Snape's the Rescuer - Really?/Justice to Snape

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 170744


> Alla:
> 
> But the fact that he gags unconscious Sirius suggests to me what 
> Lanval said - Snape sees that there is a case to be made for Sirius' 
> innocence and he does not want to hear. IMO of course.


Pippin:
Actually, there is something that we are all ignoring so far which
explains why Snape won't let Sirius and Lupin talk in the shack, 
and why he gags Sirius when there is no one but Snape and the 
kids to hear him.

According to Fudge, murdering Pettigrew was not the worst
thing Black did. The worst thing Black did was betray the secret.
And -- this is important-- Harry was **not** to be told about this.  
Of course Snape doesn't know, no one does, that Harry has
already found out.

So Snape's hands are tied. He knows that Sirius is guilty
of more than Pettigrew's murder, and he can't explain it.
The mere fact that Pettigrew is alive does not clear Sirius
of betraying the Potters. That's why he bellows at Hermione
not to talk about things she doesn't understand. 
 
Of course that Lupin must know about the Secret Keeper thing 
and still seems to be arguing that there's a case to be 
made for Sirius would not make him look like a friend of the 
Order in Snape's eyes.

It also hints at a possible motive for Sirius and Lupin working
to win the kids' trust -- maybe they'd enjoy betraying them
the way they betrayed Harry's parents. It is, after all, Snape's
job to think the way Dark Wizards do. And thinking that way,
he'd want Sirius gagged, because it just might be Sirius's
last spiteful act to let Harry know that he was the one
who'd betrayed the Potters. Ironically, Snape
comes pretty close to blurting it out himself --"too
arrogant to believe he might be mistaken in Black" --
but of course he had no way of knowing that Harry would
understand what that meant.

Do you think  Snape had it figured out about the Secret
Keeper switch? I don't.  Harry himself doesn't know about that 
until after Snape is knocked out, and even then Harry isn't sure 
he can believe it.  

The switch is completely counter-intuitive, it's the sort
of Tom Sawyer-ish stunt that only  a bold-to-the-point-
of-insanity 'never tell me the odds' Gryffindor would think of. 
Snape wouldn't have imagined it in a million years, IMO, 
and if Dumbledore had tried to explain it to Fudge without 
proof, he'd have sounded like he was channeling The Quibbler.

Remember Stubby Boardman? I'm sure that wasn't the first 
WW wacky theory about Sirius ... this would have sounded 
like another one.

The idea that Snape needed to gag Sirius to keep him from
talking to Dumbledore doesn't make a whole lot of sense,
IMO. Dumbledore doesn't need words, does he? He is a
legilimens. And Snape knows that better than anyone.

Pippin