Headmaster for a day (was Prank WAS :Re: CHAPDISC: DH33, The Princ

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 184952

Alla:
> 
> Maybe we will finally get to the crux of the matter for me. So, here
is the follow up question. How can **anybody** think that if somebody
gives them the information, dangerous information to be sure, but
information how to get to the place where I want to go myself, is 
planning on killing them. Meaning, that no matter what that other 
person gives me, without **me going** their plans are **not going to 
happen**, ever. So, I think I would be biggest hyppocrite on earth if
I would dare to say that other person tried to get me killed. Does it
make sense?

Carol responds:
If Severus thought he was going to see a caged or bound werewolf and
instead he saw an unbound werewolf chasing him, he would, indeed,
think that Sirius meant for him to be killed. (Not that Sirius would
have killed him directly, but murder by werewolf is just as much
murder as murder by Basilisk or by Nagini.) I'm not saying that's what
Sirius intended, only that Severus would naturally *think* that's what
he intended. sirius hated him, after all. (If they were friends, he
might have thought differently.)

The adult Snape's belief (and it must be his real belief or he'd never
state it to Dumbledore) that Sirius tried to kill him is sufficient
evidence for me that he believed that the werewolf was restrained in
some way. (Sirius didn't say that, of course; he merely let Severus
think it.) 

Alla:
> <snip> But no matter what he may have wanted to happen to Snape and
no matter what secrets he gave to Snape, Snape still went and Sirius
as far as I am concerned, did not trick him to go, did not plan to
kill him, he foolishly gave him an information that he would not
supposed to. <snip>

Carol responds:

He didn't trick him into going, true, but he did *entice* him. (It's
rather like the Weasley Twins enticing Dudley with the Ton-Tongue
Toffee, which they knew Dudley would eat. Otherwise, where's the
"fun"? And Sirius *did* want to scare Severus, just as the Twins
wanted to scare Dudley, so Severus was his intended victim in that
sense. Clearly, Severus didn't expect to be scared, much less in
danger of being killed. He merely wanted to see the werewolf and
confirm his theory. And if he thought that he could do so safely, he
must have assumed that the werewolf would be confined.

*Of course* he should have thought, Wait a minute. Black is my enemy.
There must be something he's not telling me (the werewolf *isn't*
confined and there's no way to survive if you're not an Animagus--or
didn't bring a broom). But Sirius should have thought: What if
"Snivellus" gets killed? Won't I be guilty of some crime? And what
about Remus?

Neither of them thought beyond the moment and their own adolescent
goals. One endangered himself, thinking, as teenagers do, that he
could take a risk without being harmed. The other offered him *the
means* to endanger himself--and no means of escape. It's worse to
endanger someone else than to endanger yourself--especially if you
know you're doing so and that the other person can't escape as you do
yourself. It's the whole Animagus bit that makes me think badly of
Sirius. He *knew* that Severus was not an Animagus and could not
escape, yet he offered him the means of endangering himself, anyway.
He baited a trap and Severus took the bait, not knowing that walking
(or crawling?) down that tunnel could have been the last thing he ever
did--and would have been, had it not been for James. (Bear in mind
that I'm no fan of James!)

Carol, who likes Pippin's idea that James brought his broom since
neither boy could have outrun a werewolf