The Prank in DH / Life Debt

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 167346

Steve:
> Sorry to cut everything, but I think Carol makes a good
> basic point - we don't know. We don't know exactly what
> Sirius said to get Snape to enter the Whomping Willow.
> We don't know what James did to save him. But /I/ do
> know that people are making this a much bigger deal than
> it really is.

Pippin:
This reminds me of the arguments made before HBP that
Harry was going to outgrow his childish conflicts with
Snape and Draco, and those characters would then recede
into the background of the story. Face it, if JKR left
it till Book Seven to resolve, it's important. The childish
conflict between the Marauders and Snape didn't go
away, it escalated and continues to do so. So far, the
casualties are two dead, one hapless slave, one fugitive
and one social outcast. 

I think she's going to want us to know how the escalation 
started. The conflict as we saw it in the Pensieve didn't seem 
to be so intense -- James may offer to pants Snape, but he's 
not about to kill him. And Snape doesn't seem to be in mortal 
terror  -- if he was, he wouldn't have told Lily he didn't need
her help. Nor does he try a really damaging curse like Incendio. 

This was  a stylized conflict, as ritualized
as the TWT or a Quidditch game, though the rules were those
devised by children for their own purposes.

No one denies that the prank put Snape in mortal danger. We need to 
know whether that was just an unintentional result of the usual 
student mischief, and Snape is being oversensitive, or it was
a real attempt at murder, something outside the boundaries
of normal student rivalry at Hogwarts.

 JKR has hinted there was more behind it than mutual loathing, but 
we don't know what. I don't think she can make a big mystery out of 
that and then have the answer be 'more of the same.'

The conversation Harry has with Sirius and Lupin tells against it.
They say that in seventh year, Snape was hexing James every chance
he got and naturally James wouldn't stand for it. But if that was 
already the case in fifth year, why didn't they say so? But no,
according to them they were just idiots and berks who 
hexed everybody, not just Snape.

Steve:
> Next, Snape is not guiltless.It was crystal clear from 
>circumstances, that the Headmaster did not want anyone
> going into the Whomping Willow.

Pippin:
I think you are forgetting that the Marauders were wizards.
To paraphrase Dumbledore, can you think of any measure 
that the Marauders might have taken to make Snape forgetful 
of school rules and his own safety, and pursue Lupin into the 
willow?

He may well have been as guiltless as Madame Rosmerta.
If Snape resisted rescue, perhaps it was because he was
ensorcelled, as blindly drawn towards the werewolf as Ron
was to the brains at the MoM.


Pippin