Dark Magic Doth Never Prosper, Part II

[terri_testing]

Part II contains:

Drawback to Not Teaching the Dark Arts
Harry: Seriously Evil Wizard Coming Through?
Blood/Death Magic, Lily’s Sacrifice, and Albus (The White One)
Why Teach that Dark = Evil?
Historical Considerations

Comments

The Map

[terri_testing]

What Severus knew about the Map (and what Remus glossed over) is that it didn't just regurgitate canned insults--it insulted Severus personally. So it did "think for itself" to at least some extent; it identified the victim, and tailored its insults to him. And it speaks in the voices of the teenaged Marauders but with understanding of the passage of time. (That is, it insults Profesor Snape, not teen-Snivellus, but using the teen-Marauders' knowledge of Snivellus.)

I wonder, if, say, Lockhart had tried the Map, someone whom the teen-Marauders hadn't known, how would the Map have insulted him?

Severus finds the parchment in Harry's possession after an illegal excursion to Hogwarts. He doesn't know it's a map, but he must wonder--he's already speculated--whether the voices of the Marauders had given Harry "instructions to get into Hogsmeade without passing the Dementors?" (One of the Marauders' areas of expertise--and indeed they had, if not precisely by texting Harry.) In which case Severus must have suspected that Remus (one of "the manufacturers") smuggled it somehow to Harry to lure Harry to Hogsmeade, into Sirius Black's clutches!

Really, Sev, that made your decision to confront Lupin quite stupid, didn't it? You should have taken the parchment to the headmaster as proof of Lupin's perfidy.

Obviously Albus didn't believe Severus afterwards without the parchment for evidence, and obviously Albus didn't make Remus give the parchment to him and explain it.

But then, this is not the only time we've seen signs that Snape actually cared more strongly about Harry's safety than grandfatherly old Albus did.