Chapter Discussion: Prisoner of Azkaban Ch 19: The Servant of Lord Voldemort

[nikkalmati]

No: HPFGUIDX 190629



--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "dumbledore11214" <dumbledore11214 at ...> wrote:
>
> 1. 
> "Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year,"
> Harry said. "I've been alone with him loads of times, having defence
> lessons against the dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he
> just finish me off then?" This is a funny quote by Harry, since a couple of  years later he fails to apply same logic. Do you agree or disagree?

Nikkalmati

I assume you mean he was alone with Snape many times but doesn't realize Snape could have harmed him if he had wanted to.  Yes, I agree that Harry is inconsistent, but he did not want to see anything but evil in Snape.  Here he is defending a man he sees as his friend.  
Nikkalmati

 
> 2.  "You fool. Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting innocent man back in prison?" Discuss.

Nikkalmati

This is not likely to convince Snape.  Lupin is insulting him and belittling what happened to Snape years ago.  Lupin is getting out some of his suppressed animosity toward Snape.  However, he also sees that his attempt to reason with Snape has been unsuccessful. He is afraid for Sirius because if Snape turns him in there will be no way to prevent him from going to Azkaban.  Snape, by the way, has no way of knowing Sirius is "innocent."  Even if Snape listened I doubt he would believe what Lupin said.

Nikkalmati 

> 
> 3.  "But you, Peter -- I'll never understand why I didn't see you were the spy from the start." So, discuss why you think Sirius (and James and Lily) did not see this.

Nikkalmati

I think they had so little regard for Peter that they could not think of him acting independently.  We also have seen that Peter has even as a youngster a fawning way about him.  McGonnagal mentioned how Peter followed James and Sirius around.  He was seen as a devoted nitwit.  Peter must have resented they way he was treated as a hanger-on, but his "friends" never saw it, because they never really saw Peter or tried to understand him.  Sirius is wiser now and can see that he should have seen through the obsequious behavior. 

Nikkalmati
     
> 
> 4. "THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" roared Black. "DIED RATHER THAN
> BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"
>  Do you believe this? Do you think it reasonable that Peter did not, regardless of your answer to the first part?

Nikkalmati

Well, yes.  Courage, after all, is the mark of a Gryffindor.  Loyalty is also a important virtue in the books and I am sure all of the Mauraders would have died rather than betray even little Peter.  It was the principle of the thing.  No, I don't think Peter acted reasonaably unless saving his own skin at any cost is reasonable.  He became a willing participant and a loyal follower of LV over the course of time whatever his initial reasons.  He was a traitor and did a good job of it.

Nikkalmati

> 
> 5. Snape's emotions in this chapter reach an intensity he has never displayed before. Did you think he had reasons for it?

Nikkalmati

His emotions had been bottled up for twenty or more years and he blamed the men before him for the death of Lily, I'm sure.  He also thought he was fulfilling his mission of protecting Harry and the lack of respect Sirius gave him (despite being held at want point) drove him batty.  Lupin's remark above probably didn't help.  These were two evil dangerous men, traitors both of them, who needed to be kept under control before they attacked him or got away.  I suppose those are his reasons, but he was at this time beyond reason.  If he would not listen to Hermione, there was no one there he would listen to.  

Nikkalmati  
> 
> 6. Snape thinks Harry should have thanked him on  bended knee because otherwise he would have died just like his father, "too ignorant to believe he must be mistaken in Black". What were your thoughts when you have read this paragraph  for the first time if you remember and what were your thoughts about this paragraph after book seven?
Nikkalmati

I don't recall exactly what I thought originally, except that there was a lot more between James and Snape than I knew about.  After book 7 and now I feel a little sad that Snape was never able to see past James to Harry.  It shows that events conspired to make that identification in Snape's mind (along with a little willful blindness on Snape's part). If Snape had been right about Sirius, of course, this remark would have been correct, but we know Snape was wrong about Sirius (just as Lupin and DD had been wrong).  If Snape had listened, and had Peter been revealed, how different things might have been?

Nikkalmati

> 7. Snape promises to give Sirius and Lupin to the Dementors, did you believe that he will do it?

Nikkalmati

He declared his intention when he entered to return Black to Azkaban.  Then he intends to send two to Azkaban.  I do not think he would have done anything other than what he did do, which was to bring Black and the students up to the castle (Lupin was unavailable).  Snape made this threat to cow Sirius who seemed to have no fear of Snape and therefore was not behaving himself.  It worked too.  

Nikkalmati

> 8. "Sirius says Peter passed information to Voldemort for a year. Why do you think Peter did this? 

Nikkalmati


I think Peter was genuinely afraid and directly threatened by LV at some point.  He became a convert too because he spied for a long period and then helped LV to return.  He had a tendency to attach himself to power to advance himself; he became convinced that LV was the coming thing and he did not want to be left out.  He must have believed LV's philosophy too.  He doesn't seem to have any genuine feelings for anyone in the books.

Nikkalmati  
>