intended to cause Snape to enter
the tunnel. That's measurably closer to tying him up and throwing him
to the wolves than the first two. 

In the third case, Snape still makes his own choice to go. He still
does something that any reasonable person would conclude has an
element of danger, and he still knows he is acting against the Headmaster.

So, in all cases, there is blame for both, but the balances of that
blame shifts depending on the circumstances, and that is the very
point I am trying to make. We don't know what happened, though we can
fairly conclude that Sirius's actions were wrong, we have only Snape's
word that they constituded anything close to intended /murder/. And
once again, in no case is Snape without guilt of his own. 

Snape made a conscious choice to do something that is both wrong and
logically dangerous. He chose to put himself in harms way. Let me
conclude by re-enforcing the point that no matter how much guilt may
belong to Snape, it doesn't absolve Sirius's action. 

Also, Sirius's continued bad attitude toward the incident is easy
enough to understand since it is long after the fact, and Snape was
never truly harm; well, his ego might have been harmed, but he wasn't
physically hurt.

In simpliest terms, there is a difference between throwing someone
into a dean of wolves, and simply telling him where the dean is.

That's all I'm trying to say.

Steve/bboyminn