Wormtail

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 150505

Sherrie wrote:
>  
> I always had the feeling that he DID recognize at least one of the
names -  that was why he summoned Lupin, and made those pointed
remarks about "directly  from the manufacturers": he knew that "Moony"
referred to Lupin, & could  therefore infer, if he didn't already
know, that the other names referred to  Lupin's friends. <snip>

Carol responds:
Agreed. One additional point: Snape doesn't argue when Lupin says,
"I'll take this *back*, shall I?" (PoA Am. ed. 289, my italics). Back?
When was the map in Lupin's possession that the first-time reader is
aware of? Certainly not in PoA. But Snape agrees, under the pretense
that he wants Lupin to check out the parchment for Dark magic (which
he could certainly have done himself if that were his real motive).
The map insulted him in exactly the terms that MWPP would have used. I
think he knows exactly who the four manufacturers were even if he
doesn't know which is which. And it's immediately after the four
makers insult him that he summmons Lupin. Rather than punishing Harry
"Harry waited for the blow to fall"), he merely says softly, "We'll
see about this," and astounds Harry by seizing a handful of Floo
powder and tossing it into the fire, shouting "Lupin, I want a word!"
(287). And Lupin comes. 

I think Snape knows for sure who the makers are and suspects that it's
a map as well. Or at least he's on the right track with "instructions
on how to get into Hogsmeade without passing the Dementors" (286)--and
that's *before* he sees the names on the parchment. Once he sees the
names, he puts two and two together rapidly and summons Moony, knowing
quite well that he's one of the makers but not wanting Harry to know.
Neither, of course, does Lupin. The two adults are, IMO, conspiring to
conceal that information from Harry. But why?

I think, for one thing, that Snape is in no position to say to Harry,
"The names on this parchment refer to your father, Sirius Black,
Professor Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, who were a group of
troublemakers when I was in school. Whatever this parchment is, it was
an aid to their mischief." Harry quite simply won't believe him. His
main goal right now, I think, is simply to get the parchment out of
Harry's hands, a goal that's accomplished by returning the parchment
to Lupin. Either that or Snape knows that it's Lupin's and can't
dispute his right to have it. He is also keeping his promise to
Dumbledore not to reveal Lupin's secret, which would certainly come
out if Harry knew that Lupin was Moony. Snape, I believe, has his own
code of honor and he is acting on it here.

Also, in giving the parchment *back* to Lupin, he puts the
responsibility of turning it in to Dumbledore on Lupin's shoulders.
And his not turning it in confirms Snape's suspicions that Lupin is
"up to no good." (And of course if Lupin had turned it in as he should
have done, he wouldn't have seen PP being dragged into the tunnel in
Ron's pocket and gone rushing out on a full moon night without his
potion, but that's beyond Snape's vision.)

I don't think, BTW, that the nickname Wormtail was common knowledge
among the DEs before or after Snape began teaching at Hogwarts. Bella
may have known it and told it to her groupies (the Lestrange brothers
and Barty Jr.) after LV's vaporization, but I don't think the others
knew about the "traitor" who ostensibly tricked LV into vaporizing
himself until after Bella noised it around Azkaban. Snape clearly doesn't.

Throughout PoA, Snape thinks (with good reason) that Sirius Black is
the spy/Betrayer of the Potters (and possibly the SK as well, if DD
told him about the Fidelius Charm) and that Lupin is helping the
"murderer" into Hogwarts. Like everyone else except Black, he thinks
that Pettigrew is dead, murdered by Sirius Black, who had (in Snape's
view) shown himself capable of murder at sixteen. Nor does Snape know
that WPP are Animagi, a story he first hears in the Shrieking Shack.
But that doesn't mean he's never heard the Marauders calling each
other by their nicknames or that he doesn't know, after the so-called
Prank, exactly who Moony is and how he got that nickname. I believe he
calls Lupin into his office knowing full well who made the parchment
and that Lupin knows that Snape knows. He and Snape are talking over
Harry's head for the remainder of the scene.

Carol, still wondering how being an Animagus helped Black to get into
the castle (as opposed to the grounds) since there's no link from the
tunnel into the school itself