Werewolf Mystery

[Peggy Richter]

No: HPFGUIDX 153808

 "lanval1015" wrote: If werewolves do NOT as a rule attack to kill 
(note that Harry  is 'shocked' at the idea), then the entire story 
about Snape owing a  life debt to James falls apart. Snape's 
life 'may' still have been in  danger, but if most of Greyback's 
little victims -- unarmed,  untrained, unaware and fragile-- survive, 
and are in fact _expected_  to survive... then surely a sixteen year 
old wizard, armed with a  wand and an astounding knowledge of spells 
for his age, who quite  possibly knew what he was about to face, 
shouldn't have much to fear?

 Alli wrote:  You are absolutely right.  If the common perception that 
werewolf  bites are not fatal is correct, then Snape doesn't owe James 
a life- debt.  I suspect that what we are dealing with is a big, 
HUGE...  Flint.  I don't think more will be made of it in book 7.

PAR: OR, Snape wasn't in danger from LUPIN.  I haven't seen anywhere 
in cannon that it is stated that Lupin was the real threat.  It's 
clear that Snape thinks so, but what if there were a SECOND werewolf 
(like greyback) there that night? Or even something else like a giant 
spider?  A second werewolf however, might be very clever, as Snape 
might not recognize that Lupin wasn't the one actually attacking.  In 
POA, Hermione actually ASKS: " What if you'd given the others the 
slip, and bitten somebody?".  Bitten somebody. Not killed somebody.  
And Lupin in answer says "thre were near misses, many of them.  We 
laughed about them afterward".  Not the response one might make to "I 
almost killed people" And in describing the "prank" "if he'd got as 
far as this house, he'd have met a fully grown werewolf -- but your 
father, who'd heard what Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled 
him back, at great risk to his life..."  -- but Lupin doesn't say that 
the risk to James' life was from LUPIN.  He doesn't say that he would 
have attacked James as well as Snape, which is what would have been 
necessary for James' life to be in danger from Lupin.  And when Lupin 
is leaving he explains " They will not want a werewolf teaching their 
children, Harry.  and after last night, I see their point.  I could 
have bitten any of you..." -- again, BITTEN, not killed.  So it would 
appear, as many have suggested, that there is more to the "Prank" than 
appears on the surface.  My guess is that the threat to Snape AND the 
one to James' life were NOT from Lupin.  It's quite true that Lupin 
might have bitten Snape (making him a werewolf) and that Snape saw 
Lupin as a werewolf.  And this works with DD's statement that "my 
memory is as good as ever."  when Snape brings up that Sirius tried to 
kill him.  --- because if the "prank" wasn't intended to kill but it 
simply turned OUT to be a life-threatening incident, it puts a whole 
different spin on James, Lupin and Sirius.  And it makes one wonder if 
the betrayal of the Potters was Peter's FIRST betrayal or if in fact, 
there had been something "not quite right" during Peter's school days.

PAR.