Prank and various responsibilities WAS: Re: Marietta

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 169729

Alla wrote:
> <SNIP>

> Oh, no, I do not think he is lying if this speculation is true. I 
> just think that he is conveniently disregards his own sinister 
> motives in that night, if this is what happens. After all, Sirius 
> did trick him to go in there. And if he figured out who Remus is, 
> maybe it happened, I don't know an hour before, several minutes 
> before Snape decides to enter a Shack? You know?
> 
> So, who cares if Snape decided to try and finish Remus off with one 
> of the spells which maybe he himself invented? Life of Dark creature 
> is not worth much after all, now the previous life of Severus Snae, 
> who idiot Sirius dared to risk on the other hand is another story.
<snip>

Carol responds:

As I said in another post, I don't think that severus knew that Remus
was a werewolf, in part because the werewolf question that Severus and
the others answered on their DADA exam related only to the differences
in appearance of a transformed werewolf and a regular wolf (tufted
tail, etc.)--nothing that he would connect with a fellow schoolboy. (I
forgot to mention that he wasn't studying an "essay" of any kind when
James and Sirius caught him off-guard and attacked him. He was
rereading the exam questions, just as Hermione always does, and
probably going over his answers in his mind to see if he forgot
anything. The answers themselves had been handed in to Flitwick.)

But what I want to ask now, not just of Alla but of anyone who's
interested, is why Severus would *need* James to save his life if he
already knew and intended to use a spell that could subdue or kill a
werewolf. If he'd already invented Sectumsempra, why not use that--not
as murder, but to save his own life? Sirius says Severus knew "more
"curses than half the seventh-years" even as an eleven-year-old, and
by fifteen if not earlier, he was inventing his old spells, and yet at
sixteen he needed James to save him, and honestly believes that James
saved his life (even if it was just because he got "cold feet")? The
only thing I can think of is that 1) he hadn't invented Sectumsempra
yet and therefore couldn't use it to save himself (I think it was a
result of the so-called Prank and that the little cutting hex in SWM
is just a precursor) and/or 2) he was so thoroughly surprised and
horrified by seeing the werewolf that he either panicked or froze in
fear. But if he'd been expecting the encounter and planned on using
Sectumsempra or some other Dark spell, that wouldn't have happened.
He'd have just cast his Dark curse, and he wouldn't have suffered the
humiliation of needing to be saved--by James, of all people. 

Heck, why not just use *Levicorpus* on the werewolf? Wouldn't that
work? If not, why not? We know he'd already invented it because James
uses it on him at the end of fifth year. How could a werewolf
suspended by his ankle bite anyone? Severus wouldn't have needed
*James* to do that. He could do it himself--unless, of course, he was
momentarily a "weak" person wearing his fears on his sleeve,
forgetting his own spells in the terror of seing a fully grown
werewolf about to attack him. Maybe that's the moment of "cowardice"
that he finds so unendurable even twenty or so years later?

Carol, who thinks that one reason Severus didn't spread the werewolf
story around was his humiliation at having been rescued by his archenemy