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

[montavilla47]

No: HPFGUIDX 181259

> Mike:
> OK, then Sirius is just as blameless for telling Sev about the 
> Willow as Sev is for going after the werewolf. Actually, since 
> nothing really happened, assigning blame is kind of a shadow game. 
> Which is why it irks me to see people blame Sirius for the whole 
> thing.
> 
> If, instead, we're talking about exposing their characters, then 
> sure, Sirius is reckless. But Severus is just as reckless or worse. 
> My point about bringing up stupidity, is that for some reason 
> Severus' actions in this case don't seem to count against his overall 
> character. He's still the potions genius, the great duelist (btw, 
> where in canon do we get the schoolboy Severus, duelist 
> extrordinaire? We have one example in canon, and he get's his ass 
> kicked), DADA expert, spell inventor.

Montavilla47:

Who is assigning Sirius complete blame for the Prank?  I, for one, 
agree with you that assigning blame is pretty silly.  

I think that if Sirius expressed regret for his mistake, then no one
would be thinking too much about his action.  After all, people
make mistakes all the time.  We accept that changing the secret-
keeper was a mistake and no one has conspiracy theories about
Sirius trying to kill James and Lily.  But since Sirius is still
growling (twenty years after the fact) that Snape "deserved" what
he got, it shows an intention on Sirius's part to put Snape in
danger.

However, for the record, he didn't make Snape go into the 
tunnel, and Snape certainly bears the responsibility for his
own stupidity--made more stupid since he suspected Lupin
of being a werewolf already.  

The only person who comes out the incident looking halfway
good is James, who did, by all accounts, risk his life to save
Snape's.  

I mean, we haven't even talked about the total idiocy of admitting
a student who changes into a savage monster once a month and
setting up a whomping willow as the main safeguard!  A willow,
mind you, that took out a kid's eye!

Incidently, I realized that this Prank had a lot in common with
the Midnight duel.  In the midnight duel, Draco dared Harry 
into a situation that would cause Harry harm.  And Harry, 
knowing that he was breaking rules and with someone telling
him that it was a set-up, went ahead and snuck out of the 
dorms anyway.  He ended up facing a dangerous monster, 
as well, although that was *not* Draco's intention, and, had
he not been lucky, could have been injured or killed.  Now, is 
Draco entirely blameless for the danger Harry got into?

Mike:
> Somehow, Severus the budding DE, friends of other future DEs, 
> inventor of a spell that he later labels as "Dark", gets shunted 
> aside as if those things don't count towards his character. The 
> Severus at the time of the Prank is a pretty nasty character, imo, 
> so why should I give him the benefit of the doubt? IOW, why shouldn't 
> I ascribe some nasty motivations to Severus' attempt to catch Remus 
> at ... what, I don't know?

Montavilla47:
Umm.  Because *no one* in the books ascribes to him a more 
nefarious motive than to get the Marauders in trouble?  I don't 
mind you speculating about Snape's nasty motivations, but frankly, 
I think it's a silly exercise.  I mean, I've already heard a  few of those.  
One, I remember, was that Snape, having been recruited already by 
Voldemort, was sent down the tunnel in order to get bitten and thus 
cause a scandal which would reflect badly on Dumbledore.

What I don't understand is why saying that Sirius was reckless
and stupid, or  that he hoped something bad would happen to
Snape--which could be as small as Snape getting scared and 
looking like a wimp, is perceived as assigning Sirius the 
entire blame for the Prank, or letting Snape off the hook for his
own part in it.  I don't think that's what the majority of the 
posters think about the event, but we always seem to get
pushed into that position.  

I also don't see why it matters how nasty Snape was a person.
Unless he was an active danger to the school--in which case
alerting the authorities would have been the proper course--
that doesn't make it right to expose him a werewolf.  And it 
certainly doesn't make it right to expose the werewolf to him!