Nice vs. Good, honesty, and Snape/

[leslie41]

No: HPFGUIDX 153017

> 
> Alla:
> 
> No, I am not ignoring the fact that Snape heard Black 
> saying "serves him right", I just think that since not everything 
> is clear on what happened that night, it is also not clear that 
> because of those words Snape should send Black to be Dementors' 
> food.
> 
> But since you are insisting so much on it, let's examine what ELSE 
> Snape may have heard, shall we?
> You see, despite the conventional wisdom that Snape enters the 
> stage at this moment of the story, we cannot be sure of it, can't 
> we?
> 
> "Lupin broke off. There had been a loud creak behind him. The 
> bedroom door had opened of its own accord. All five of them stared 
> at it" - PoA, p.352
> 
> Snape can move without any noise, so it is perfectly reasonable 
> that he was standing here for a while and the door opened of its 
> own accord as it states, IMO.

Leslie41:
Nope.  Not reasonable.  That's what I'd call "grasping at straws."  
But even if we say you are right, most of what Snape hears is 
Hermione saying, over and over again, "don't trust him."  And some 
weird notion that Ron's rat is Peter Pettigrew.  Even Black doesn't 
deny that he killed Harry's parents.  All he suggests is that 
there's more to the story. 

If we look carefully at what Snape heard after the door opened, when 
there was "no one" there (which is, according to logic and reason, 
the place where Rowling wants us to know Snape started listening), 
what Snape learned was that the Marauders became unregistered 
animagi who actually went roaming about with a werewolf on Hogwarts 
grounds once a month.  

Even Harry says "what if you'd bitten somebody?"

Well, the merry pranksters weren't thinking about that, were they?  
Though they were the smartest students at school, it never occurred 
to them that galumphing around with a werewolf might, oh...HURT 
someone.  Lupin admits that there were "near misses, many of them," 
which the Marauders actually LAUGHED about.

Er, are you paying attention here, Alla, as to what Lupin is 
admitting to?  What Sirius and James were guilty of as well?  Every 
month they willfully endangered the entire population of Hogwarts, 
along with anyone else they might have run into, because they felt 
like having a bit of fun, and breaking the rules.  

Snape is paying attention, that's for sure.  Snape's not one, as we 
know, for breaking rules.  

Lupin also tells them, of course, that Dumbledore is the man 
responsible for allowing Lupin to go to school.  That Dumbledore 
went to great lengths to arrange for it, including setting up the 
Shrieking Shack and the Whomping Willow.  And to his credit Lupin 
admits to feeling guilty about betraying Dumbledore's trust.  

But you'll note that Lupin was not guilty enough to stop the funny 
business every month.  Nor was he guilty enough to tell Dumbledore 
that Black was an unregistered animagus.

"...he had no idea I was breaking the rules he had set down for my 
own and others' safety," Lupin says.  And "I always managed to 
forget my guilty feelings every time we sat down to plan our next 
month's adventure.  And I haven't changed..."

He also says "Snape's been right about me all along." I'm not trying 
to demonize Lupin here, whom I like very much.  He's not evil.  But 
he was thoughtless, and weak.   

It's then that Black says "It served him right," regarding the prank.

Hate Snape all you like, and blame him for what you will.  But you 
are absolutely not going to win this one on the basis of the FACTS 
evident in CANON.