Maraurders/he exists

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 168242

> Mike:
> Harry is a kid facing an adult, professor Snape. Big difference 
> between that dynamic and Snivellus as just another schoolyard kid, 
> whether or not he had a reputation. 

Pippin:
Well, which is it, was Snape just another schoolyard kid, or was
he the kid who knew more curses than half the seventh years,
adults by WW standards,  when he got to Hogwarts? It might be 
all the same to Lily, who was notably brave, but would it be all 
the same to everyone else?

I thought the point under discussion was whether JKR planned
to repair the Marauders' tarnished image by showing
that Snape had in some measure earned a drubbing by terrorizing
the other kids. She doesn't seem to be laying any ground work for
it. No one in the scene or recalling it afterwards 
seems to be treating Snape as if he has a reputation for attacking  
people unprovoked, or for heavy-handed retaliation against
anyone who laughs at him.

> Mike:
> I believe Lupin was responding to Harry's not-so-subtle inquiry of 
> whether or not James may have invented the spell. I really don't see 
> him making a judgement call on the harshness of the spell or the uses 
> of it. What slack is Lupin cutting James in this conversation?

Pippin:
The slack of indicating that hexing people for fun was okay because
it was cool and everyone was doing it.  My point is that adult Sirius 
never made this argument, and we can't expect to hear it from him 
in the future because he's dead. It's not a reversal for Lupin to make it,
because he  was saying more or less the same thing in OOP, though
he didn't press this competing view on Harry when Sirius contradicted
it.

Reading carefully, JKR didn't  present one view of the Marauders
in OOP and then start to reverse it in HBP. She's presented two 
views all along. I don't know which will win out, but I can't
believe that JKR is any happier with "well it was cool and everybody
was doing it" than I am. But I could be wrong.

There is a  reversal, IMO, concerning Sirius's attitude towards his
treatment of  Snape,but it happens between PoA and OOP. Sirius 
goes from "It served him right" to "I'm not proud of it." It sounds
as if Sirius grew up, finally. JKR describes him as a case of arrested
development, and says that Lupin "seems" more mature. But
Lupin is still justifying the Marauders' actions with childish excuses
in HBP, which might be what JKR meant by "seems" rather than "is". 

Mike:
 Can such a nasty person that we see in the 
> SWM be reformed so quickly to risk his life for the same boy that he 
> hates just for existing? This is why I think it is unfair to 
> completely paint young James  with this dark brush, based on this one 
> scene that JKR gave us with the intention of eliciting sympathy for 
> Snivelly.

Pippin:
In OOP, Harry went almost instantly from considering whether to
turn Dudley into something with feelers to risking his life to save him,
and this even as Dudley, misunderstanding, was punching him.

I at least am not completely painting James with a dark brush by saying
that he deserved to be called a bully, and that his attack on 
Snape might have been undeserved, because I believe that he *did*
change. He went from a fifteen year old who pursued  emotional
satisfaction more or less instinctively and without regard for the
consequences, to a sixteen year old who  who chose the  greater 
but less immediate reward of protecting innocent life. 

I think from JKR's point of view not only James but everyone is
capable of making that kind of change, provided they have the 
courage to attempt it. But unfortunately people can change in
the other direction also, and innocent men do not always
remain thus. 

But taking  Harry's POV, it looks as if James and 
the whole WW would have been better off if James had let Snape 
meet his fate. Hands up, anyone who doesn't think *that* 
is going to be reversed. 

I thought so.

Pippin