XPOST: Lupin is Ever So Evil Part One -- The Prank (long)

[fritter_my_wig]

> Kneasy:
> Devious is good, devious is *fun*. Besides one needs to scale the 
heights
> of deviosity in order to pin DD down. 

Eloise:

I'm not objecting to deviosity, just admitting I'm not very good at 
it. :-)

Kneasy:
> The way Sirius recounts things in PoA, there wasn't all that much
> history between WMPP and Snape before this - Sirius is grumbling on
> about "sneaking around" and "sticking his nose in" - there's no
> evidence that it was much more than irritation on the Marauders part
> and 'not minding his own business' on the part of Snape. So why
> would he get so agitated that it was James in particular that came 
to 
> the rescue? No reason at all, that I can see. It's the 
actual 'Prank" and 
> what happened after that is the root of Snape's animus IMO - 
particularly
> that the offenders seem to get off scot-free. 
> Now that really would piss him off.

Eloise:
I'm not sure that's the way JKR intends us to read it. Surely the 
Snape's Worst Memory chapter is supposed to be corroborating evidence 
that there was stuff going on between Snape and MWPP *before* 
the "Prank"?

I confess I do find it fascinating that over here I'm in a discussion 
that accepts that Sirius was culpable for the "Prank" and now you're 
saying that it's the root of the enmity between Sirius/James and 
Snape when over on Main, some posters have been trying to lessen 
Sirius' culpability and suggest that there was some other underlying 
reason (ie some serious piece of history with Snape) for Sirius being 
unable to let go of his grudge.

Kneasy:
> And I certainly don't accept all that flannel  that DD showers on 
Harry -
> alluding to debts or whatever. Load of tripe. Does Snape act as if 
he owes
> anybody anything? Nope. Just the opposite. That was DD flim-flam,
> providing an acceptable motive that Harry could understand without
> asking too many questions.

Eloise:
Possibly, possibly. But Dumbledore had no reason whatsoever to 
mention to Harry  that James had saved Snape's life. He could have 
said something like Lupin did - that he was jealous of his father's 
Quidditch skills or something. See, I think it's *perfectly* in 
character for Snape to hate the fact that he was saved by someone he 
couldn't stand and to be particularly ungracious about it. And why 
shouldn't James and Severus have had a similar, immediate, 
instincitve dislike of each other, the same way Harry and Draco did? 
I think JKR's just sketched it in, but there's enough to imply what 
the situation was.
>  
> > Eloise:
> > BTW, you mentioned timing earlier. The timing really is 
(literally) 
> > incredible. Not only is the timing of the transformation critical 
but 
> > James had to get there just in time to pull Snape back *before* 
he 
> > saw Lupin (or else he wouldn't have needed rescuing, he'd 
presumably 
> > have run of his own accord) but late enough that he did catch a 
> > glimpse of him (presumably over his shoulder).
> > 
> 
> Kneasy:
> Not I.
> That was Pippin, I think.
> But I agree, it is critical.
> Unless you believe the unmitigated rubbish that the director of that
> film had the bare-faced gall to perpetrate on the paying public.

Eloise:

Ah yes. You didn't like the PoA film, did you?
Planning to see GoF?

~Eloise