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

[SteveE]

No: HPFGUIDX 190511


> .> 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. <SNIP since this is the main point I  disagree with>
> 
> 
> Alla:
> 
> Not in my opinion it is not, because saying that Sirius *knew* that kid will take the implied dare, again takes Snape's choice away from him. How  exactly did Sirius know that? He could have suspected that Snape will go, sure, but still Snape and only Snape decided to go and it is as far as I know canon fact. And I do not remember the canon which says that Sirius *dared* him to do anything either. Sirius gave him the information, Snape used it. Sirius did not tell him the whole information, for sure. Once Snape decided to use it, absolutely he could have been killed easily (not a great loss if you ask me but I digress), and as I said many times Remus, whom I see as the only truly innocent in this thing could have been executed.
>Snip>

> But it will always boggle my mind when Snape is described as somebody who did not have a choice in the matter and thus an innocent one. Duped, for sure, big time. Could have been killed? Absolutely. But as far as I am concerned, nobody dared him or  *knew* that he would have taken the dare. 
> 
> JMO,
> Alla

Steve E replies:  I agree completely w/ Alla here. Didn't Dumbledore say to Harry in essence that we are defined by the choices we make?  There is a well known triangle of human interaction known in therapeutic evaluation that consists of a person acting either as a Rescuer, a Victom, and/or a Persecutor. Those who defend Snape and make him out to be a victom in this situation at least, and consequently make Sirius out to be a Persecutor, do so subjectively because of personal reader bias for and against certain characters.  When you look at this scenario with a bit more objectivety, we can clearly see that Snape did have a choice in the matter and wasn't forced in any magical or non magical ways to act as he did.  Sirius's motives weren't completely innocent either, but he doesn't qualify for being a Persecutor either.  He didn't intentionally commit an act of malice knowing full well the outcome of that act. Sirius may have hoped Snape did what he did, but unless he paid more attention in Divination's class than his future Godson did, he didn't know for sure that Snape would act as he did.

Snape has acted as a Rescuer in many instances, and as a persecutor in some instances as well, but in this case he was not a completely innocent lamb being led to the slaughter so to speak by Sirius. Snape was not a victom here, as he clearly had a choice in the matter.

Both Sirius and Snape were adolescents here, not just Snape. So if you try to excuse Snape because of his age, the same excuse must also equally apply to Sirius, as they both share the same criteria.