On Regulus and Severus (Was: Prank and various responsibilities )

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 169687

colebiancardi wrote:  
><snip the part I agree with>

> I think there is something more, something deeply personal,
something like a younger brother(Regulus!) who was very good friends
(IMHO) with Snape that causes Sirius to loathe Snape so much.  Sure,
Sirius calls his brother dim, but other than that, Sirius doesn't
speak that ill of
> his late brother.  

Carol responds:

Why would Sirius resent his brother's friendship with a fellow
Slytherin? (Sirius isn't Percy, four years older than Ron and
pompously advising him to stay away from "dangerous" friends who might
ruin his chances for advancement.) Regulus was Sorted into Slytherin
with no help from Severus, and he (Reggie) was already the loyal son
who espoused the Black family values that Sirius would later reject
(and, perhaps, was already questioning at age eleven given his being
Sorted into Gryffindor.) Regulus was "a much better son, as [Sirius]
was constantly reminded" (OoP Am. ed. 112). I don't think anything
more than the Sorting into rival Houses was required to further
alienate the two brothers (who may have had nothing in common beyond
good looks and the arrogance that seems to characterize all the Blacks
except perhaps Andromeda). The hostility between the two Houses would
have been at least as evident to the Black brothers as it was to Harry
from the first day at Hogwarts. They would have had nothing to do with
each other after that. (I imagine them ignoring each other in the
hallways as Percy ignores his father, or possibly hexing each other
like Harry and Draco, though, of course, they wouldn't have had any
classes together and probably seldom saw each other except at meals
and Quidditch games.) Once Sirius left home when he was sixteen and
Regulus about fourteen, the estrangement would almost certainly have
been permanent, even if Regulus had not joined the DEs a few years
later (apparently of his own accord because of his belief in "the
purification of the Wizarding race" and the desirability of "having
purebloods in charge"--Sirius speaks of his "joining up" rather than
being recruited, though it's clear that he doesn't know the exact
circumstances, 112).

At any rate, if resentment of Severus's friendship with Regulus had
been Sirius's motive in setting up the Prank, he certainly would have
said so (rather than blaming Severus for wanting to get him and his
friends in trouble). I think we see Sirius's motive quite clearly.
It's the extent of involvement of the other Marauders and exactly what
Sieius said to entice Severus into the tunnel that we don't know.
(That and the logistics of the thing--what, exactly, did James do and
how did James in the form of an antlered stag get out of the tunnel on
full-moon nights?)

I *do* think that Severus and Regulus, both in Slytherin and only a
year or two apart, would have known each other and possibly have been
friends (Regulus was, of course, not present in the Worst Memory scene
because he wasn't a fifth-year), but I don't see any reason to suppose
that Sirius either cared deeply about his "stupid idiot" brother (112)
or thought that Severus had corrupted him (or recruited him to be a
DE, if that's what you're suggesting. Black doesn't even find out that
Snape had been a DE until the end of GoF, when Snape shows Fudge his
Dark Mark). As of PoA, he's still seeing Snape as the kid who was
trying to get him and his friends in trouble and deserved to be
attacked (or at least terrified) by a werewolf for daring to think
that MWPP could be doing anything worth being expelled for. (To be
fair, Snape is still seeing Black as the kid who tried to kill him
and, true to form, became a murderer and traitor. Neither sees either
himself or the other with anything resembling clarity or objectivity.
If only Severus had been Sorted into Gryffindor or Ravenclaw and Peter
into Slytherin!)

It just occurred to me that Regulus's interest in the Dark Arts,
apparently a family trait of all the Blacks except but Sirius and
Andromeda, could have been the reason that Sirius suspected Severus of
a similar interest if he knew that Sevvy and Reggie were friends. But,
if so, he would not have seen Severus as *corrupting* Regulus, who had
already been corrupted by his upbringing. (We saw the house he grew up
in; the wonder is that Sirius was exposed to and rejected those same
values--and that Regulus, too, rejected them, at least in their
extreme form, as implied by his rejection of Voldemort. Could young
Snape have had a hand in that rejection, having rejected Voldemort
himself?)

Carol, who does expect a Regulus/Severus friendship to be revealed in
DH but doubts that it was the reason for Sirius's hostility to Severus
even as of OoP