Prank question - Lupin wanted Snape DEAD?

[Wolf Xavier]

No: HPFGUIDX 154178

Pippin:
  "As I've said many times, Lupin is the one Marauder with a good
enough motive to want Snape dead. Once you realize that James
and Sirius weren't going to want to stop running with the werewolf
just because Snape had spied out Lupin's hiding place, you can
see how precarious Lupin's position had become. The added 
risk would only have made it more fun for Sirius and James. But
Lupin knew what would happen to his animagi friends if they 
were caught with him. He had to act."

  
  I MAY be misunderstanding you.  If so, please forgive me.  
  Given that Lupin's situation is known (not by the public at large, but in the Ministry records and by the Headmaster at Hogwarts), getting caught would really just mean that public outcry would force Lupin into some sort of home-school or alternative education program (if such exists).
  AND, it's not like being an unregistered animagus would mean being chucked into Azkaban or even immediate expulsion at thier age (I wouldn't THINK, given the other shenanigans that go on at that school).  Likely, registration and a public slaps on the wrists (with some private pats on the back for accomplishing such advanced magic) would be the result.  With that in mind, we Muggles could probably equate it to losing a scholarship and catching other students smoking their own personally grown high quality TOBACCO in a secret location.  I cannot imagine that someone like Remus Lupin seeing those as reasons to even jokingly entertain the thought of murder.
  -Wolf