Understanding Snape

[fair wynn]

No: HPFGUIDX 153913

>
>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.

wynnleaf

I read this over again recently.  Lupin could only see the beginning of the 
tunnel under the whomping willow.  So Snape would only have seen Lupin going 
down the tunnel and then ran after him.  Of course, he knew where the tunnel 
went.  His suspicions all along had been that Lupin was helping Sirius, so 
that explains his first running to follow Lupin.

After he got to the entrance to the tree, he found Harry's invisibility 
cloak.  Then he knew that Harry (and likely friends) were also down in the 
tunnel.  It was at that point that he knew that he was running after both a 
werewolf about to transform without wolfsbane, 1 or more students, and 
possibly (according to what he'd been suspecting) Sirius -- considered a 
known mass murderer.

Anyway, he would not ever have been able to see Ron, Black and Pettigrew on 
the map, because they were already at the Shrieking Shack -- well off the 
map.  Later, at the Shrieking Shack, he was either not there or unconscious 
during all mentions of Pettigrew being alive and explanations of Sirius' 
innocence.  All he would have known was that he ran into a room with one 
student apparently mauled with a broken leg, and students holding Sirius 
(and perhaps Lupin) at bay, but listening to some long explanation by Lupin 
about them being animagis.  This would have confirmed his belief that Lupin 
was withholding vital information throughout the year (which of course he 
was).  So Lupin looked more culpable than ever to Snape.  And Ron's injury 
certainly made it look like someone (not Harry or Hermione) had really 
roughed him up.  The only candidates for that would have been Sirius or 
Lupin -- most likely Sirius, since in following Lupin down the tunnel, Snape 
would have known that Lupin didn't have the time to injure Ron.

Hard to blame Snape for later thinking the students must have been confunded 
to think that Sirius was innocent.

wynnleaf