Werewolves and RL equivalents (was:Re: Snape - a werewolf bigot?...)

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 170333

> > Lanval, citing PoA:
> > The door opened, and in came Snape. He was carrying a goblet, 
which 
> > was smoking faintly, and stopped at the sight of Harry, his black 
> > eyes narrowing.
> 
> zgirnius: 
> I don't understand your reading of this scene. Why do you think 
> Snape's eyes narrow? I took it as a surprised reaction to Harry's 
> presence. If I am right, he was expecting to be bringing the potion 
> to Lupin at a time when Lupin is alone. 

Dungrollin:
Absolutely. (This is why I *love* PoA!) Moreover, he's probably got a 
lot of jumbled up thoughts rushing through his head, what he 
remembers of the marauders (who he hated) and what he knows of Harry 
(who he hates) and what he knows specifically this year about adult 
Lupin (who he hates). He's a suspicious man. Great, he thinks, the 
enemy from my schooldays who tried to kill me, who is an old friend 
of the deranged killer who is currently on the loose (who is also an 
enemy from my schooldays and who also tried to kill me), the teacher 
who humiliated me in front of his entire class on his first lesson, 
is getting *pally with Potter*. We've been told not to let Potter 
know that it was Black who betrayed his parents, what's Lupin 
chatting about?
 
> > Lanval:
> > Why, WHY, couldn't Snape just set down the potion, as Lupin 
> politely 
> > asked? Why press it even further, after Lupin states clearly, and 
> > without any annoyance, impatience, etc, that he *will* drink it 
> > directly? 

Dungrollin:
Because his mind's buzzing with suspicions. He's playing for time.

> > Lanval:
> >  Even if it's only in front of the Potter boy. Because 
> > even he, it turns out, asks questions, which must be evaded. 
>
> zgirnius:
> A smoking potion that Harry suspected of being a poison is already 
> going to lead to questions. I don't find anything particularly 
> suggestive in the rest of the dialogue. Lupin may need more of the 
> potion...what is more suspicious about that than the simple 
presence 
> pf the smoking potion and Lupin's need to take it?

Dungrollin:
Nah. I don't think he's trying to drop any hints to Harry at this 
point.

> > Lanval:
> > Then the next week, when Lupin's *out of order* -- how about a 
> > werewolf discussion in class? And an essay, just to make them 
delve 
> > a little deeper into the subject... 


Dungrollin:
See, I see that as revenge for the Neville Boggart stunt in chapter 
7. They're just falling straight back into their old schooldays 
pattern, Snape and Lupin, but they're adults and teachers now, so the 
puerile nature of their ridiculous battles is all hidden under this 
layer of repression. Lupin carries it off a lot more calmly than 
Snape, though he pretends that he's risen above it in the shrieking 
shack whereas he's really just as bad as Snape. Snape, on the other 
hand, spends much of PoA furious, which is how I like him. 

I have to wonder whether Snape really thought any of the students 
would guess that Lupin was a werewolf. After all, he learned exactly 
the same stuff, and wrote exactly the same essay question for his 
O.W.L while he was at school with Lupin for five years, and *he* 
never guessed (score one Hermione). Nobody guessed except the 
marauders because they slept in the same dormitory. I think Snape set 
that essay just to make Lupin uncomfortable, because as soon as Lupin 
found out he told them that they didn't have to do it. If Snape had 
really wanted to screw Lupin, he'd have set the homework to have been 
handed in (to him rather than Lupin, as he in fact did) *before* 
their next lesson with Lupin, so that he wouldn't have the chance to 
find out about it until it was too late and the whole class had had 
to do it. Snape's a scheming bastard, he'd have checked when their 
next lesson was. As it was, Hermione was the only one who had already 
finished it.

Lanval:
> > Oh, I agree that there's a power play going on here.
> 
> zgirnius:
> A week later, yes. 

Dungrollin:
No no no, it goes right the way through the novel. All the way from 
the glowering at the welcome feast, through Lupin's *highly amusing* 
suggestion of how Neville could make his boggart funny, and right the 
way up to Snape ultimately winning the petty mud-throwing war (well, 
he would, wouldn't he?) and "letting slip" that precious nugget of 
information after Sirius escapes. Snape *really* hates Lupin, and the 
course of PoA just confirms everything he thinks he knows. Snape is 
the ultimate ESE!Lupiner. He is *paranoid* about Lupin.

The same night Harry talks to Lupin and Snape brings the potion is 
the Halloween feast, and harry notices Snape's eyes flickering 
towards Lupin more often than was natural. That is when Black breaks 
into the castle and slashes the Fat Lady's portrait because she won't 
let him into Gryffindor tower. The whole school sleeps in the great 
hall. Snape helps search the castle, and then tries to make 
Dumbledore see that Black must have had inside help to get into the 
castle. He's wrong, of course, but he's right that Lupin's 
withholding information, because Black *shouldn't* be able to get 
into the castle.

Then we have Snape taking over Lupin's DADA class. Then Lupin is 
absent for Christmas dinner, and Snape confirms that he has made the 
potion for him again. 

Then Black gets all the way into Harry's dormitory, but got the wrong 
bed. How on earth could he have got hold of those passwords to the 
tower without inside help? It's impossible! Snape is *certain* that 
it was Lupin. I mean, who else could it *possibly* be? It's quite a 
reasonable surmise, actually.

Does Snape find out that Lupin's teaching Harry how to conjure a 
patronus? That's a way of combating Dementors. Is Lupin, thinks he, 
perchance trying to help Harry get out of the school grounds? The 
very thing that Dumbledore had insisted must under no circumstances 
happen with Sirius Black on the loose, who has already managed to 
break into the castle twice? 

Then there's my favourite scene, which I covered in detail here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/169386
In which Snape thinks he's finally got Lupin cornered (the air of 
supressed triumph), and Lupin manages to slither out of trouble 
*again*. It's really little wonder that by the time he follows Lupin 
to the Shrieking Shack Snape is frothing at the mouth.

His concentrated loathing of Lupin is not because Lupin is a 
werewolf, but because Lupin is *the* werewolf that frightened the 
**** out of him sixteen years ago. It is notable that three years 
later, when, on the top of the Astronomy Tower he completely and 
utterly ignores Fenrir, who is described as "enraged". 

I find it interesting to compare Snape's interactions with Lupin with 
his interactions with Sirius in OotP. In OotP, Snape is the calm and 
collected one, and Sirius is incensed at the drop of a hat. Should 
that tell us something?

But I still love PoA best. It's like she was making up for not having 
enough Snape in CoS.

Dungrollin.