Ungrateful Werewolf ( Was Re: Character Given A Reprieve)

[juli17 at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 175613

 


Lanval:
And yes, he is a bit of a jerk, for defending Mulciber and  Avery,
who have performed Dark Magic on a girl. Which Lily finds MUCH  worse
than the prank (and it probably was). According to her it
was  "...evil.*Evil*, Sev!"



Julie:
The biggest problem with defending either side of this argument is that  it
is just like so many others in the HP world. We don't have enough real 
information about the Prank, or about what Dark Arts are and why they
are so much worse than your run of the mill just normally nasty ones  like
Hermione's pustules on Marietta's face (that remain uncurable for at  least
several months), or a levicorpus lifted high enough to let a wizard fall  to
his death when released from it. (No, I don't recall seeing the latter  happen
in the books, but like any curse that takes a Wizard's motor control  away,
you could easily put a Wizard in mortal danger and then just let nature  or
gravity or whatever take its course.)
 
So what makes a Dark curse dark, and makes for instance, Snape's  mildly
applied Sectumsempra to James face (if that's what it was) dark even  though
it did no real damage to James, while hexes James and Sirius performed  in
the hallways that must have hurt and humiliated as much as some of  the
darker ones Mulciber performed on students? (I say the latter because if  the
students were getting away with Dark curses, they much have been able
to contain them as mild versions of such, since they weren't getting  expelled
for using them--or if they weren't so mild, that leaves us with another  
apparent
inconsistency of Hogwarts staff looking the other way when it comes to  these
Dark curses.)
 
Switching over to the Prank, we still don't know how Sirius clued Snape in 
about the Shrieking Shack entrance, or how James found out about it,  or
how much Snape actually knew versus how what he actually expected to
find. So again we're all making our best guesses. From the canon  words
of adult Sirius and Lupin, and Dumbledore, and from Snape's pensieve
memories, here's my final theory:
 
Snape suspected Lupin was a werewolf. He went to the Shack hoping to  get
evidence to support his suspicion. He probably expected the evidence  would
lead to the Marauders getting into some sort of trouble, preferrably  
expelled.
He probably didn't suspect Lupin would be "loose" to attack him, though he 
still acted surprisingly rashly. His desire to get one up on the Marauders  no
doubt overrode his good sense.
 
Sirius resented Snape's nosiness. He found a way to "tell" Snape how to  get
into the Shrieking Shack, at a time when he knew Lupin would be  transforming.
His state of mind isn't clear, though I'll assume he expected Snape to get  
the
fright of his life, but possibly didn't think about Snape  being 
turned/killed, as this
would be horrible for Lupin (there would be no way to hide his werewolf  
status 
at that point, and if Snape died, probably no way Lupin would  emotionally
recover). Sirius gave as little forethought to how this all would  play out 
as he
did to most everything else. (And as an adult, when he said "Snape  deserved
it" I do believe he meant Snape deserved what he *got*, which was  a scare and
a threat to his life, not what Snape *might* have gotten--turned  or killed. 
Or I
chose to believe it, as there's little to go on about Sirius's true meaning  
here.)
 
James found out what was going down, presumably because Sirius told  him.
("I told Snivellus how to get into the Shrieking Shack, and  when he sees a 
full
grown werewolf, he's going to soil his dirty knickers!" "Sirius, you  didn't! 
What
were you thinking? Moony will bite him, or Merlin forbid, kill him!"  "Gee, 
that'll
be a great loss..." "What about Moony? You're about to make him a  murderer!")
 
After some such conversation (and I suspect it was more about Moony's  fate
than Snape's to get through to Sirius, though James surely didn't want to  be 
a
party to any turning or killing, nor see even a student he hated killed),  
James
went after Snape, and pulled him back out of the tunnel, proabably about  the
time Snape got a glimpse of Moony as a full werewolf. 
 
We also know that no one got expelled over the Prank though  Sirius 
deliberately
enticed Snape into a potentially lethal confrontation, and Snape was out of 
bounds against school rules (as was James, but I'd assume his purpose  was
enough to exonerate him). So there likely were punishments involved,  though
we don't know if they were of different degrees for Sirius versus  for Snape--
Sirius getting detention for the rest of the year, Snape for a month, for  
instance.
Adults Snape and Sirius are too busy hating each other (Snape certain  Sirius 
wanted to kill him, Sirius still believing Snape deserved it) to worry  about 
those
niggling details. 
 
One more thing we do know is that it *was* a deadly situation. The werewolf 
could have killed Snape, as it nearly did later in PoA with adult  
Sirius/Padfoot
out of rage. We also know because Dumbledore said James saved Snape's
life, and about that kind of thing I don't think Dumbledore would lie  
(though he
could use "saved Snape's life" in the broader sense to include Snape  being
turned as well as Snape dying).
 
So, now here is my opinion of who is more guilty. Both Sirius and  Snape
acted with malice, Sirius wanting to at least scare Snape (and possibly  not
much caring if Snape was at least turned) and deliberately enticing him  into
a harmful situation, Snape wanting to get evidence against the  Marauders,
who he'd already seen getting away scot free from various  misdemeanors.
I will also submit here that I don't see any evidence at all that Snape  
wanted
to kill Lupin, as he went in unarmed (beyond his wand) and unprepared  to
defend himself against a werewolf, let alone take one out, given that  James
had to "save" him.
 
Given the climate between the Marauders and Snape however, it is harder  for
me to blame Snape as much for wanting to get his tormenters expelled  than
it is to blame Sirius for setting up Snape deliberately to be harmed/killed  
(even
if Sirius wasn't thinking too much about all the potential consequences).  
What
Sirius did is more grave to me, and whether Snape took the bait or not,  
Sirius
deliberately laid the bait, knowing something bad would happen  (less bad or 
more
bad will depend upon each individual's interpretation).
 
Finally, what did Dumbledore say to Snape to convince him never to reveal  
that
Lupin was a werewolf? The only thing that makes sense is that  Dumbledore
told Snape he would be expelled if he told. That's the only threat that  would
work with teenage Snape, I think. Though I originally thought Dumbledore  
might
have appealed to Snape on some personal level, after DH I'm pretty sure  he
just laid down the law. They were both breaking school rules (assuming  there
is something in the rules against deliberately goading another student into 
harm's way), and either violation could get a student expelled, so  Dumbledore
just called it even. Except that he added the "no telling" restriction on  
Snape.
 
I have to add that I can see how Snape wouldn't view it as "all even."  (And
here is one of those moments where I had expected that JKR would  further
illuminate Snape's complex character, by making it clear that this  perceived 
favoritism--or quite honestly, real favoritism--of Gryffindors on  
Dumbledore's part
was what gave Snape the final push to throw his lot in with Voldemort, as  why
keep fighting futilely against a system that always favors Gryffindors?) To  
Snape
attempted murder doesn't equal attempted explusion, and while JKR  didn't
make it clear, I still think this was one more factor that did  ultimately 
push
Snape to join the DEs.
 
Finally, I do think the Prank was worse than the Dark curses. At least in  so
far as the information we actually have. Again, I'm assuming the Dark  curses
didn't cause serious permanent damage or death, or we would have heard  of
students being expelled for using them. Yet Snape could have died from  the
Prank, or been turned into a werewolf, even if Lily doesn't know that  (and
Snape can't actually tell her what happened as he would be revealing  that
Lupin is definitely a werewolf). So I take Dumbledore's assertion that  James
saved Snape's life as more relevant than Lily's easy dismissal of the Prank  
as
opposed to her condemnation of the "evil" Dark curses (or even that  they are
so much worse on/to their victims than James and Sirius's not "dark"  hexes
in the hallways.)
 
In the end it all comes down to individual interpretation though, since  there
is so little definitive information, and a lot of inconsistency in the  canon 
we
do have, that we will never *know* the all the facts of the Prank and  its
aftermath, beyond what we each believe. Er, IMO, of course ;-)
 
Julie, who does wish JKR had been a little more consistent with some  of
these things.  
 



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