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

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 181370

Mike wrote:
> >
> > 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.

Julie replied:
> I assume you are basing your judgment on what you know about Snape's
future life and actions, since at the time of the Prank he was 15
years old and objectively no "nastier" than James and Sirius in
action. Unless you think at that point Snape was unsalvageable (which
I don't, given that he turned out to be salvageable as an adult Death
Eater). Though based on future actions and character I wouldn't have
minded if Lupin in werewolf form had momentarily forgotten the rat was
offlimits and chomped Wormtail down as a quick snack ;-)

Carol responds:
Actually, Severus was sixteen, as were James, Lily, Remus, and Sirius
(Adult!Snape says that Sirius Black tried to kill him when Sirius was
sixteen). We don't know Peter's age, but if he's not sixteen yet, he's
only a few months from it (it's May, the end of fifth year). JKR has
the characters refer to *James* as fifteen, but that's inconsistent
with his March birthday as revealed in DH. Sorry; I know I'm
nitpicking here, but I like to get the facts straight whenever possible.

Otherwise, I agree with Julie. Nothing we see in SWM or "the Prince's
Tale" makes me think that Severus, clever inventor of all those spells
and potions improvements, was any nastier than James and Sirius, nor
do we see any indication of his bullying or tricking anybody or hexing
people in the hallways because they annoy him. Yes, he has friends who
have made their intention of becoming Death Eaters known, but clearly
Severus didn't make any such announcement or Sirius Black would have
known in PoA and GoF that he had been a Death Eater. And, yes, he
invented one Dark spell, Sectumsempra, but he can't have gone around
using it or he'd have been expelled (as Harry nearly was).

At any rate, my reading of "The Prince's Tale" is more sympathetic
than Mike's--and Harry, too, ends up sympathetic or empathetic,
forgiving the unfortunately dead Snape. His reaction to SWM is the
same as it was in OoP; he can't bear to see his father bullying
Severus Snape, attacking him off-guard two on one.

At any rate, if MWPP had allowed Severus (who has not yet done
anything worse than follow them around, hoping to find out what
they're up to and, apparently, get Lily to see what toerags they
are--and, of course, make friends with the wrong sort of boys) to be
killed by a werewolf (on Sirius's instigation) and they had hidden the
evidence of their culpability, they'd be hardly better than Barty
Crouch Jr., well on the way to being as bad as Death Eaters.

And, as Mike admits, there would have been no story: no eavesdropper,
no request to spare Lily's life, no Fidelius Charm, no Secret Keeper
switch, no self-sacrifice, no Chosen One, no vaporization of
Voldemort, no eleven years of peace. (Note that I'm speaking here of
*unintended consequences* of Snape's actions; I'm not crediting him
with creating the Chosen One any more than I'm excusing him for his
share in the deaths of the Potters--though I don't blame him for the
actual murder that he tried to prevent or for Wormtail's betrayal, in
which he had no part.)

Harry, if he survived (an iffy prospect considering that the DEs
outnumbered the Order members and were picking them off one at a time)
would have been an ordinary Wizarding kid with no scar, no special
powers, no connection to Voldemort, no special destiny. And while that
sounds good, a happy life for Harry, who would not be targeted by
Voldemort, and no lessons with Snape, we need to think about what the
WW would be if Voldemort had stayed in power. He would have found a
way to kill Dumbledore and taken over the WW and Hogwarts seventeen
years earlier. Harry might not even have had a Hogwarts to go to, or
it would have been all-Slytherin, as Voldemort attempted to make it in DH.

I forgot to mention that I think that Wormtail would have turned spy
for Voldemort in any case, ratting out members of the Order, and
Sirius and Remus would still have suspected each other. None of that
had anything to do with Snape. The only difference is that there would
have been no Secret Keeper switch. He might still have betrayed the
Potters to their deaths, but Sirius might not have gone after him and
spent twelve years in Azkaban. At least *he* wouldn't have been
suspected of betraying the Potters and Crouch might have listened to
him. But no silver hand for Wormtail; that resulted from the
resurrection of Voldemort, which wouldn't have happened if he'd never
been vaporized trying to thwart the Prophecy.

Yep. No story without Snape, even setting aside his role in the main
text of the books and looking only at his early actions. Or at least,
a very different story, with Harry's role greatly diminished and no
(relatively) happy ending.

Carol, again just looking at the unintended consequences of young
Snape's actions and their impact on the story