I'm probably going to sound very dense here but it's only just occurred to me that of course this is Dumbledore warning Snape off
My reading is that when you combine that passage with this one:
'Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen,' he breathed. 'You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?' 'My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus,' said Dumbledore quietly. (286-287)
You have Dumbledore pulling Snape's choke chain up short -- and since Snape thinks he's doing the *right thing* at the time, he's bewildered by Dumbledore's actions and very frustrated.
I think he spilled Lupin's werewolfism in the morning out of spite and frustration as well an actual concern for the students. From his perspective, Dumbledore had just proved that he wouldn't *do* anything about the dangerous criminal Black, so Snape thinks he HAS to act alone to protect the students from Lupin's reckless endangerment of their lives. The fact that by spilling the secret Snape destroys the career of someone he loathes is just more reason to do it, not less.
I can't decide if that makes me more annoyed for Snape or slightly pleased that at least Dumbledore has the goodness to let him know what's gone on.
I think this is where Snape's faith in Dumbledore starts to break down. This is the first major incident we see where Snape is acting absolutely correctly (with no mercy, but smack on the side of the law) yet Dumbledore cuts his feet out from under him.
Snape is very inflexible, and he wouldn't be able to understand why he is apparently being punished for acting *right*; that apparent rejection of his value seems to have spawned even more intrangiency in the following books. I'm not sure that he was ever told that Sirius was innocent (or would have believed it if he was told), but Snape probably thought by GoF that Dumbledore would chose Sirius over him, no matter what. I'm not surprised that Snape refused to persue teaching Harry Occlumency after the Pensieve incident in OotP -- from his perspective, no one was valuing his efforts, and without Dumbledore there to pressure him, he put his foot down.
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Date: 2004-05-28 11:43 pm (UTC)I'm probably going to sound very dense here but it's only just occurred to me that of course this is Dumbledore warning Snape off
My reading is that when you combine that passage with this one:
'Sirius Black showed he was capable of murder at the age of sixteen,' he breathed. 'You haven't forgotten that, Headmaster? You haven't forgotten that he once tried to kill me?'
'My memory is as good as it ever was, Severus,' said Dumbledore quietly. (286-287)
You have Dumbledore pulling Snape's choke chain up short -- and since Snape thinks he's doing the *right thing* at the time, he's bewildered by Dumbledore's actions and very frustrated.
I think he spilled Lupin's werewolfism in the morning out of spite and frustration as well an actual concern for the students. From his perspective, Dumbledore had just proved that he wouldn't *do* anything about the dangerous criminal Black, so Snape thinks he HAS to act alone to protect the students from Lupin's reckless endangerment of their lives. The fact that by spilling the secret Snape destroys the career of someone he loathes is just more reason to do it, not less.
I can't decide if that makes me more annoyed for Snape or slightly pleased that at least Dumbledore has the goodness to let him know what's gone on.
I think this is where Snape's faith in Dumbledore starts to break down. This is the first major incident we see where Snape is acting absolutely correctly (with no mercy, but smack on the side of the law) yet Dumbledore cuts his feet out from under him.
Snape is very inflexible, and he wouldn't be able to understand why he is apparently being punished for acting *right*; that apparent rejection of his value seems to have spawned even more intrangiency in the following books. I'm not sure that he was ever told that Sirius was innocent (or would have believed it if he was told), but Snape probably thought by GoF that Dumbledore would chose Sirius over him, no matter what. I'm not surprised that Snape refused to persue teaching Harry Occlumency after the Pensieve incident in OotP -- from his perspective, no one was valuing his efforts, and without Dumbledore there to pressure him, he put his foot down.