Still the Prank

[Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)]

No: HPFGUIDX 184983

Carol wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184919>:

<< However much severus may have wanted to verify his theory and find
out what the Marauders were up to and regardless of his reason or
reasons for wanting to do so, he could not have gotten past the
Whomping Willow had Sirius not told him how to do so >>

Y'know, if Sevvie oten observed (from hiding) Pomfrey escorting Remus
to the Whomping Willow, poking the Willow with a long stick so it
stopped whomping, and then Remus going down into a hole, why didn't he
figure out from watching Pomfrey how to put the Willow on pause, and
not needed one word from Sirius?

Even if he couldn't see exactly where Pomfrey poked the long stick, he
could have gotten a long stick of his own and found the right spot by
trial and error.

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184924>:

<< Is it canon that Severus knew the Marauders entered the tunnel? Do
we know if he ever even saw Remus and Pomphrey go under the willow
before that night? >>

I've always thought it was foolish for DD to put the tunnel entrance
outdoors where just anyone could see Pomfrey escorting Remus there. He
should have put the entrance somewhere inside the castle, hidden by
stone walls, accessible from Pomfrey's private office, a closet, or
some other small enclosed place in the hospital section.

Zanooda wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184932>:

<< I don't think James could transform inside the tunnel, which is
usually described as very narrow. BTW, the width of the tunnel is a
puzzle to me. In DH the Trio has to crawl inside it on their hands and
knees, but in PoA grown-ups Lupin and Sirius don't have to crawl to
get out of the Shack. Did the tunnel shrink :-)? >>

Maybe one of the protections on the tunnel is that it is usually very
small (altho' not small *enough* to actually protect anyone from going
in or out of it) but it becomes large when someone says the password.
So then Remus would know the password to use it when entering and
leaving the Shack, and he would have told it to the Marauders. Sirius
wouldn't have told it to Severus, because part of the 'joke' was
imagining Severus crawling on his belly in the dirt in a place where
Sirius was accustomed to walk upright like a biped. James would have
used the password to expand the tunnel when he came running or
broom-riding to rescue Sevvie, which should have tipped Sevvie off
that James knew more about this tunnel than Sevvie did. (I vote
against broom-riding because I imagine that James transformed.)

Potioncat wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184937>:

<< I don't think the werewolf can get out of the Shrieking Shack into
the tunnel by himself. >>

I imagine that there was a door (trapdoor?) from Shack to tunnel that
normally required hands to open from the inside, but the werewolf,
driven madder than usual by the scent of humans in his own tunnel,
managed to tear it about by brute strength and come into the tunnel,
so that James and Severus were in real danger. The time it took even a
werewolf to beat up on the door until it collapsed provided time for
James and Severus to have a dramatic conversation.

<< I don't think the boys (James and Severus) could have outrun him,
unless James used some magic to block the tunnel as they went. >>

To me, the magic he used to block the tunnel was his large, antlered,
Animagus self.

Ceridwen wrote in
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/184972>:

<< If Snape didn't know the tunnel led to the shack, he may not have
thought the other three Marauders went through to be with Remus, just
to get out of the school. Remus would have told them how to get
through so they could have some fun against the rules, since they were
his friends. Sirius doesn't say Snape knew there was a werewolf in a
locked building on the other side, to my recollection (I may be
wrong), only that Snape suspected Remus was a werewolf and Sirius told
him how to get into the tunnel. Something unspoken might be that yes,
Snape thought Remus was a werewolf. Snape also thought, but did not
necessarily connect the two incidents, that the Marauders were going
through the tunnel for some illicit fun of their own. The possibility,
to me, is that Snape thought there was a field or other open space -
the Great Outdoors - at the other end of the tunnel and Remus was
taken somewhere nearby while the Marauders headed for Hogsmeade. >>

Oh, dear, a completely new thought.