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

[Joey Smiley]

No: HPFGUIDX 190667

> > > 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.
> > 
> > Joey:
> > 
> > Hmm, interesting. I read it slightly differently [especially after reading the way Sirius & Lupin responded to Harry when he spoke to them about SWM in OoTP]. I think Lupin really thought that Snape should not let his past with Sirius skew his actions and that he should rather consider the mistake in throwing an innocent man in Azkaban. While I certainly agree that Lupin doesn't see how deep and painful the hurt has been for Snape, I think he is right in saying a grudge should not drive one commit a sin. I think he mentioned the word "schoolboy" to indicate that all people involved [Snape, Sirius, James, Lupin] were immature at that point.

Nikkalmati responded:

> It was the word "fool" that I thought was insulting.  I am struggling to identify SWM as something other than single white male.  What is that?  I reiterate:  there is no reason for Snape to believe Sirius is innocent.  He was not privy to Sirius' story or Peter's. He thinks Sirius is guilty as hell -both past and present- and Lupin is guilty of helping him.  He thinks Peter is dead, if he thinks about him at all. He also thinks he and the students are in serious danger. The so-called grudge is only a small part of Snape's thinking.  That's one reason he won't listen to Lupin.   

Joey now:

Oh sorry, SWM refers to the chapter titled Snape's Worst Memory in Book 5. :-) 

You are right about Snape's viewpoint. I can understand Snape's refusal to trust Sirius - Sirius never showed any good side of his to Snape. But then Snape also fails to consider another point: just the way DD trusts him for a major reason known only to the two of them, DD may have strong reasons to trust Lupin as well - DD did silence Snape when he tried to suggest that Lupin must have let Black in the castle. We see that only James, Sirius, Peter enjoy what they do to Snape. While Lupin did not try to stop them [not a great quality, I admit], he at least never encouraged or enjoyed what they did. So, Snape could have at least heard Lupin's account of the story? 

Cheers,
~Joey :-)