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

[littleleahstill]

No: HPFGUIDX 181145

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> 
wrote:
>> On a sidenote, you spoke of the Marauder's bullying Severus as a
> recurring thing, but I don't think that's the case. I think they
> routinely hexed each other in the hallways like Harry and Draco, 
but
> the two-on-one sneak attack reads to me like retaliation for 
Severus's
> attempt to get them in trouble by getting into the Shrieking Shack.
> (Sirius is conveniently forgetting who put him up to it.) Lupin 
later
> tells Harry that "Snape gave as good as he got" when he and James 
met
> one on one. So I think the picture of poor little persecuted 
Severus
> who couldn't stand up for himself is exaggerated. He has good
> reflexes, as we see in SWM; unfortunately, he's no match for two 
boys
> who already have their wands out. But we're talking about a kid 
who,
> according to Sirius (no fan of his) knew more 'curses" (surely,
> schoolboy hexes and jinxes) than most seventh-years" when he was 
eleven.
> 
> Just because he was skinny and nerdy doesn't mean he couldn't cast 
a
> mean curse--and invent them as well, as we learn in HBP.


Leah: I'm sure Snape could look after himself quite satisfactorily 
on a one to one basis.  However, I don't agree that SWM was a one-
off.  We have 

'Sirius's head turned. He became very still, like a dog that has 
scented a rabbit, "Excellent", he said 
softly. "Snivellus".....Wormtail was looking from James to Sirius to 
Snape with a look of avid anticipation on his face...Snape reacted 
so fast it was as though he had been expecting an attack...' 

While that doesn't confirm it wasn't a one-off, it very much reads 
to me as a pack hunt, and from Wormtail's and Snape's reaction, 
something that had happened before.

We see James and Sirius mocking Snape and trying to trip him up on 
the Hogwarts express.  It's difficult to think they didn't act 
together again until SWM.  When Harry questions Sirius and Lupin 
about SWM, Lupin says, '"Did I ever tell you to lay off Snape?",...
"Did I ever have the guts to tell you I thought you were out 
of order?"'  'Ever' suggest recurrent attacks, and there's no reason 
why Lupin should think Sirius/James were out of order if it was 
simple one to one hexing, or any reason why James and Sirius should 
have been made occasionally to feel 'ashamed', as Sirius says. 

Finally, in HBP, 'The Flight of the Prince', Snape shouts at Harry 
that James never attacked Snape unless it was 'four on one'. If 
James and Snape were mutually cursing/hexing each other in seventh 
year, then that's an exaggeration, but I think it's hard to 
get 'never' from just the attack in SWM.  Or perhaps Snape 
distinguished that sort of attack from one to one hexing against the 
wall contests with James.

And at some point, Snape invented Sectumsempra 'for enemies'.

Leah