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

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "fritter_my_wig" <eloiseherisson at a...> wrote:
> 
> 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"?
> 

Kneasy:
As Talleyrand once commented "Treason, your Highness, is often a
matter of dates."
SFAIK we don't have a confirmed timeline of what happened when.
There could be a history between them but the intensity and duration
is up for grabs - and until there is authorial confirmation it's advisable
to examine all options IMO. Apart from the risk of inducing multiple
personality disorder, this can be fun, too. Having an alter ego means
you can always change your mind. Besides, defending alternative 
hypotheses keeps the old grey matter in trim.

I'm deeply suspicious of that "Worst Memory" label. For the time
being I tend to think of it with a question mark tacked onto it. There's
a post somewhere, erm... 80835 'The worst is yet to come' that expands
on this. And true to the ethic of 'why be difficult when with a little effort
you can be downright impossible' there are contrary interpretations that 
can be both entertaining and are not incongruent with the plot -  or at 
least that part of it that has been revealed so far.  For a start it's highly 
likely that whatever passed between Snape and Voldy would be a couple
of magnitudes worse than schoolboy embarrassments. You just don't 
leave Voldy and expect to collect your pension. And other alternative 
readings suggested include: that the boy on the bucking broomstick is
not Snape but James hexed by Snape - which would indicate that there
was a history of animosity  between them; the Black Widower theory
based on the crying child memory - that one's fun and explains why
Snape left Voldy. There's a good chance that there's as many red
herrings in those memories as there are in the Russian trawler fleet.
Listies leap on those memories with glad cries, accepting them at face
value - but Snape himself tells Harry that Legilimancy is not like opening
a filing cabinet, there is no order to memories, WYSIWYG and after a hint
like that caution is advisable. 

> Eloise:
> 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:
Well they would, wouldn't they? Sirius is the sexy beast and he loves Harry
and so can be forgiven everything. The damaged hero syndrome, the 
Heathcliffe of Hogwarts. Not to yours truly.
>From the text he seems to be the fons et origo of the 'Prank', no-one else.
In PoA he still doesn't show regret or contrition, "it was his own fault" would
best sum up his attitude. To be expected from a pure-blood with affectations
of superiority, I suppose.

Either directly or indirectly he's responsible for the deaths of the Potters,
he's a bully, rash, vain, conceited, a failed murderer - and Harry was his 
sole means of maintaining any credibility within the Order, particularly
if he controlled Harry, had the final yea or nay on his involvement - as he 
tried to claim in OoP.
Without Harry he's a total and utter failure. 

> 
> 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.

Kneasy:
Try this: Snape is DD's eyes and ears around Hogwarts, particularly in
regard to Harry. Snape is the watchdog/guardian while Harry is at school, 
he always seems to be around when Harry's up to no good - but it suits 
DD for Harry to believe that Snape dogs his footsteps through vindictiveness
rather than watchfulness. It helps prevent Harry asking awkward questions
and perhaps saying the wrong thing to the wrong person at the wrong time.
It's all part of the DD/Snape double act theory which seems to be more likely
with every book that passes.

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

Kneasy:
I  take it that's a rhetorical question.
No, I'm not planning on seeing the new film, especially following the report
this week that massive computer enhancement has been utilised to eliminate
an embarrassing plague of teenage zits that make-up couldn't cope with.