CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Prisoner of Azkaban Chapter 9: Grim Defeat

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 189700

> 
> Potioncat:
> No empathy. I think you're absolutely correct on that mark.
> 
> I fully understand though why Snape doesn't trust Lupin. Snape (and even Lupin) thinks that Black betrayed Lily and killed Peter. He knows that young Lupin couldn't or didn't stand up to young Black. So even if he thinks Lupin would be loyal to DD rather than to Black--Snape wouldn't think Lupin was strong enough to resist Black. 
> 
> Looking back at PoA now, I realize that Snape respects DD but doesn't  fully agree with him. Clearly Snape isn't happy to have his objections overruled and he may feel that in Lupin's case, DD has made an error of judgment.


Pippin:
Hmmm...being too trusting is part of the "legend" that Dumbledore is building. When the time comes, it must be credible that Snape has fooled him all these years. Dumbledore must not only conspicuously trust people that very few wizards would trust, he has to let people get away with things that he might otherwise be expected to stop them from doing.

That might be part of the reason that Dumbledore refuses to consider, at least out loud, the possibility that someone inside the castle is helping Sirius. Not that I think he has any clue of what's really going on. If anyone had suggested to me at this point that Sirius was  getting help from Hermione's cat, I would not have believed it, and I was expecting the answer to be bizarre.  

Snape, as I said, does not have any new evidence, and is just suspecting Lupin on general principles. I don't think this shows his lack of empathy. Snape was condemned on the basis of his friends, and to him that is just the way the world works. To me, if Snape lacks something, it's compassion. He knows how awful it feels to be hated for something that's not your fault -- he just doesn't think it's his job to do something about it. 

But this is Snape we are talking about. He makes a theatrical show of not wanting to be overheard, but if he really didn't want anyone to hear him, he has better ways of arranging it than pretending his lips aren't moving. So I think Snape does mean to be overheard by Percy, who is right up there with Hermione in the know-it-all department, and is another person whom Snape might expect to guess Lupin's secret, given a few hints. 

Pippin