Chapter Discussion: Prisoner of Azkaban Ch 18: Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Pron

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 190505



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
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> .> Julie:
> > I think one person makes it pretty clear that Sirius did intend to set up Snape, and that person is James. James found out that Snape was headed for the Shrieking Shack and he could have only found out one of two ways. Either he followed Snape (unlikely as the "spying" seemed to be the other way 'round) or Sirius told him (alluded to in the books). Which means Sirius told Snape about the Shack (whether that included goading or not) *knowing* that Snape would go there.
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> Alla:
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> No, I do not think it does mean that, actually. Of course Sirius told Snape how to get there (or alluded as you said)!  My point is that to tell somebody how to get some place dangerous and then such person entirely of its own free will went there does not in my view equals setting Snape up, setting a trap for him, etc, etc.  Sirius had no business telling Snape that, but Snape and only Snape chose his fate that night and whatever thoughts Sirius entertained about how it will end does not change that Snape went there on his own. Add to this that at the very least he suspected that Remus is changing there.

Carol responds:

It's rather like pointing to a gun and telling a kid you hate that the gun has one bullet in it, knowing that the kid will take the implied dare. If Severus had died, you can bet that "He did it of his own free will" would not have saved Sirius from expulsion and possibly imprisonment. It would also have meant a death sentence for Lupin and firing for Dumbledore for knowingly keeping a werewolf on campus. It's one thing to be reckless with your own life; it's quite another to be reckless with the lives and fortunes of others. Sirius *knew* that Severus would take the implied dare, expecting to *see* a werewolf. He also *knew* that, unlike himself and his friends, Severus was not an Animagus and had no protection. Severus, on the other hand, knew or suspected that Sirius et al. could safely enter the presence of the werewolf and reasoned that he could, too. He probably assumed that the werewolf was safely confined.

True, he didn't think it out. He should have realized that Sirius wouldn't just hand him an open invitation to get him and his friends in trouble and that there must have been some danger in it for himself. But he was sixteen, and he didn't think it through.

Granted, Sirius was also sixteen. But he should have realized that what he was doing was dangerous, illegal, irresponsible, and morally wrong.

His enemy's naivete or gullibility or even desire to get him in trouble does not excuse him for tempting that enemy into a danger he would not have faced if he had not given that enemy the opportunity to walk into danger, especially given that he withheld key information.

Carol, who can't help seeing Sirius as a kind of Mephistopheles tempting his enemy into danger and folly