Oh, good, I really detest having to give James any credit....
Though to play Devil's Advocate here, Sev said, "They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"
"He's ill," said Lily. "They say he's ill--"
"Every month at the full moon?"
"They" sneak out, but 'where does "he" keep going... every month at the full moon?'
This could indicate that the Marauders were still in the testing/practising stage of the Animagi transformations. (Where in the castle would be safe to practice such magic?) Sev wasn't saying that "they" were specifically sneaking out on full-moon nights (only). He was definitely trying to accusie Lupin of being a werewolf and Potter both of consorting with a Dark creature (while Lily objected to Sev's friends!) and of getting up to no good on his illicit nocturnal jaunts, but Sev didn't seem aware that the Marauders had threatened anyone's life but his.
There's a continuum from "knew Lupin's lycanthropy and didn't desert him" to "became Animagi and kept him company in the Shack" to "letting the werewolf out of the Shrieking Shack to roam the school grounds and the village by night". We were told that all three had reached the second point sometime in Y5, that Peter was the last, and that Peter, as the smallest, was the one usually used to freeze the Whomping Willow. (Note that Peter, as the smallest, would also be the worst hurt if he were hit... in fact he could most easily be killed.... a risk Sirius and James were heroically prepared to take) But you don't actually need a small animal to operate the Willow, so the other two Marauders could theoretically have entered the tunnel well before Peter had mastered his Animagus form.
Sev's comments do seem to make clear that the Prank happened, at the least, before the Marauders had started letting the wolf out for walksies.
Of course, it would have been insanely stupid of Sev to enter that tunnel on Black's word if he hadn't alredy seen some of the Marauders do so and show up the next day unharmed. (From which he would have inferred that the werewolf was confined in some manner.... ) Still, we were told that Peter was the last to learn the transformation; we weren't told who was first. If Sirius had been the first, and had been down to keep Remus company already, while James was still struggling with the transformation....
I don't think we can rule it out entirely.
A final point I just thought of: Severus apparently never did discover that the Marauders were letting the werewolf out to play in the village and school grounds. It seems hard to believe that he would voluntarily have given up "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled," as Sirius put it. And if Sev had ever discovered the true extent of the Marauders' crimes, the four WOULD have been expelled and/or sent to Azkaban, string-pulling rich Pureblood families irregardless (since any string the Potters or Blacks could pull on behalf of their sons led to someone with family/friends in Hogsmeade or at Hogwarts who'd been directly threatened by the boys' hijinks).
I'd previously argued that only a magical compulsion could have kept Sev from telling Lily, at least, what had really happened. (I mean, the threat of expulsion pales in the face of the potential risk to Lily if she's giving her trust to a werewolf and three other attempted-murderers. Even leaving aside Sev's natural fury at seeing Lily laud as a hero someone who was, instead, a cold-blooded killer who'd realized the odds were unacceptably high against the Marauders getting away with murdering Severus in that manner.)
Did Dumbledore also put a magical compulsion on Severus to stop spying on the Marauders? Could anything less have made Severus do so? For the evidence is that Severus did not spy on the Marauders' nocturnal activities after the Prank.
If Dumbles had, might that not explain Sev's unawareness of his perennial tormenters before the first hex in SWM?
Or did Dumbles simply do something that effectively confined the spying Slytherin, but not the criminal Gryffindors, to his dormitory after curfew?
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2012-08-03 04:39 pm (UTC)Though to play Devil's Advocate here, Sev said, "They sneak out at night. There's something weird about that Lupin. Where does he keep going?"
"He's ill," said Lily. "They say he's ill--"
"Every month at the full moon?"
"They" sneak out, but 'where does "he" keep going... every month at the full moon?'
This could indicate that the Marauders were still in the testing/practising stage of the Animagi transformations. (Where in the castle would be safe to practice such magic?) Sev wasn't saying that "they" were specifically sneaking out on full-moon nights (only). He was definitely trying to accusie Lupin of being a werewolf and Potter both of consorting with a Dark creature (while Lily objected to Sev's friends!) and of getting up to no good on his illicit nocturnal jaunts, but Sev didn't seem aware that the Marauders had threatened anyone's life but his.
There's a continuum from "knew Lupin's lycanthropy and didn't desert him" to "became Animagi and kept him company in the Shack" to "letting the werewolf out of the Shrieking Shack to roam the school grounds and the village by night". We were told that all three had reached the second point sometime in Y5, that Peter was the last, and that Peter, as the smallest, was the one usually used to freeze the Whomping Willow. (Note that Peter, as the smallest, would also be the worst hurt if he were hit... in fact he could most easily be killed.... a risk Sirius and James were heroically prepared to take) But you don't actually need a small animal to operate the Willow, so the other two Marauders could theoretically have entered the tunnel well before Peter had mastered his Animagus form.
Sev's comments do seem to make clear that the Prank happened, at the least, before the Marauders had started letting the wolf out for walksies.
Of course, it would have been insanely stupid of Sev to enter that tunnel on Black's word if he hadn't alredy seen some of the Marauders do so and show up the next day unharmed. (From which he would have inferred that the werewolf was confined in some manner.... ) Still, we were told that Peter was the last to learn the transformation; we weren't told who was first. If Sirius had been the first, and had been down to keep Remus company already, while James was still struggling with the transformation....
I don't think we can rule it out entirely.
A final point I just thought of: Severus apparently never did discover that the Marauders were letting the werewolf out to play in the village and school grounds. It seems hard to believe that he would voluntarily have given up "Sneaking around, trying to find out what we were up to... hoping he could get us expelled," as Sirius put it. And if Sev had ever discovered the true extent of the Marauders' crimes, the four WOULD have been expelled and/or sent to Azkaban, string-pulling rich Pureblood families irregardless (since any string the Potters or Blacks could pull on behalf of their sons led to someone with family/friends in Hogsmeade or at Hogwarts who'd been directly threatened by the boys' hijinks).
I'd previously argued that only a magical compulsion could have kept Sev from telling Lily, at least, what had really happened. (I mean, the threat of expulsion pales in the face of the potential risk to Lily if she's giving her trust to a werewolf and three other attempted-murderers. Even leaving aside Sev's natural fury at seeing Lily laud as a hero someone who was, instead, a cold-blooded killer who'd realized the odds were unacceptably high against the Marauders getting away with murdering Severus in that manner.)
Did Dumbledore also put a magical compulsion on Severus to stop spying on the Marauders? Could anything less have made Severus do so? For the evidence is that Severus did not spy on the Marauders' nocturnal activities after the Prank.
If Dumbles had, might that not explain Sev's unawareness of his perennial tormenters before the first hex in SWM?
Or did Dumbles simply do something that effectively confined the spying Slytherin, but not the criminal Gryffindors, to his dormitory after curfew?