Werewolf Mystery

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 153850

Allie 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.
>
Carol responds:
 And yet, if it matters to the plot, it won't matter to JKR that it's,
shall we say, inconsistent. (Look at Lupin's transformation in that
same chapter; he should have transformed when the moon rose, not when
it peeped out from behind a cloud.)

Both Snape and Dumbledore believe that James saved Severus's life, and
even if he didn't, he saved him from a fate worse than death. Even if
a Life Debt isn't a binding magical contract (and if it were,
shouldn't Wormtail have been magically compelled to save Harry in the
graveyard scene rather than tying him up, taking his blood, and
allowing LV to cast an AK at him?), it appears to be *psychologically*
binding in Snape's case. He views it, as far as I can see, as a debt
of honor. And he has yet to stop trying to save Harry, even after the
murder of Dumbledore.

I think that he tried to save James, though he hated him, because he
felt or believed that he owed him his life. He tried to save Lily for
other reasons, perhaps remorse for putting her in danger by revealing
the Prophecy to Voldemort. And he continues to try to save Harry in
part to make up for those past failures.

So while a magically compelling Life Debt does not seem to be the
reason Snape acts as he does, I don't think we can rule out a
psychologically compelling debt of honor as one among several, perhaps
many, reasons, why Snape "returned to our side" and continued to risk
his life--and now, his freedom, his reputation, and his very soul--for
Dumbledore.

Carol, who thinks that if it's important to the plot, it will appear
in Book 7, Flint or no Flint