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

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 181350

> Carol responds:
> So you really think he'd have gone in there if he knew not only
> that his theory was correct but that the werewolf was unconfined
> and the only reason that MWPP could face him without being killed
> or bitten was that they were Animagi?

Mike:
This does bring up an interesting question. Do you think Severus 
*only* wanted to confirm his Lupin!werewolf suspicions, or do you 
think there was more behind his tunnel excursion? I suspect, based on 
his "what ... Potter and his mates get up to" comment to Lily, that 
he had more in mind. What, it's hard to figure. Was he thinking he 
could lay in wait somewhere and catch them somehow? He doesn't know 
beforehand where the tunnel leads and/or what sort of cover might be 
available to him.

Anyway, to answer your question, no I don't think given all the 
information you've described Sev would have bothered himself to make 
the trip.


> Carol:
> <snip>
> As for Sirius, responsible people do not offer other people
> information that will lead them into deadly peril.

Mike:
I see this whole Prank thing as having two parts, and I suspect you 
see it as one. 

Part One: Sirius was definitely being irresponsible and a p**ck. He 
gave Sev the Willow info fully expecting Sev to use it, imo. And he 
fervently hoped that Sev would come out of it with an additional 
color besides grey in his underpants, also imo. I think we both agree 
on this, including the p**ck part.

Part Two (which we don't agree upon): Severus was not required, 
tricked, or duped into using the information. He went of his own free 
will. He didn't do it because Sirius wanted him to, he did it despite 
Sirius' wanting him to. He did it with the full knowledge, imo, that 
Sirius wouldn't have told him the secret out of friendship, and that 
therefore it would be foolish to not suspect something was fishy. 
And, yes, he would have done it had he gotten the information some 
other way, imo.

So, Sirius was responsible for telling another student how to break a 
school rule. Just as he would be responsible for telling someone how 
to get into the kitchens, if that's against the rules. Severus was 
responsible for following through and breaking that rule. Nobody made 
him do it, he broke the rule of his own volition. If Sirius had told 
him how to get into the kitchens against the rules, Severus would be 
responsible if he used that information to get into the kitchens, and 
all the consequences come what may for breaking that rule.



> Carol:
> Maybe you think that Severus deserved to be scared. I hope you
> don't think that he deserved to be killed or transformed.

Mike:
Do I get to pick what I wish had happened? I wish Severus would have 
DIED by werewolf and the rest of the Marauders had transfigured him 
into a bone and buried him in Hagrid's garden. See, he's a nasty 
character that is on his way to being a Death Eater, so I can think 
of all sorts of things I'd like to see happen to him. But, alas, we 
wouldn't have a story if that had happened.

Deserved? What's deserved at that time, I suppose, is exactly what 
happened to him. I agree with Sirius, "served him right." Please 
note, not what MAY have happened to him any more than how Severus
MAY have found out about the Willow by some other way, and have 
actually suffered the consequences of what instead MAY have happened.


> Carol:
> Whether he would also have felt remorse for what he'd done to 
> Severus, I don't know. I rather doubt it given his attitude 
> in PoA.

Mike:
See, this is the part I don't get. Noboby wants to entertain what MAY 
have happened if Severus had learned about the Willow from his spying 
on whomever. And it's not like he hasn't already been spying on the 
Marauders. Everyone instead focuses on what MAY have happened if 
James was not there. But James was there, and he went there on 
information from Sirius. 

I sense the real distaste here is that the Marauders were marauding 
about with a werewolf, putting other people in possible danger. That 
the Prank looks like an extension of that marauding somehow absolves 
Severus of his responsibility in the Prank. Well, I don't agree. I 
think they are separate issues and I think (but can't say 
definitively) that others have conflated the two. It's JMO, so please 
don't get mad if it's not yours (generic yours).



> Carol, just responding one last time in case you're cherishing any
> hopes of having persuaded me ;-)

Mike, under no delusions that he would change Carol's mind, but 
cherishing Carol's response nonetheless. ;-)