Musing on Buckbeak/ Some Crookshanks and Snape

[cubfanbudwoman]

No: HPFGUIDX 166248

Alla wrote:
> > Oh, of course Buckbeak attacks because Harry is his friend as 
> > well (nods to Ceridwen as well :)).
> > 
> > I just believe that he also recognised that his friend was 
> > attacked by bad person, hehe.

Carol responds:
> Although I agree with you that Buckbeak attacked Snape because Harry 
> is Buckbeak's friend, it's odd that he didn't attack earlier when 
> the DE was Crucioing Harry. That was a definite case of an evil 
> person close by--and a friend being hurt--but no sign of Buckbeak at 
> that point. ...my feeling is that Buckbeak is just acting on 
> instinct, attacking someone he thinks is hurting Harry (and he is, 
> but the stinging hex or whatever it is, is short-lived and nowhere 
> near the intensity of a Crucio) without knowing who the person is. 
<snip>
> Carol, who thinks that, however we judge Snape, we should do so based
> on his own actions, not Buckbeak's


SSSusan:
It's interesting to me, for a number of reasons, that my instinctual 
reaction to Buckbeak's attack on Snape (as opposed to the DE who had 
earlier thrown a Crucio Harry's way) was that Buckbeak must have 
considered Snape *more dangerous* to Harry.

I say that that's interesting to me because, not only do I have 
nothing to back it up by way of "proof" (as you've said, there's 
nothing in FB which tells us that hippogriffs have the ability 
kneazles have to detect unsavoury characters), but also because I 
believe Snape to be DDM!  That is, I believe he is on the side of 
defeating Voldy and therefore it purposely trying to get Harry out of 
harm's way in this scene, trying to teach him even, when he could be 
killing him or hustling him off to Voldemort.  

So, while in actuality I believe Snape to be less dangerous to Harry 
than the DEs who'd been on the grounds, somehow my impression was that 
Beaky attacked Snape because *he* believed Snape was more dangerous.

This makes little sense when one thinks about the earlier Crucio, 
though, so I'm wondering if houyhnhnm's 2nd possibility might be the 
right one:
> 2. He is responding to the attack on Hagrid and Hagrid's cottage. 
> But by the time Buckbeak got free from wherever he was tethered, 
> Snape was the only one left. Draco and the DEs had already passed 
> through the gates.

SSSusan:
Perhaps that's all there is to it?  Beaky had just then gotten free 
and was, thus, only then *able* to go help Harry.  Perhaps he would 
have attacked the DE who crucioed earlier, if he'd been able to, and 
it only SEEMS to have been about Snape because... well... we have a 
tendency to make everything about Snape. <vbg>

Siriusly Snapey Susan