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

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170335

Dungrollin wrote:
<snip>
> 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. <snip>

Carol responds:
I think there's more going on here than power plays and schoolboy
grudges. Lupin is hiding something, a Snape thinks he's trying to help
Sirius Black get into the school to kill Harry. He also knows (without
being *afraid* of him now that he's an adult and a DADA expert) that
Lupin is very dangerous in and of himself. I think that Snape, who
clearly deosn't trust Lupin, wouldn't put it past Lupin to refuse (or
"forget") to drink his potion. Snape is also (IMO) very uncomfortable
seeing the man he suspects (increasingly thoroughout the year, but
even to some degree at this early point) of being the "murderer"
Black's accomplice and friend becoming close to Harry. Snape, as
usual, is protecting Harry, trying to keep him out of Hogsmeade and
away from Black, and here's Lupin with Harry in his office. (Could he
be telling Harry how to get past the Dementors, a Black did to escape
from Azkaban)? 

As for the essay, although he seems to be bound by some sort of
promise to Dumbledore not to reveal Lupin's secret (it's Lupin himself
who reveals it by transforming later in the story), and an obligation
to make the potion and make it perfectly (and, IMO, a self-imposed
obligation to see that it's drunk), he also wants to be sure that the
students can protect themselves should Lupin actually transform. Or,
at the very least, that the one student he's sure will write the
essay, Hermione, figures out what's causing Lupin to be "indisposed."

In any case, as I've already pointed out in post #169699 

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/169699

Snape's essay is by no means the same as the non-essay question on the
DADA exam. To quote my own post:

"<snip> [T]he question on the DADA exam is significantly different
from the essay that Snape assigned. One is simply listing the five
traits that differentiate a werewolf from a true wolf--characteristics
that Severus had not yet had a chance to experience in person. There
was no reason for him to associate a tufted tail or a differently
shaped snout (OoP am. ed. 643) with Remus Lupin, whom he had seen
going to the Shrieking Shack accompanied by Madam Pomfrey. We don't
know when he saw that happen <snip> or how often it happened. It may
have only happened once. Nor would Severus, bright though he
undoubtedly is, would have necessarily associated a full-moon night
with Remus's removal to the tunnel behind the Whomping Willow, which
he wouldn't have known led to the Shrieking Shack. <snip> Nor would
Severus suspect even the open-minded Dumbledore of allowing a werewolf
into the school, risking death and worse than death for any student
encountering him on a full-moon night. Seeing Remus being led away on
a full-moon night would not lead inevitably to such a conclusion. far
from it, IMO.

"Hermione, in contrast, has seen Lupin's full-moon Boggart and no
doubt wondered about both it and his absence from the classroom. (She
also saw him looking ill and shabby, sleeping in the Hogwarts Express
and knew [from Harry] about the potion Snape was preparing for him.)
That information would come into her mind as she researched and wrote
Snape's essay, which, far from requesting a list of characteristics
that distinguish a werewolf from a true wolf, requires the student to
"two rolls of parchment on the subject [of how to recognize and kill a
werewolf]" (PoA am. ed. 173), a completely different subject as it
would involve recognizing the werewolf in human as well as werewolf form."

IMO, the whole episode is not child's play to Snape, nor is it about
revenge for a schoolboy "prank," or even the embarrassment of the
Boggart incident. In DDM!Snape's view, Lupin is a very dangerous man,
tricking Dumbledore into believing that he's "a tame werewolf" when in
fact he could, through carelessness or malice, easily kill any student
he encounters on a full-moon night or turn them into a werewolf. The
Wolfsbane Potion is the only precaution being taken, and Snape wants
to ensure that Lupin does so. Moreover, this particular werewolf
appears to be the ally and accomplice of Sirius Black, the (supposed)
DE spy who (ostensibly) betrayed the Potters and murdered twelve
Muggles and the "loyal" Peter Pettigrew (Snape's view of the situation
at that time). 

Carol, who think Snape's behavior throughout PoA is not about the
Prank, or at least not primarily; it's about the students' safety, and
particularly Harry's