CHAPDISC: DH33, The Prince's Tale

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184855

Alla wrote:
> 
> Okay. For my part, I hold Sirius responsible for unethical, stupid, 
> irresponsible behavior towards Remus. I am sure he wanted Snape 
> getting a werewolf scare, however, when Snape is being portrayed as 
> the victim of entrapment or trickery, I disagree with that. I do not 
> see how Sirius entrapped or tricked him.
> 
Carol responds:

I certainly agree that his behavior was "unethical, stupid, [and]
irresponsible toward Remus. It was pretty stupid with regard to
himself as well since he'd have been expelled at the least if Severus
had been bitten.

And I concede that Severus is partially responsible for taking the
bait. But what I think you're not accounting for is that Severus
didn't know that MWPP were Animagi and could face the werewolf without
harm. Sirius withheld that key piece of information, leaving Severus
to think that if MWPP could safely face the werewolf, so could he.

So *because* he knew that Severus could be bitten or killed and didn't
tell him that the werewolf he wanted to see was not restrained in any
way and *could kill him or turn him into a werewold*, Sirius *is*
responsible for any consequences.

It's not like handing someone a key to a tiger cage with the tiger in
plain sight and saying, "Here. Get yourself killed if you want to." It
would be suicide to enter the cage under those circumstances.
Similarly, it would be suicide to enter a shack containing an
unrestrained werewolf--and Severus, not being stupid, would know that.
But he also knows that MWPP do it all the time. If it's safe for them,
it must be safe for him. Wrong!

Sirius is giving him a way to see what's there, to satisfy his
curiosity, knowing full well that he'll take what in essence amounts
to a dare *without telling him that the beast he wants to see is
unrestrained and deadly.

*That's* where Sirius's responsibility lies, and even as an adult, he
doesn't understand that he was wholly in the wrong.

Severus, too, was irresponsible. It's foolish to take a dare offered
you by an enemy. There's probably a hidden catch.

So in the end, we have two teenage boys playing a deadly game, one
risking another's life knowing the risks and likely consequences, the
other risking his own life not knowing the full risk he was taking or
the likely consequence.

James, to his credit, *did* know the full risk and took action to save
Severus. Had he not done so, Remus would have bit Severus and the
consequences not only for Severus and Remus but for Sirius himself
would have been disastrous.

Carol, who would judge the matter differently if Severus had known
that MWPP could face the werewolf safely and he could not




> Snape exercised his free will to go and see if there is really 
> werewolf there. Sirius did not **make** him to go. IMO anyways. I am 
> definitely not saying that Sirius did something great by telling him 
> how to go to the Shack. However again, holding him responsible for 
> unethical behavior to me is way  different then holding him 
> responsible for entrapping Snape. In my mind, Snape and only Snape is 
> responsible for making decision to go. Oh boy was I ready to see 
> before book 7 not only some sort of provocation from Sirius, but also 
> I was ready to see that maybe Snape had no clue who was in the Shack.
> 
> Nope, I had seen no provocation and I am convinced that Snape knew 
> pretty well that there was werewolf there.  I wonder did Snape ever 
> think that he was actually completely wrong to go there in the first 
> place. Somehow I doubt that. 
> 
> JMO,
> 
> Alla, counts to five and disappears
>