Details of the "Prank" (WAS Re: LV's bigger plan (was:Fawkes possible absence))

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 166339


> Dana now:
> There are many things one could question about the prank and the
> probability of DD not knowing certain things. For me James
> risking his own life to save Snape still holds some question marks
> too, because if Lupin really posed a threat then what would have
> stopped James from transforming into Prongs and hold him off? Oh 
well, better risk my life and potentially end up dead than to have 
Snape know I am an illegal animagus.

zgirnius:
I have two suggestions about James's supposed risking of his life. 
The first is that the tunnel is described as low and narrow. (The 
Trio, as 13-year-olds, are unable to walk through it without bending 
double). James's likely Animagus form is the rather large Scottish 
Deer, an animal 4+ feet high at the shoulder (1,2 m for non-US 
readers) and possessing an impressively wide rack of antlers. It 
seems to me that if he transformed in the tunnel, he might get stuck.

I know it is said the Marauders entered the tunnel in Animagus form, 
but I find it plausible that this detail might be wrong, and James 
may have needed to transform outside and wait, or come in behind 
Sirius in human form. Lupin was fondly reminiscing, not giving a 
detailed technical account, after all. (And he would have no direct 
memory anyway, as he would have been a werewolf at the time).

The other is to propose simply that James's life was not at risk, 
precisely because he had the option to transform. Lupin could be 
exaggerating, or not thinking it through, and Dumbledore, at the time 
he discusses the matter with Harry, has no idea that James was an 
Animagus. The point of the story is more that Snape's life was at 
risk, and James saved him. It would still make the act meaningful. 
After all, who believes Harry was at risk when he saved Peter? But 
that was a heroic gesture anyway.

Dana:
> Another is of course where were the others? They are supposed to be
> running with Lupin every month.

zgirnius:
There could be some reason they were not going that night (I dunno, 
Peter or Sirius had a cold or something...), or Snape could have 
showed up before the Marauders. It does not seem a detail that 
renders the story we have been told in any way problematic.

Dana:
> There is also the part in HBP where Harry is shocked a werewolf has
> killed a little boy and he is told that werewolves indeed are able 
to
> kill when they get carried away (implying they normally do not, so
> not just because he can't imagine Lupin killing someone).  Lupin
> himself also states that werewolves *sometimes* kill to eat. This in
> relation to the prank makes no sense at all. Who would want to eat
> Snape? ;)

zgirnius:
I think a werewolf confined to a small space, who would otherwise 
turn on himself (Lupin mentions this as one of the things the 
presence of friends alleviated, he used to scratch himself up) would 
be likely to get 'carried away' with a victim on whom to turn his 
unnatural blood lust.

The killing to eat business I think is more about the marginalized 
werewolves on whom Lupin spies, who have not the means to make a 
living due to the laws of the WW.