student!Snape keeping Lupin's secret (was Re: Sirius as a dog)

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 181117

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" 
<dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> Alla:
> 
> It did not read to me that he was struggling much. More like he 
was 
> almost flat out telling Lily. 

Leah: He was trying to convince her without being able to tell her 
outright. Of course he wants her to know.  He is in love with the 
girl, and is afraid she is going to become close friends (and more) 
with someone who runs with a werewolf.   

Alla:
And maybe what actually happened in 
> addition to Sirius telling Snape how to get in was Snape knowing 
> full well that he will see werewolf there and going there anyways.
> 

Leah: Hardly. Snape is not a fool, he would know he could not use 
magic or escape from a fully turned werewolf. He is still bitter 
about the 'Prank' in POA, many years later, in the Shrieking Shack 
and later talking to Dumbledore.  He fully believes this was an 
attempt by James, Sirius and Lupin to have him killed or bitten and 
he is quite right about Sirius.     
> 
> 
> > >Leah:   
> > > Since we are told that the potion is very complex and 
dangerous, 
> > > Snape could presumably cause Lupin some discomfort, at least, 
> each 
> > > month, by a small 'slip' of the hand, but by Lupin's own 
> testimony 
> > > to Harry, the potion is made 'perfectly'.   Not very sadistic.
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Oh, I do not know. Snape insisting Lupin drink the potion in front 
> of him stroke me as quite sadistic. IMO of course. But of course 
he 
> was making perfect potion. If Dumbledore forced him to keep 
Lupin's 
> secret years ago, I will not be surprised if Dumbledore forced him 
> to promise to make perfect potion. I think he tried his hardest to 
> have his sadistic fun and follow DD's orders too.

Leah:  In what way is watching someone take a potion sadistic??  In 
fact, it seems to me that Snape watches Lupin drink the potion to 
reassure himself that it is going to be drunk. He is leaving a 
werewolf 'on the turn' alone with Harry. (And Snape is right to be 
cautious, because Lupin does not take the potion on the night of the 
Shrieking Shack incident).  Snape backs out of the room with his 
eyes on Lupin when he has delivered the potion.  That doesn't 
suggest someone having 'sadistic fun', rather someone who  is 
actually afraid.  Snape has nearly died at Lupin's hands/paws.

As I said before, this is a  complex and unusual potion.  It enables 
the wereperson taking it to have a peaceful transformation.  A 
skilled potion maker like Snape could, I would think, make the 
transformation rather less peaceful without that being attributable 
to anything other than the complexity of the potion.  He does not do 
so.  The fact that Lupin says that Snape makes the 
potion 'perfectly' suggests that Lupin may have had less than 
perfect potions made for him with the best of intentions by other 
potions brewers.  

We must also assume that Snape keeps his word to Dumbledore about 
WereLupin even after they leave Hogwarts and indeed after Snape has 
become a DeathEater.  (We don't hear any objections from Lucius 
Malfoy about a werewolf teaching Draco when Lupin is hired).  I 
agree with Potioncat that that keeping of a promise must influence 
Dumbledore's later trust in Snape.

Leah 
>