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

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 166358


> Carol responds:
> I agree that James wasn't really at risk. What I don't understand is
> *how* he saved Severus's life. He couldn't have cast any hexes or
> jinxes on Remus that Severus couldn't also have cast (he's the kid 
who
> knew more curses at eleven that most seventh-years). And he 
certainly
> couldn't have transformed into a stag and, say, carried Severus off 
on
> his antlers, because, as you say, there wasn't room to transform and
> Severus would have informed Dumbledore. So exactly did he do that
> Severus couldn't have done himself? Did he just warn him that Remus
> was a werewolf and yell "Run?"

zgirnius:
Then we don't actually agree. I was presenting what I see as mutually 
exclusive solutions to the problem. It is my opinoin that if James 
could not transform, then he placed himself in the same danger as 
Snape. (With the slight advantage that he would have known what to 
expect, and could therefore forumlate a plan to deal with it in some 
way. Snape would presumably have been responding to the danger with 
no advance knowledge of its nature).

James's rescue could not consist merely of standing at the entrance 
to the tunnel and yelling at Snape that Lupin is a werewolf. That is 
not consistent with the evidence that we do have. The tunnel is quite 
long, and Snape ventured deep into it, because he saw Lupin. If he 
was far enough to see Lupin, he was too far to hear James from the 
tunnel entrance (not to mention that the information James was 
providing would no longer be of any use, thus meaning James did not, 
in fact, save his life.) If he ignored James and proceeded, then 
again James did not save his life, he saved his own (somehow). 

We also have Lupin's claim that "but your father, who'd heard what 
Sirius had done, went after Snape and pulled him back," which seems 
to mean James went into the tunnel. The 'and pulled him back' is 
particularly interesting. If Snape got far enough to see the 
werewolf, it would seem that pulling him back would not have been 
necessary. He ought to have seen the advisability of leaving for 
himself. 

There is Alla's murder theory, which would explain the pulling back, 
but that also seems not to fit. If Snape was set and ready to kill 
Lupin, James's action would have been saving Lupin's life, not 
Snape's. 

I think James did save Snape's life, because two characters whose 
testimony about the incident I consider reliable confirm this fact. 
Dumbledore, who often speaks for Rowling (as he does in this case, I 
believe), and Snape himself. He does not dispute that James saved his 
life, note. His negative comments about James's rescue have to do 
with James's motives, not the lack of actual rescue. 

Total speculation, but perhaps Snape suffered some injury which 
prevented him from leaving rapidly under his own power? In that case 
James 'pulling him back' would allow Snape to get out more quickly 
(or, at all, depending on the nature of the injury).