[HPforGrownups] Snape vs Lupin (was:Werewolves and RL equivalents...

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 170428

Betsy Hp:
I'm not sure Snape's primary motive in this scene is to lord it over 
Lupin. Honestly, I think Snape sees Lupin as too much of a threat to 
engage in those sort of games (unlike Sirius in the kitchen at 
Grimmauld Place). He never takes his eyes off of Lupin, going so far 
as to actually back out of the room. So it's hard for me to think 
Snape is going for a petty power play.
<snip>
I'm not sure if Snape was trying to shake something loose in Lupin's 
mind that he could occlude (to verb the noun <g>), or was just less 
than eager to leave with Harry still in there. And possibly he may 
have been going for the old "I'm watching you!" message. But I think 
it was based on Snape's feeling that Lupin was an actual threat. Not 
on an opportunity to one-up an old school rival.


Magpie:
I don't think it being a power play means it can't be serious--it's not
like reading out Witch Weekly to Harry in class. I think the school rival
and threat are intertwined as they always were--James didn't just beat
Snape at Quidditch, he was a threat. That school rival threat can exert a
lot of influence over Snape's thinking at times. It doesn't seem like a
game for him but something really important for him to triumph over.

It's interesting to think, though, of exactly what the threat is. On one
level Lupin, if he's working with Sirius, can be putting Harry in danger.
But it's hard for me to not feel like Snape thinks he's also being ganged
up on when Harry immediately seems to bond with Lupin and Lupin covers up
for him when he's in Hogsmeade. If this puts Harry in danger, well, that's
just business as usual. James, too, was killed despite Snape's attempts to
save him because of course he thought he and his buddies would win through.
Protecting Harry can be sort of bound up with proving a point.

>From Lupin's pov, again I don't think Snape's actions here have to be petty
for him to hit back passive-aggressively. I think he knows that Snape
thinks he's a threat--Snape says it often enough--and that's what he's
treating him like here. A threat who's also part of a schoolboy rivalry.

-m