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deathtocapslock2012-08-02 10:15 pm
terri-testing.livejournal.com) wrote in deathtocapslock2012-08-02 10:15 pm
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The Prank: An Utterly Reluctant Reconsideration
I really, really hate to be fair-minded. But sometimes I just can’t help it.
Regarding the Prank, I’ve always dismissed Lupin’s claim that James had risked his own life to save Snape’s as a feel-good lie to make James look good to his orphaned son, on the same level as “Severus loathed James because James was talented at Quidditch, not because (heavens, no!) James was a nasty entitled little jerk who was talented at making life a misery for everyone not as rich and Pureblooded as himself.”
And really (going back to the Prank), James would always have had the option of transforming into a stag had Moony actually caught up with the two of them, right? Fierce debates on Snapedom years ago over the Prank, over whether a stag (with or without antlers) could have run or even stood up in that tunnel aside, we ended up agreeing that transformed-James could at least have lain down in it.
And he knew that when transformed, Moony wouldn’t bother him.
I mean, didn't he?
We know that the Prank happened before SWM, which happened at the end of Snape and the Marauders’ fifth year. And we know that sometime during that school year, the Marauders all learned to become Animagi and started letting Moony out to frolic, themselves immune to the danger they were exposing others to.
But someone (I don’t remember who, at this remove) once suggested that Sirius might have sent Snape down that tunnel as a prophylactic measure—to get rid of the sneak BEFORE he could inform on the Marauders’ seriously criminal behavior.
Perhaps, before they had even started engaging in the seriously criminal behavior of letting loose a class XXXXX dangerous creature in an inhabited area?
Perhaps… before they were actually capable of such behavior?
We don’t know for sure when exactly in fifth year James learned to transform, or when he verified that his stag-form wasn’t viewed as prey by the werewolf.
If Sirius sent Snape down that tunnel before James could reliably transform, or before James knew for sure that the werewolf would leave the stag alone, then James WAS risking his life in going after Severus.
Even though he still would have been motivated more by CYA (or C. Your Friends’ A.) rather than by any concern for Snape’s well-being, which to my mind would rather let Severus off the hook for a “life debt.”
Still, maybe I’ve been failing to give James his due for taking real risks to save his friends, at least.
Regarding the Prank, I’ve always dismissed Lupin’s claim that James had risked his own life to save Snape’s as a feel-good lie to make James look good to his orphaned son, on the same level as “Severus loathed James because James was talented at Quidditch, not because (heavens, no!) James was a nasty entitled little jerk who was talented at making life a misery for everyone not as rich and Pureblooded as himself.”
And really (going back to the Prank), James would always have had the option of transforming into a stag had Moony actually caught up with the two of them, right? Fierce debates on Snapedom years ago over the Prank, over whether a stag (with or without antlers) could have run or even stood up in that tunnel aside, we ended up agreeing that transformed-James could at least have lain down in it.
And he knew that when transformed, Moony wouldn’t bother him.
I mean, didn't he?
We know that the Prank happened before SWM, which happened at the end of Snape and the Marauders’ fifth year. And we know that sometime during that school year, the Marauders all learned to become Animagi and started letting Moony out to frolic, themselves immune to the danger they were exposing others to.
But someone (I don’t remember who, at this remove) once suggested that Sirius might have sent Snape down that tunnel as a prophylactic measure—to get rid of the sneak BEFORE he could inform on the Marauders’ seriously criminal behavior.
Perhaps, before they had even started engaging in the seriously criminal behavior of letting loose a class XXXXX dangerous creature in an inhabited area?
Perhaps… before they were actually capable of such behavior?
We don’t know for sure when exactly in fifth year James learned to transform, or when he verified that his stag-form wasn’t viewed as prey by the werewolf.
If Sirius sent Snape down that tunnel before James could reliably transform, or before James knew for sure that the werewolf would leave the stag alone, then James WAS risking his life in going after Severus.
Even though he still would have been motivated more by CYA (or C. Your Friends’ A.) rather than by any concern for Snape’s well-being, which to my mind would rather let Severus off the hook for a “life debt.”
Still, maybe I’ve been failing to give James his due for taking real risks to save his friends, at least.
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The trio cannot stand up straight in it for parts in DH, but Sirius can float Snape out in a vertical position (even tho' he bumps Snape's head on the ceiling every so often) in PoA.
If it can be considerable smaller in 4 years, then how much might it have filled in during the time between school years '75-'76 and '93-'94?
As for whether or not the Marauders had yet discovered whether they were safe as animagi before the prank - It is horrible enough to think that Remus ever forgave Sirius for the 'prank' - but IF it had happened at a point in time where Sirius wouldn't dare go there himself? Then there is absolutely NO WAY the other Marauders can believe that Sirius thought it a 'prank' and not an outright murder attempt. Once they know THEY are safe, Sirius at least has the excuse of not really thinking it through. IF he hasn't proven to himself (and the other Marauders) that Remus can be safe to be around, then Sirius doesn't have that 'out'.
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Here's Harry and Hermione first entering it in PoA:
"This way," said Harry, setting off, bent-backed, after Crookshanks....
They [H&H] moved as fast as they could, bent almost double; ahead of them, Crookshank's tail bobbed in and out of view. On and on wnet the passage; it felt at least as long as the one to Honeydukes..... All Harry could think of was Ron and what the enormous dog might be doing to him.... He was drawing breath in sharp, painful gasps, running at a crouch....
But two chapters later, yes, Harry and Sirius are carrying on an emotionally-fraught conversation, without ever noticing they are crouching the whole time, while Lupin, Pettigrew, and Ron, chained together, were turned sideways to fit down the tunnel while also (one presumes) bending over double.
Getting back into the tunnel was difficult. Lupin, Pettigre, and Ron had to turn sideways.... Hary could see them edging awkwardly along the tunnel in single file. Crookshanks was still in the lead. Harry went right after Black, who was still making Snape drift along ahead of them; he kept bumping his lolling head on the low ceiling. Harry had the impression Black was making no effort to prevent this.
So going DOWN the tunnel it was so low that two teens had to crouch the whole way. Coming back, it was so NARROW that three people chained together (none of them large) had to go single-file.
Um, while simultaneously bending over double? Does anyone else notice the contradiction here? I mean, when I'm crouch "double" to reduce my vertical footprint, I'm automatically increasing the horizontal space I occupy.
Let's pause to visualize this fully. Three people, chained together, bent over double, are making their way-single-file, sideways, down a long (half-mile? Two mile?) tunnel. One is a twitchy werewolf, feeling the pull of the moon. One is a rat Animagus, desperate to escape.
One is a fourteen-year-old boy hobbling on a broken leg. Which has been crudely splinted, not set, and he's had no painkillers.
And Ron's inching his way along, sideways, down a tunnel, bent almost double the whole way? While being sporadically jerked off his balance by the restless wolf and the terrified and longing-to-escape criminal?
For MILES?
Um, yeah.
*
Sorry, I specialize in Watsonian apologia, but my imagination fails at this. I don't think there IS a way to parse this one except in Doylist terms: That JKR failed, spectacularly, to think about what she wrote, and her editors failed utterly to correct her.
There's no way to make the tunnel that Jo actually wrote in her various iterations work. So any meta-writer or fanfic author is free to make the tunnel whatever works in hir own works. BUT SUCH A WRITER MUST (unlike Jo) be internally consistent if s/he wishes to be honorable.
That is, if I write a meta on the Potterverse contingent on, say, the tunnel being only navigable by running wolves, I can't turn around the next day and say adults could stroll down the same tunnel.
Even though Jo effectively did.
*
(Of course, I CAN honorably write fanfics or metas exploring opposing possibilities--that the tunnel was open to humans, or that it was nearly closed. So long as I signal which possiblity a particular fic/meta was choosing to explore. And so long as I don't try to switch in mid-fic or mid-meta as plot-convenience drives me.)
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Omg, that might actually work!
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When something doesn't make sense - its magic!
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It's magicked to be passable, but only ever with difficulty. But either the first human entering sets the parameters for difficulty, or in the case when multiple people are in the tunnel, it sets itself to "difficult for the largest/most burdened" in the group (for the whole length of the tunnel, apparently). Ron could NOT possibly have traversed that passage doubled-over with a broken leg, so it allowed him to travel upright, but narrowed so his group had to go sideways.
And most likely Poppy and Albus had an override that expanded it to allow adults to stroll briskly along.
Were this actually the case, Dumbledore's overwhelmingly-inadequate security measures for ickle Remus were quite a bit more sophisticated than we had ever realized.
If any student got idly curious about the Willow and somehow discovered the tunnel (and eventually the knot to freeze the Willow), if they entered it they'd find themselves in a claustrophobicly-tight and uncomfortable space. How far would an idler explore before giving the tunnel up in disgust? Even a Weasley twin might hesitate after the first several hundred yards with nothing of interest.
And Remus--as long as no (untransformed) human had first entered the tunnel, if the werewolf ever did so the tunnel would constrict itself to force the wolf to crawl on its belly. Even if the wolf sensed that there were human scents wafting down that long, long, tunnel from the far-off entrance, it would take the wolf forever to get near them. And it couldn't ever get up the momentum to make a break past the Willow's branches.
If the tunnel did work that way, the only possible exposure, thought Dumbledore, would be if some student was stupid/unlucky enough actually to enter on full-moon night after moonrise. When hir presence would enlarge the tunnel enough to allow the wolf to lope down it to investigate the offered snack.
And how likely was that?
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When Harry and Hermione first enter, they expect a dark narrow hole in the ground and that's what they get. When Sirius and Harry leave again, they are so deep in conversation that they don't think about the tunnel and it let's them pass easily.
The same with the Marauders, they knew it's large enough to let them through and so it did and they might even have gotten more confident each time, making the tunnel broader and the ceiling higher.