Understanding Snape

[Tara Tierney]

No: HPFGUIDX 153897

wynnleaf wrote:
> At the end of POA, when Snape runs from Lupin's office to the
> Whomping Willow, he knew that he was going alone to face Sirius --
> thought to be a possibly insane murderer of 13 -- and Lupin who
> hadn't taken his Wolfsbane potion and was about to transform.  Yet
> Snape goes anyway. Of course, a "good" Snape might be going to help
> the children.  A "bad" Snape might be going to take advantage of an
> opportunity to do away with both Sirius and Lupin.  And a "playing
> both sides" Snape might be doing the same, since he hated Sirius.
>
> But actually, it makes almost no sense for Snape to put his life at
> such great risk from both Sirius and especially Lupin, solely to
> take an opportunity to capture or kill a hated school-time rival.
> The degree of risk that Snape willingly takes on can only be
> explained by his seeing that the "benefit" of his action was equal
> to or outweighed the risk of his own life.  And what could be worth
> the substantial risk to his life?  I can't see a "for self only"
> Snape considering that the capture of Sirius was worth the risk of
> his own life at the teeth and claws of a werewolf.  Nor can I see
> why a "working for Voldemort" Snape would consider it worth that
> risk either.  The only thing that I can see that could be
> considered worth the risk Snape took, would be if Snape was on the
> good side and was attempting to save the lives of three others (the
> children).


Lunasa:
Right... Okay... I could be wrong, but for some reason I've always
read that scene as Lupin's sitting at his desk waiting for Snape to
come with the potion, he takes out the map and gets a huge shock by
seeing that Harry, Ron and Hermione are in the Shack with Black
and... Dun dun! Dead of 13 years Peter Pettigrew! Lupin then gets up
and heads off to the Shack. Snape then comes to Lupin's office, sets
the Potion down plans on waiting for Lupin to make sure he drinks it,
spots the map, looks at it, sees Potter and his gang in the Shack with Black and a dead man! And then he spots Lupin on his way to the
Shack, probably looks out the window and sees Lupin on his way
there! He knows it's the night of a full moon and goes after him - To
stop him. And then get Black.  Well, that could just be me becasue Lupin came in after Harry and Hermione and then Snape came in. But again I could be wrong.

But anyway, Snape would still have seen Pettigrew's name on the map. What exactly would he thought of that? I mean, the mere fact that Pettigrew is alive proves Sirius didn't kill him! He's not going anywhere to intercept a insane murderer when he Snape has proof in front of him that Pettigrew isn't dead. And perhaps they spent longer in the Shack then seems obvious, perhaps it was quite early in the day when Lupin went, he must know it's a full moon and he wouldn't go out of his way to put the kids at risk.