The Prank: An Utterly Reluctant Reconsideration

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

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.

Comments

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

What about a combination: Snape was forced, or tricked, into some sort of vow, by the threat, overt or covert, of expulsion? He knew he'd keep a verbal promise, but Dumbledore, at the time, would have known about his friends and their ties, and might have insisted on some sort of magical oath.

For the timing vis the Marauders' marauding, it's possible that Snape didn't know about their releasing the werewolf, even if they did it before the 'Prank.' He knew they snuck out. That doesn't mean he knew they were Anamagi, or, if he suspected, that he knew what their forms were. And, it's been stated that the Forbidden Forest had werewolves in it, so even confirmation of Lupin's 'furry problem' wouldn't be as forthright, even if he saw the four of them dancing, transformed, on Hogwarts' lawn.

One thing that really bothers me about defenses of the 'Prank' - everyone assumes that Snape knew he'd end up in an enclosed space at the end of the tunnel. There's no reason to think that. For all he knew, the tunnel ended in the Forbidden Forest, or in a field outside of Hogsmeade, or anyplace but in a room with an untethered werewolf. Even if he suspected a werewolf, he had no reason to consider that he might end up right inside the 'cage' with the beast.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Well, we're told that Sev had seen POPPY take Lupin to the Whomping Willow.

If that tunnel did NOT lead to an enclosed space where the wolf was secured, Hogwarts staff were loosing a werewolf near Hogswarts/Hogsmeade. Committing the Marauders' crime, in fact.

(But you're right, the reader assumption is probably another case of "we all know this, so the character must have too". Sloppy readership.)

Now, if there actually were a werewolf pack in the FF, it could be assumed that the tunnel loosed RL to join them. Maybe (one would hope!) with some barrier at the other end preventing all the werewolves from surging back up the tunnel and invading the Hogwarts grounds....

But, was there really a pack? Or would Severus have believed there to be? Or was that a rumor started by Lupin's and Black's howling? Even if there were, given what werewolf packs seemed like in HBP, would you want a teen boy exposed to and acculterated by them? And would they accept said teen, stinking of wizards as he did?

Of course, would teen!Severus have thought of any of this?


Regarding defenses of the Prank, however, whatever Severus knew or believed, SIrius knew the truth: that he was sending Snape down a tunnel with no escape routes or defensible side rooms, to face an unconfined werewolf in a restricted space.

[seductivedark.livejournal.com]

Sorry, just now re-found this.

If that tunnel did NOT lead to an enclosed space where the wolf was secured, Hogwarts staff were loosing a werewolf near Hogswarts/Hogsmeade...
(snip)
Of course, would teen!Severus have thought of any of this?

I was imagining more of a scene where the suspected werewolf would be led to a secret location and locked inside a cage. This would prevent him from coming back through the tunnel once he was left on his own, and would prevent him from savaging whoever took him down the tunnel if the timing wasn't right.

Interesting thought about the rumored pack of werewolves in the FF actually being started by Lupin's and Sirius's howling. If a pack actually existed in the FF, wouldn't they have been all over Hogwarts grounds on full moon nights?

And, no, I don't think a teenage boy bent on being a knight in shining armor would think logically.