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

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 184953

I answered this and then lost it. Grr!

> Montavilla47:
> To be honest, I think this is the most likely possibility.  While 
we 
> don't see much arrogance in child!Snape (the memories), adult!Snape
> has tons of it, so I think it's perfectly in character for teen!
Snape to 
> think that he could handle a werewolf if the Marauders were doing 
so.
> 
> But Sirius *knew* that Snape couldn't handle Lupin in werewolf 
> form.  At least, I think, in my sternly motherly mode that he 
*ought*
> to have known better--and had the decency to warn Snape.  Not
> that Snape would have listened.  (Of course, I don't know that he 
> *didn't*, because he might have warned Snape and to Snape that
> would just have sounded like taunting...)

Magpie:
Exactly. Sirius was wrong to give Snape the information. He should 
have known better. A better man would have said, "Okay, Snape has 
found out Remus's secret. He wants to go into the tunnel during the 
full moon to see him as a werewolf. He must think he will be safe. I 
(Sirius) have been in the tunnel many times. However my method for 
keeping safe is to be an Animagus, which I don't think Snape is. So I 
can't see how he's going to be safe. So I shouldn't do anything to 
encourage him since I myself can't be sure he'll be safe."

But instead he said, "He wants to see the werewolf and that he can 
handle it? Here's the key. Have fun." And then waited for him to come 
running out crying.

It's wrong, and if Snape had died he would have had some 
responsibility, but it's not tricking him. Snape has good reason to 
think that Sirius may have wanted him dead after that, but making it 
into attempted murder seems like a blatant attempt to gloss over his 
own behavior, which I think is the thing that most rankles him. The 
reason he can't forgive Sirius is, I think, not that he tried to kill 
him, which has some dignity, but that he can't accept and forgive 
himself for his own foolishness which led to having to be rescued by 
James. It's the humiliation, not the danger. 

It's one thing to say "He knew I'd be in danger" when it seemed like 
Snape didn't know about the werewolf. Knowing that he did know about 
it, now it begs the question of how Snape himself thought he would be 
safe against the werewolf. And the only answer is "I didn't know. 
Just figured I'd handle it." Which has little to do with Sirius. Even 
if Snape knew the Marauders went into the tunnel (I can't remember if 
the text makes it clear that he knew that or not) he's left saying 
that he figured he'd do whatever they did to keep safe, which he 
still didn't know. A student giving him that excuse today would 
probably be called a dunderhead.
 
> Montavilla47:
> See, I don't think it really matters whether or not Sirius intended 
to
> kill Snape.  I always knew that that was exaggeration on the part of
> Snape.  The thing isn't that Sirius actively intended harm, it's 
that 
> he was either a) too rash and stupid to even consider what might
> happen or b) so indifferent for the safety of others that he didn't 
> *care* whether or not Snape got killed (let alone what might happen
> to Lupin), or c) both.

Magpie:
Right, which is a find reason for Snape to hate Sirius or for plenty 
of other people to dislike Sirius. But it's not a trick or murder.

-m