Snape's Culpability in the Prank (WAS: James and Sirius as Bullies)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 181250

> 
> Mike:
> 
> Sirius told Severus how to get past the Whomping Willow, to access 
> the tunnel that would take him to werewolf!Lupin's location. Sirius 
> had no real way of knowing how Severus would use that information, 
> though he *probably* thought that Severus would use it in some way 
> to try to get the Marauders in trouble. He *may* have taunted 
> Severus, we don't know, that's pure speculation.
> 

Pippin:

Alla gave the example of leaving your loaded gun on a table. Maybe
things are different elsewhere, but in California, if a minor child
(anyone under the age of eighteen) picks up that gun and death or 
injury results, you (the gun owner) committed a felony. It doesn't
matter whether the child should have known better or whether you
didn't mean for anything bad to happen. 

http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/tips.php#owners%20responsiblities

> 
> Mike:
> Why should he think that? And where is the canon that he did? It's 
> speculation, yours and mine, but it shows a certain level of 
> stupidity that you are not willing to asign to Severus on *any* 
> other point of discussion.
> 

Pippin:
 Teenagers don't have the impulse control that adults have. It has nothing 
to do with how smart they are. I'm sure both Snape and Sirius could have
told you what might happen to a lone wizard who encountered a
werewolf. But that doesn't mean they would relate the information to
what they were doing. I'm sure we can all think of damfool things we
did as teenagers -- it isn't that we couldn't imagine the consequences,
it's just that they were somehow off the radar. 

I'm sure Sirius wasn't thinking any further than the glorious moment
when Snape would flee in terror, and Snape wasn't thinking any further
than the glorious moment when he got proof for his theories. I think
that must be what he wanted most. I don't think he thought he could
*use* the information so much as he just wanted to know for sure that 
he was right. Not so different from us and our theories, is it? 

Of course the irony is that 'seeing is believing' only for the person
who sees. As far as everyone else was concerned, he still didn't
have any proof. All he'd get if he talked was an angry Dumbledore --
and even Voldemort feared that.


Pippin