Snape and the Nicknames

[psychic_serpent]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Amanda Geist" <editor at t...> 
wrote:
> Apologies if this has been aired, I have not even remotely been 
following
> everything. Not even all the Snape stuff (gasp).
> 
> Okay, I fail to see how Snape could have missed that Sirius called 
James
> "Prongs" in his memory. It was not the references they were making 
amongst
> themselves, which we can argue away as the Pensieve's ability to 
record the
> totality of the moment rather than the perspective of the 
rememberer. It was
> when Snape was right there and Lily had just refused to go out 
with James.
> 
> Given that. I find it hard to credit that Snape could have known 
that Sirius
> called James "Prongs," and not think that Lupin was connected with 
that name
> at all.
> 
> Given *that*--I find it beyond odd, now, the way Snape reacted 
when the Map
> insults him in PoA. Because he truly does not seem to think Lupin 
was a
> party to the Map or its insults. Or was he hoping to trip Lupin up 
and make
> him reveal himself? From JKR's comments, we now know that Snape is 
indeed
> interested in the DADA post; he doubtless considers himself an 
authority;
> why in the world would he consult Lupin whom he hates? Unless he 
was trying
> to trap him.
> 
> My thoughts are not complete on this; I only noticed this a day or 
so ago in
> rereading. Any input?
 
I see your point entirely, but I always had the distinct impression 
when reading PoA that Snape DID have knowledge of the nicknames they 
had used for each other in school, perhaps through overhearing 
little snippets of conversation like this.  It seems strongly 
implied that he knew about these names when he suggests to Lupin in 
PoA that Harry got the map straight from 'the manufacturers.'  He 
seems to be implying that Lupin himself provided Harry with the map 
to aid in his rule-breaking (and boy, do we get a glimpse of why he 
dislikes Harry's rule-breaking when we see into the Pensieve!).  

I think it's possible that he only heard the names in passing and 
wasn't completely clear which ones belonged to whom, with the 
possible exception of "Prongs."  If he was particularly unclear 
about who was "Padfoot" and who was "Wormtail" that could have led 
to his finding out, when he was a DE, that one of the Potters' 
friends was a traitor, and when Sirius was later caught after 
supposedly killing Peter, that probably would have led him to 
believe that "Wormtail" (which may have been how Voldemort referred 
to Peter when others were around) was Sirius' name.  

That part is pure speculation, of course, but based on his reactions 
to various things in PoA, he seems to have been aware of all four 
nicknames,  and he also seems to have been aware that the hump-
backed witch statue was an entrance to some sort of secret passage 
(he even feels over the statue in a really weird way at one point).  
He obviously spent a lot of time following MWPP around, trying to 
get something on them.  I think he found out quite a lot about them 
(and yet not quite enough) before Sirius tried to get him killed.  
This continuing frustration is something we see him vent at Harry 
repeatedly, especially at the end of PoA, when Sirius escapes and 
Snape declares, seemingly out of the blue, that Harry had something 
to do with it.  He's right, of course.  I wonder what kind of fit he 
threw when Dumbledore finally told him about that. ;)

--Barb