CHAPDISC: DH33, The Prince's Tale

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184903

Alla wrote:
> 
> So Sirius set up the Prank after all? He told Snape how to get into
the Shack. **That** is the set up you are referring to? And all that
Snape did is put yourself in **some risk**, some risk meaning he 
willingly went to see a werewolf.

<snip> 
> I meant to address it on Carol or Magpie's post, but I may as well
address it in yours. So Sirius of course does not tell Snape that 
they are animagi. Funny how in the third year he seems to know all 
their names anyways, but for the sake of argument let's say he does
not know that they are animagi and never known, after all he does seem
to be surprised at the end of GoF. How does that translate into 
**logic dictate that werewolf is restrained in some way**. Because it
certainly does not translate into that for me. Snape loves DADA, Snape
knows what werewolf is and werewolf can do, meaning how dangerous it
is to go meet with him. He does not know  what Potter and his mates
are up to, however he certainly knows that they are up to something**,
does he not? After all they hung with werewolf and they live. To me
logically that means that Snape assumes that they know some sort of
magic, which he does not.  To me that means that Snape understand that
it is **more** dangerous for him to  go have a date with werewolf
because Potter and his mates know something he does not. And he goes
there anyways.

Carol responds:
why would he assume that they know some wort of magic he doesn't know?
He's exceedingly good at DADA and, if we believe Sirius, knew more
"curses" when he entered school than half the seventh years. Any
spells he's seen them perform are probably spells that he also knows.
(We can be sure that he knwos Expelliarmus, scourgify, and Petrificus
totalus, for example--the spelll sthat ehy use in SWM. He invents his
own spells and probably knows spells they don't know (Sectumsempra, if
he's already invented it). He has no way of knowing that they're
animagi. the nicknames don't reveal that. If anything, he would tend
to underestimate their magical ability. They're just arrogant toerags
in his mind, especially James. 

Nope. He knows that they can get safely in to see what he's pretty
sure is a werewolf, and if they can do it, so can he, or so he would
think.

And, yes, of course, sirius set up the Prank. He admits as much
himself in PoA, saying that (in his viw) Snape deserved it.

Carol, who thinks that sirius and James deserved to be expelled for
running with a werewolf and that Sirius deserved it yet again for
nearly getting a classmate killed.

You don't tell someone how to get *into* a deathtrap without telling
them how to get out again without bearing responsibility for their
death if they die (or their transformation if they're turned into a
werewolf).

He withheld vital information, the secret of his and the other
Maraugers' survival. Had Severus known that they were Animagi and
could survive in the transformed werewolf's presence, he would not
have gone in, knowing full well that they had magic he didn't have.

He's a teenage boy, and he's not going to credit his hated enemies
with skills he doesn't have. Instead, he surely assumes that the
werewolf is restrained in some way by Madam Pomfrey, who takes him to
the Shack to transform. (Had Wolfbane Potion been invented yet? If so,
Potions genius severus would assume that he was given that potion and
could safely be viewed.)

And even if you're right--that he assumed he knew spells that would
restrain a werewolf--he was wrong and *Sirius knew he was wrong*. *He*
knew what kept him and his friends alive, and *he* knew that Severus
didn't share that secret.

As for his seeming to know the nicknames in Harry's third year, he may
simply have known that the spy who revealed the Potters' identity was
Wormtail and assumed that it was Sirius. He clearly did *not* believe
that Peter was a rat Animagus and was shocked when Padfoot transformed
into Sirius in front of him. but when four "men" with odd nicknames
insult him and express surprise that he became a professor, he can
have no doubt who those four "men" are.

Carol, who doubts that Severus was suicidal at the timeof the
so-called Prank, as he would have to be to enter the Shack thinking
he'd encounter an unrestrained werewolf