Headmaster for a day (was Prank WAS :Re: CHAPDISC: DH33, The Prince's Tale

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 184889


> > Potioncat:
> > Imagine that you are the Headmaster/Headmistress of 
> > Hogwarts. Not that you are DD, but "you" are the Head. It's late 
at 
> > night, or very early morning. You are facing several 15/16 year 
old 
> > boys who have survived a terrible fright. What would you do?
> > 
> > Try to forget the background motivations you currently have for 
Sirius 
> > and Severus. Imagine that you know only what a HM in this 
situation 
> > would know.  
> > 
> > Explain what you know. Which boys are in your office? Tell us 
what you 
> > think the boys said.  What do you feel for or about the boys?  
Have you 
> > called in anyone else? Why are you taking the action you decide 
upon?

Magpie:
This is a different situation, though, because as a reader I do know 
more than DD did--while at the same time I don't know exactly what DD 
did know. He didn't know the Marauders were going out with Lupin and 
didn't know they were Animagi. If all he knew was that Sirius told 
Snape how to get in the willow...well, he's just dealing on a totally 
different level. Does he assume all the boys even know Lupin is a 
werewolf?

> 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.

Magpie:
Of course he expects him to use it. My point was exactly that. Sirius 
knows that Snape is planning on doing something dangerous and as a 
fellow human being that gives him some responsibility to at the very 
least not help him to do this dangerous thing. However that's 
not "tricking" Snape if Snape is going into the willow expecting to 
find Lupin the werewolf inside. As I said I do hold Sirius 
responsible for bad actions here. Just not Snape's bad actions. 
They're both two teenagers doing reckless things. This is very 
different than the way Snape made it seem to me when he first told 
the story. Now it's more like Snape blaming Sirius for helping him do 
something stupid without acknowledging that the desire to do this 
stupid thing was also Snape's.

The fact that Snape had not been officially told there was a werewolf 
is besides the point for me once Lily seemed to indicate that Snape 
expected to find a werewolf there. 

I don't think I'm taking a charitable view towards Sirius here, just 
describing what I see everyone doing. Sirius didn't seem to do much 
tempting of Snape. His crime was enabling Snape. Both of them should 
have known better. Years later Snape made it sound like something 
else to me.

-m