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

[Bex]

No: HPFGUIDX 181138


> Leah:
> 
> Snape was instructed by Dumbledore not to reveal Lupin's 
> secret: '"Snape glimpsed me, though, at the end of the tunnel. He 
> was forbidden to tell anyone by Dumbledore but from that time on he 
> knew what I was..."' Lupin in POA.
> 

Bex:
Good point, but do you think that maybe Lupin doesn't have the /whole/
story here? That's an easy way of explaining things, yes? Very
convenient, and exactly what Lupin's mind would come up with as a
reason. But Lupin has been wrong before.

What could DD threaten Snape with? Sending him home, possibly,
expelling him, perhaps, if he told, but once the entire story got out,
the school governors wouldn't keep Snape out of school - once parents
started hearing about the werewolf, they would demand that Lupin be
expelled. A student was almost attacked. If Snape let something slip
at breakfast, there's no way he could be expelled without making a
riot - surely Snape was smart enough to see he would get the better
end of the deal.

The only way I see that scenario actually working is 
a) some sort of secrecy charm that Snape didn't know he was a part of
until it was too late, 
b) Snape was apprehended and was threatened to be punished before
everyone had all the facts, or 
c) DD ACTIVELY threatened him with expulsion for being out of bed, and
Snape made a deal not to tell. That doesn't seem very schoolboy!Snape
like to me - surely he was smart enough to realize what power he had
there. Certainly doesn't feel like DD - threaten a 15 year old? How
badly do you have to threaten him to make him keep quiet about THAT? 

And Sirius was the real cause of the problem, and at least James was
also out of bed - Snape had to be out of his head to think that 'he'
would be sent back home, of all the parties involved. Especially since
I think that Snape had at least a little time to think things over
before he had to deal with DD. (Unless he was confunded, by James,
perhaps?)

Really, I see that confrontation between Snape and DD almost playing
out where DD would be /asking/ Snape to keep quiet. It seems much more
logical, given the circumstances and Snape's intelligence and
reasoning skills (which I assume were ahead of the pack when he was a
boy, too). Perhaps Snape made a deal that he could stay at Hogwarts or
in Hogsmeade for the summer? (He's got some other Riddle similarities,
why not one more?)

I just can't see how Snape could have been FORCED to keep quiet
without some kind of magical enforcement involved. 

AND to blast a point that so many people have made before, Snape's
memory that I referenced upthread ("Every month at the full moon")
occurs almost immediately AFTER the prank (assuming the Prince's tale
memories are in chronological order.) Lily tells him that she knows
what happened "the other night." And the OWLs memory occurs after BOTH
of those memories. (Which didn't make any sense to me at all, IMO.
Alas, another thread.)

So Snape is doing everything but draw a picture to Lily at least that
Lupin IS a werewolf - looks like he's keeping his word, but just
BEGGING someone to put 2 and 2 together.

~Bex