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

[Mike]

No: HPFGUIDX 181166

> Montavilla47:
> 
> After all, isn't that what Harry does in that first broom class?

Mike:
Hee, you calling it "broom" class, I couldn't help thinking about a 
mixed group of eleven-year-olds learning how to sweep. All the girls 
doing it correctly the first time, all the boys making a worse mess 
and eventually batting each other like a pillow fight with brooms.:D


> Montavilla47:
> 
> I think Snape might have been in Neville's position during 
> their first years.  But I think by SWM, with the older Slytherins
> graduated, he was probably more like Luna in fifth year.  An
> oddball who doesn't have anyone left to care whether he gets
> pranked or not.

Mike:
But in one of the memories, Lily is talking about Sev's friends that 
he's hanging around with during his fifth year. "We are, Sev, but I 
don't like some of the people you're hanging around with! I'm sorry, 
but I detest Avery and Mulciber!" <673, US> This is post-prank but 
before SWM. And Lily adds "I don't understand how you can be friends 
with them." <674> I think canon tells us that Sev does still have 
friends around.


> > Potioncat:
> > The Marauders may not be watching their back in SWM because
> > Snape is the only one of his group around. He's sitting in the
> > shade going over his test while his Housemates are--- [fill in
> > the blank] 
> 
> Montavilla47:
> 
> Unless they have some definite project, they ought to be where all
> the other fifth-year students are: 

Mike:
Two possibilities - Sev was shown absentmindedly wandering outside 
with his nose in his DADA test. Who says his housemates even went 
outside? Or maybe the rest of the Slytherins headed to their favorite 
spot down by the Forbidden Forest, out of sight and out of earshot of 
the beech tree where the attack happened.

The other possibility - Avery, Mulciber, and most of *Sev's* crowd 
were in a different year. I don't think that crowd was very big in 
the first place. And Sev already showed the propensity to impress 
and become a "gang member" with an older crowd. I had the impression 
that Avery and Mulciber were older than fifth year, and were using 
more advanced spells. Therefore, I didn't think Snape had any mates 
around at this time.



> Montavilla47:
> 
> From what Sirius says about Snape's cursing abilities, and from
> SWM, it seems that Snape stood up for himself as well.  The 
> difference between their situations seems to be that in Neville's
> case, his tormentors backed off.  In Snape's case, they didn't.

Mike:
I've been reading these exchanges and thinking my bud Sirius needs 
some defending. Sirius speaks of Sev's early cursing ability from the 
perspective of one on the receiving end of those hexes, or at least 
saw Sev using them on others. Some people wondered if Sirius made up 
that first year claim. But one doesn't make up something that shows 
your opponent to be stronger than you.

Then, we've been shown that Sev made friends with older Slyths. All 
the clues point to Lucius taking Sev under his wing from day one and 
that Snape aligned himself with the Malfoys enough for the "Lapdog" 
comment to be legitimate, if outdated at the time of its utterance. 
This would also put him at an advantage over the Marauders in their 
early years. During Harry's years there were encounters between 
Gryffs and Slyths of different years that put people in the Hospital 
Wing. So I have no problem picturing Sev's older friends helping out 
with Marauder encounters.

In Sev's later years, many of his friends having graduated, he was 
more likely to be at a disadvantage numerically. And, yes, the 
Marauders have become bullies, I am forced to admit that with at 
least regards to Sev. But I find the clues of Sev's early years with 
the upper hand giving the Marauders motivation for *getting back* at 
the "little oddball" that bested them when they were younger. BTW, 
I'll bet it was finally 4:1 by their seventh year, but it seems 
Snape "never lost an oppurtunity to curse James" even then.

Some will point to the train scene and say Sev wasn't the type to 
start the hostilities. I say the memories show that Sev was two 
different people, depending whether he was around Lily or not. He's 
evidently been using the term "Mudblood" on everyone besides Lily. He 
hangs with Slyths that use what Lily calls Dark Magic and I find it 
hard to believe that Sev stands to the side and watches all the 
action, not if he was the mosy accomplished first year at hexes.

Some point to the detention file of Sirius and James as proof of 
their bulllying. First, Harry gets plenty of detentions and none of 
them were for bullying. Second, Snape picked the Sirius and James 
files and we see none of the others from that era. Maybe there were 
many more detention-worthy encounters in those years, we don't know. 
But it seemed like the times fostered more open encounters by budding 
DEs that would lead to escalating the number of detentions. Lastly, 
Sirius allowed as how Snape is a slippery character, smart enough to 
keep himself off the radar (hell, even Bella says this). Again, not 
something Sirius would make up, admitting Snape was smarter about 
staying out of trouble.

So, yeah, the Marauders, or at least Sirius and James, were bullies. 
As much as I like them, and as much as I admire their magical 
abilities and propensity for mischief, I must admit that they 
included some bullying in their repertoire. But like Snape's teaching 
style in the WW seems perfectlyt acceptable, so do the type of pranks 
the Marauders pull. They get detentions, not indictments. 

I read your FF that you linked, Motavilla - very nicely done and 
plausible to a degree. However, I do not buy Sev's innocence in the 
Prank (I realize you wrote it before DH, but that was my opinion 
before DH also). I find him the most culpable in the whole affair. 
Nobody lured him there, he seems to have been proposing the Lupin 
werewolf scenario for some time to at least Lily, he knew it was the 
full moon, he's seen Poppy taking Remus out there and evidently seen 
the other three Marauders go in there too. 

As I said before, I think he took the "if they can do it, I can do 
it" attitude. That's the ONLY way I could fathom Sev listening to 
Sirius. Sev confronting Sirius with "I know where you go on full moon 
nights" and Sirius in due course responding with "Get a branch, push 
the knot, if you're so tough" type of challenge. Of course Sirius 
leaves out the Animagi angle, which James evidently found a little 
unfair. <eg>

Mike