Cedric, Snape and carma was re: Chapter Discussion: Prisoner of Azkaban

[dumbledore11214]

No: HPFGUIDX 190655

Pippin:
<SNIP> And <SNIP>

So, to get back to your original question of what Sirius was thinking, he was
probably thinking, "I'm bored." So, as Lupin put it, he decides it will be
"amusing" to tell Snape how to get into the tunnel.


First he manipulates Snape by putting him in a double-bind. If Snape goes down
the tunnel, he's exposing himself to whatever dangers or humiliations Sirius has
planned for him. Or it could be Sirius is bluffing and there's no danger at all
beneath the willow, just a secret the staff doesn't want the students to know
about.

But if Snape *doesn't* go down the tunnel, he will lose face. Bad enough if
there really is something dangerous under there, and even worse if there isn't,
and Sirius will make sure everyone knows about it.

So, yes, Snape has a choice. But it's a choice between certain humiliation and
possible death. It would take a far more mature and grounded personality than
Snape has at this point to see the first as the more desirable choice, to see
Sirius's taunts as too feeble to hurt him. And Sirius knows that.

But Sirius isn't finished yet -- it would be really stupid for him to let anyone
know what he'd done if he actually was planning this as a murder. He wouldn't
have told anyone what he was up to, and he would have made sure Snape didn't
either.

But the word does get out, and James comes to the rescue. Later on in OOP, we'll
see this is a pattern. Over and over again, Sirius will inform someone he's
going to do something he knows is forbidden and dangerous, and Dumbledore,
Molly, Lupin, Harry and even Snape(!) all try to stop him. Sirius never takes
responsibility for stopping himself.

I think that's really what I like least about him -- it's okay for his friends
to enable his behavior, but when he ropes Harry into doing it, well, that's
ugly.

I want to make it clear I'm not saying Sirius does this deliberately--as Alla
says, it would take years of therapy for him to understand how dysfunctional he
is.



Alla:

And here we are going back to my original disagreement. Here IMO you are again taking Snape's free will away from him. Sirius is putting Snape in the double bind?

Who is Snape here a Zombie? He cant think for himself at all? I do not even give Harry a pass for going to a duel with Draco, where IMO Harry spent significantly less time before that "challenge" wanting to go there, if at all, sorry Snape gets no cookie. Most importantly because I do not see an evidence that Sirius would have told the whole school. I mean, he would tell the whole school about Lupin and who he is? I just do not buy it, I mean I cannot exclude the possibility again, but I just do not buy it, especially if he was not thinking when he was exposing Lupin. To expose him to the whole school would require for me a lot of calm and collected intent. IMO if Snape would not have gone, Sirius would have been very quiet, especially if he indeed liked to play the game "stop me before it too late" as you argue. Because then there would have been no people to stop him. It would have been already too late. 

Which is of course does not take away from my agreement that Sirius wanted Snape to go to the tunnel, *of course* he did! Why else would he have told him the information? No matter what the intent was, he wanted Snape to go there. Only for me Snape and only Snape who spent days (or maybe months, who knows) obsessing over Shrieking shack and its guest decided his final destiny.


Oh and sure, consider me convinced that Lupin would have gotten a hearing before execution :). I am afraid I have no doubt that committee members would have all voted aanonimously and had even less sympathy for werewolf than hyppogriff.

JMO,

Alla