CHAPDISC: DH33, The Prince's Tale

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 184881

 
> Magpie:
 
> From Sirius' pov it's more to me not that Sirius is actively
tricking  Snape or enticing him by witholding the information, but
just that in a situation like that he knows that Snape is being an idiot. 

Pippin:
But Sirius does expect Snape to use the information. He has more than
a vague idea that something bad (or funny, from Sirius' pov) might
happen -- that's the point of the joke. He knows that the willow is
what we Muggles call an "attractive nuisance" -- it's the sort of
thing that teenagers are going to be idiots about.  As Lupin says,
Sirius thought it would be "amusing" to tell Snape how to get into the
willow. There would be no amusement involved if Sirius didn't expect
Snape to use the information. 

Officially, Snape had only been warned about the dangers of the willow
itself -- and Sirius  told him how to get past it. No authority had
warned Snape that he was in danger of meeting a full grown werewolf,
unrestrained or, as Dumbledore might put it, a sudden and painful
death. Snape had only his own judgment about the likelihood of meeting
something he couldn't handle in the tunnel, and Sirius expected and
hoped that it wouldn't be enough to discourage him. 

Of course Sirius was a teen and  didn't think it through, and I am not
saying he should have been expelled or sent to Azkaban. But he was old
enough, IMO, to recognize that we have, as human beings, a moral
responsibility not to tempt others.

That Snape was already tempted is beside the point, IMO.

For me, what has changed about the Prank after the Prince's Tale is
that now we know Snape wasn't just trying to get the Marauders in
trouble or get them off his back. He was trying to protect Lily. That
is a nobler motive than he had before. It seems to me if we are going
to take a charitable view of Sirius, and say that he was in part
trying to protect his friends, we might be charitable towards Snape also. 

Pippin