The Shrieking Shack Turnabout

The Shrieking Shack Turnabout ✨

Is Severus Snape evil for giving Sirius Black to the Aurors?

(spoiler: no)

Introduction

Have you ever read that Severus Snape not only let Sirius Black rot in Azkaban, but also that he tried to give him to the Dementors even though he knew all along that he was innocent and that Pettigrew was the real traitor? If you haven’t, know that this is among the many things that antis have gotten wrong about the books. We have already dealt with the first wrong statement in our previous video, Pettigrew the Secret Spy, in which we conclude quite simply: Severus couldn’t know, neither that Peter was a Death Eater, nor that Sirius was innocent.

Today, I’ll also show you why Severus Snape didn’t know that Sirius Black wasn’t the traitor who got Lily killed and tried to murder her son, why he couldn’t know that Pettigrew was alive, and why him desperately trying to have Sirius Black meet justice was not an act of pure evilness.

“Snape heard that Peter was an Animagus and Sirius was innocent”

As Lupin and Sirius explain the situation to the Trio, Snape enters the Shack under the Invisibility Cloak that Harry has left at the foot of the Whomping Willow:

Lupin broke off. There had been a loud creak behind him. The bedroom door had opened of its own accord.

This is where Snape can finally bear witness to their explanations. Contrary to the belief that he wouldn’t listen because he was driven by a horrible wish of revenge, and instead of incapacitating Sirius and Lupin immediately, Snape chooses to wait and listen to what they’ve got to say.

If you pay attention, you will notice that at no point between the moment Snape enters the Shack under the Cloak and the moment he is knocked unconscious by the Trio :

There was a blast that made the door rattle on its hinges; Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out.

is it explained that Sirius was innocent, that Pettigrew was alive or that he was the real Secret Keeper. Snape doesn’t even know that Peter was the Animagus rat named Scabbers, all he knows is that he was the smallest Animagus of the Potter gang. That could be anything: Crookshanks, a cat, could slip under the Whomping Willow’s branches and touch the knot on the tree; Rita Skeeter was a beetle Animagus.

All of this is confirmed later:

“Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds.”

“That was because you were knocked out, Professor!” said Hermione earnestly. “You didn’t arrive in time to hear.”

Indeed, even when Peter escapes:

“[…] they had no one but Snape for company, still hanging, unconscious, in midair.”

If Snape had known that Peter was probably the rat in Ron’s hands, then you can fairly bet Snape would have taken his precautions and tried to incapacitate Peter while tolerating—but with caution—the presence of Lupin and, yes, even Sirius Black. It is still one enemy down, and not anybody: the traitor who sold Lily to Voldemort and now represents a danger to her son.

So no, Severus never learned in the Shack that Sirius Black was innocent, or Peter Pettigrew, the true traitor. If anything, with Lupin’s confession, he learns more elements to prove that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin are dangerous individuals who cannot be trusted.

“Snape is guilty of not giving Black and Lupin the benefit of the doubt”

First reason it’s untrue, Snape actually does give them the benefit of the doubt

As we said earlier, Severus waits and listens to Black and Lupin, giving them the time to explain themselves. Problem is, Lupin is taking forever to explain a story that could be summarized in seconds. For instance: “Peter is a rat Animagus, in fact he is the rat that Weasley is holding in his hand. He’s got a finger missing, doesn’t he, the same finger we recovered from Pettigrew? Don’t you think it’s unnatural that this rat has been alive for 12 years in your family? That he started losing weight just when Sirius Black fled Azkaban? Just give me the rat and we’ll use the Animagus Reversal Spell on it. If he’s not Peter, it won’t hurt him; if it is, we’ll have caught the true culprit.” Done.

But Lupin argues that he has to explain the whole plot’s backstory. Sirius remarks that he can always explain it later, or at least, he can do it quickly.

“WAIT! You can’t do it just like that — they need to understand — we’ve got to explain —”

“We can explain afterwards!” snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off. […] “If you’re going to tell them the story, get a move on, Remus. I’ve waited twelve years, I’m not going to wait much longer.”

Looks like we’re all gonna wait twelve more years so that Lupin can get his self-pitying boo-hoo out of his chest. Lupin could have explained the detailed story later. Ideally, he could have confessed everything to Dumbledore face-to-face as they delivered Peter. It could be that simple, but instead Lupin decides to go exactly against what Sirius recommended, and deliver a dramatic monologue à-la-Rowling in the most inappropriate time. I guess it allows prolonging the suspense before the climax, but it just feels like fillers. It took three chapters to cover the entire Shrieking Shack event, around forty pages in this edition, and as for that specific part where Snape is under the Cloak, it takes ten pages, around 10 minutes in-universe, listening to Lupin’s tale and getting not a single proof that Sirius was innocent or a single mention that Peter was Scabbers. Thank God the movie made it way shorter.

Second, Snape’s duty as a teacher lies in securing the children away from the (potential) criminals, not in listening to their drama with the children and his own lives at stake. That’s the job of the authorities

Three, it is completely illogical and incoherent for Snape to listen to Black and Lupin any more, let alone believe them.

In the timespan Severus gives himself to listen to Lupin’s confession, he only gets the confirmation that neither Lupin nor Black can be trusted; rather, they are dangerous men capable of brainwashing the children, of murder and of covering it up. Let’s see for instance how trustworthy Sirius Black proved himself to be during this particular school year.

It starts with slashing the Fat Lady’s portrait just because she refused to give him access to Gryffindor Tower. He was so violent that the Fat Lady ran away sobbing and hid for weeks, refusing to go back to her post.

The Fat Lady had vanished from her portrait, which had been slashed so viciously that strips of canvas littered the floor; great chunks of it had been torn away completely. […]

“She’s a horrible mess. Saw her running through the landscape up on the fourth floor, sir, dodging between the trees. Crying something dreadful,” he said happily. “Poor thing.” he added unconvincingly. […] “He got very angry when she wouldn’t let him in, you see.” Peeves flipped over and grinned at Dumbledore from between his own legs. “Nasty temper he’s got, that Sirius Black.”

The Fat Lady is not the only one scared and shocked by this violence. Only a “lunatic” like Sir Cadogan could accept the risk of facing Sirius Black.

“He’s a complete lunatic,” said Seamus Finnigan angrily to Percy.

“Can’t we get anyone else?”

“None of the other pictures wanted the job,” said Percy. “Frightened of what happened to the Fat Lady. Sir Cadogan was the only one brave enough to volunteer.”

The whole school then has to sleep in the Great Hall under the watch of all the professors, waiting for the danger to come or to pass. A sentient Hogwarts portrait has just been violated, the school is under attack — the children and the professors are terrorized.

Some time later, Sirius Black attacks again. He steals a sheet of paper with all the passwords on it, enters the Gryffindor dormitories, slashes Ron’s curtains and appears again, upon him, with a twelve-inches long knife in hand. Ron wakes up screaming, and Hermione will cry because she thought Sirius was about to stab Ron to death.

“AAARRGGHH! NOOO!”
Ron was sitting up in bed, the hangings torn from one side, a look of utmost terror on his face. Black! Sirius Black! With a knife!”
“Here! Just now! Slashed the curtains! Woke me up!”
“IT WASN’T A NIGHTMARE!” Ron yelled. “PROFESSOR, I WOKE UP, AND SIRIUS BLACK WAS STANDING OVER ME, HOLDING A KNIFE!”
“… I was asleep, and I heard this ripping noise, and I thought it was in my dream, you know? But then there was this draft… I woke up and one side of the hangings on my bed had been pulled down… I rolled over… and I saw him standing over me… like a skeleton, with loads of filthy hair… holding this great long knife, must’ve been twelve inches…”
“Really upset, she was, when Black nearly stabbed yeh, Ron. She’s got her heart in the right place, Hermione has, an’ you two not talkin’ to her —”

The Fat Lady, weeks after the attack and finally restored, is still so scared she requires extra protection to get back to her post. She’s been effectively traumatized by Sirius Black. And it’s not like he ever apologized. She’s just… forgotten.

“[…] the Fat Lady was back. She had been expertly restored, but was still extremely nervous, and had agreed to return to her job only on condition that she was given extra protection. A bunch of surly security trolls had been hired to guard her.

So Sirius Black was violent, and it didn’t stop at that, it kept on against Harry and his friends.

He jumped on his godson as a bear-sized dog and to Harry, it felt as though his ribs had been broken. He dived at Harry again and his jaw closed on Ron’s arm instead. Why is it that Sirius was charging again against Harry, and did he plan to bite him and drag him to the Whomping Willow like he did for Ron, even though Harry didn’t have Scabbers in hand? I don’t know, don’t ask me because what Sirius did makes no sense. Then Sirius dragged Ron to the Willow without even taking care to touch the knot on the tree, meaning that the Willow could have severely harmed any of the children. Sirius forced Ron into the tunnel so mercilessly that his leg broke and Ron spent the rest of the night in agony.

Harry reached for his wand, but too late — the dog had made an enormous leap and the front paws hit him on the chest; he keeled over backward in a whirl of hair; he felt its hot breath, saw inch-long teeth —

But the force of its leap had carried it too far; it rolled off him. Dazed, feeling as though his ribs were broken, Harry tried to stand up; he could hear it growling as it skidded around for a new attack. Ron was on his feet.

As the dog sprang back toward them he pushed Harry aside; the dog’s jaws fastened instead around Ron’s outstretched arm. Harry lunged forward, he seized a handful of the brute’s hair, but it was dragging Ron away as easily as though he were a rag doll —

[…] “Ron!” Harry shouted, trying to follow, but a heavy branch whipped lethally through the air and he was forced backward again. All they could see now was one of Ron’s legs, which he had hooked around a root in an effort to stop the dog from pulling him farther underground — but a horrible crack cut the air like a gunshot; Ron’s leg had broken, and a moment later, his foot vanished from sight.

Sirius Black sees no problem in hurting children and is unnecessarily violent. He wanted Harry and Hermione to endanger themselves so they could follow him in the Shack. Ron will suffer a lot because of Sirius. He doesn’t just break Ron’s leg — he jumps on it, making a child yell in pain.

On the floor beside him, clutching his leg, which stuck out at a strange angle, was Ron.
“Not a dog,” Ron moaned. His teeth were gritted with pain.
Ron crawled to the four-poster and collapsed onto it, panting, his white face now tinged with green, both hands clutching his broken leg.
“I meant to,” he growled, his yellow teeth bared, “but little Peter got the better of me… not this time, though!” And Crookshanks was thrown to the floor as Black lunged at Scabbers; Ron yelled with pain as Black’s weight fell on his broken leg.

I’d like to draw your attention to a particular passage. At the beginning, in the Shack, Sirius disarms the Trio and seemingly taunts Harry, who retaliates. And then:

But Black’s free hand had found Harry’s throat. “No,” he hissed, “I’ve waited too long —” The fingers tightened, Harry choked, his glasses askew. Then he saw Hermione’s foot swing out of nowhere. Black let go of Harry with a grunt of pain; Ron had thrown himself on Black’s wand hand and Harry heard a faint clatter —

Yes. He was not just unnecessarily aggressive.

Sirius strangled Harry.

He strangled his 13 years-old godson, and it takes Hermione kicking him for Sirius to let go. Notice how even Ron is willing to throw himself on Sirius’ hand, probably also in an attempt to stop him from laying a hand on Harry again.

I don’t know if you can realize how dangerous and traumatic it is to be strangled… You can lose consciousness in 20 seconds and you can have severe long-lasting injuries. As a little article put it: “Strangulation is an ultimate form of power and control, where the batterer can demonstrate control over the victim’s next breath; having devastating psychological effects or a potentially fatal outcome.”

While you can argue that Sirius was only trying to defend himself when Harry was « trying to punch every inch of him he could reach », as a grown man, he can think of either pushing Harry away, grabbing his wrists to stop him, turn back into a dog or something similar. Strangling is admittedly a strange way to defend oneself from a grief stricken and rage filled child. It is also far more dangerous than a slap or shoving someone away.

Now you could add that it’s due to Sirius Black’s madness… But remember, as our fellow antis love to parrot, “being abused does not justify abuse”. So Sirius remaining in the company of the Dementors doesn’t excuse him for strangling his godson, even if it explains it…

The point is: Sirius remains unstable and brutal.

He never needed to resort to such violence, and he is objectively a threat to Harry.

Plot-wise, Sirius has made everything harder to understand. He only shows he is just the type of man to be a crazy mass murderer, and he keeps confusing the reader — and thus, the people involved.

His yellow teeth were bared in a grin. It was Sirius Black. “Expelliarmus!” he croaked, pointing Ron’s wand at them. Harry’s and Hermione’s wands shot out of their hands, high in the air, and Black caught them. Then he took a step closer. His eyes were fixed on Harry. “I thought you’d come and help your friend,” he said hoarsely. His voice sounded as though he had long since lost the habit of using it. “Your father would have done the same for me. Brave of you not to run for a teacher. I’m grateful… it will make everything much easier…” The taunt about his father rang in Harry’s ears as though Black had bellowed it.
[…] there was a blinding flash as the wands in Black’s hand sent a jet of sparks into the air that missed Harry’s face by inches.
But Black’s free hand had found Harry’s throat. “No,” he hissed, “I’ve waited too long —” The fingers tightened, Harry choked, his glasses askew.
“There’ll be only one murder here tonight,” said Black, and his grin widened.
“You killed my parents,” said Harry, his voice shaking slightly, but his wand hand quite steady. Black stared up at him out of those sunken eyes. “I don’t deny it,” he said very quietly.
“Peter Pettigrew’s dead!” said Harry. “He killed him twelve years ago!” He pointed at Black, whose face twitched convulsively. “I meant to,” he growled, his yellow teeth bared, “but little Peter got the better of me… not this time, though!”
“I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for…”
“Hurry up, Remus,” snarled Black, who was still watching Scabbers with a horrible sort of hunger on his face.
“And now you’ve come to finish him off!” “Yes, I have,” said Black, with an evil look at Scabbers.
“Harry… I as good as killed them.”
Harry remembered what Mr. Weasley had told Mrs. Wealsey. “The guards say he’s been talking in his sleep… always the same words… ‘He’s at Hogwarts.’”
“It was as if someone had lit a fire in my head, and the Dementors couldn’t destroy it… It wasn’t a happy feeling… it was an obsession…”

So no wonder you get this from Harry:

“HE WAS THEIR SECRET-KEEPER! HE SAID SO BEFORE YOU TURNED UP. HE SAID HE KILLED THEM!”

Even after Harry has knocked Snape out, he’s not sure whether he’s made the right decision and still believes Black and Lupin potentially guilty:

“Thank you, Harry,” he said.

“I’m still not saying I believe you,” he told Lupin.

Then he regrets what he’s done and:

These words jolted Harry to his senses. “And why did he fake his death?” he said furiously. “Because he knew you were about to kill him like you killed my parents!” […] “And now you’ve come to finish him off!”

“Yes, I have,” said Black, with an evil look at Scabbers.

“Then I should’ve let Snape take you!” Harry shouted.

And that is coming from the heroes’ perspective, who have far more time to understand everything, and less reasons to suspect Sirius to be guilty along with Lupin.

Let’s see how it plays out in Snape’s perspective.

Severus enters the Shack and sees three terrorized children, one of whom is in great pain and cannot run away since his leg has been broken. He witnesses Sirius Black looking at Scabbers with “a horrible sort of hunger on his face,” but to Snape, it looks like he is staring at Ron in hunger, the same kid whose leg he broke. Snape also hears from Sirius: “I don’t want to wait more.” Sirius refers to killing Scabbers, but Snape doesn’t know that. All he knows is that he has to intervene quickly, because Sirius might be referring to killing Harry instead. And considering that Sirius has strangled Harry, it is possible that Severus saw claw marks and finger-shaped bruises around Harry’s throat. Snape might have then deduced that Sirius had strangled Harry even though he hadn’t been there yet to try and prevent it. Yes, being strangled can actually leave marks on your throat, if it doesn’t alter your voice instead, by creating oedema or breaking your trachea.

When Snape arrives in the Shack, it is at a point when Sirius and Lupin are regaling the Trio with the circumstances of the fateful “prank” that almost ended in Snape’s brutal death.

“You see, Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me —“

Black made a derisive noise. “It served him right,” he sneered.

Snape not only holds Sirius accountable, but he also believes that Lupin actively planned his murder along with his friend:

“So that’s why Snape doesn’t like you,” said Harry slowly, “because he thought you were in on the joke?”

“That’s right,” sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin.

Earlier in the book, we learn that Severus considers that actually all of the Marauders were in on the attempted murder:

“Your saintly father and his friends played a highly amusing joke on me that would have resulted in my death if your father hadn’t got cold feet at the last moment.”

So in Snape’s perspective, James, Sirius, Lupin and Pettigrew all had planned to kill him. Only, one of them got cold feet at the last moment — meaning he had intended for the murder but he just chickened out. Why?

“Had their joke succeeded, he would have been expelled from Hogwarts.” [= no wand, no magic]

We learn in OotP that still after the Werewolf Incident, as Snape is being forcefully stripped naked, James considers Severus’ existence a crime—in other words, James says that he’d like Snape dead:

“What’s he done to you?”

“Well,” said James, appearing to deliberate the point, “it’s more the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean…”

“If you know what I mean” probably referring, in Snape’s point of view, to the circumstances surrounding the Werewolf Incident, in which the Marauders tried to murder him, just because he dared existing.

Sirius, in particular, expresses no remorse for the role he played and instead:

“It served him right,” he sneered.

Thus, Snape hears Sirius Black bragging about how he nearly murdered him using his werewolf toy, in the same Shrieking Shack they’re currently standing in; which Snape will remark upon for that very reason:

“Not even I dreamed you would have the nerve to use this old place as your hideout —”

How can he trust the story of two people who kept taking pleasure out of tormenting him, who wanted him dead and tried to make it happen, and got away with it thanks to Dumbledore’s intervention? How can he trust them, when they are seemingly trying to kill Lily’s son and his friends the same way they intended to kill him 19 years earlier?

“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?”

Sirius and Lupin have proven that they are people effectively capable of murdering someone just because they feel like it, and then pass it off as a prank. So Snape comes out and restrains Lupin. Sirius comes forward, roaring, in an attempt to attack him. Yes, Sirius, that’s gonna get the man to listen to you.

With a roar of rage, Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black’s eyes.

Snape, instead of retaliating in self-defense, merely points his wand at Sirius and threatens that if he walks further, then Snape will attack.

“Give me a reason,” he whispered. “Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will.” Black stopped dead.

Before, Snape only planned to bring them to Azkaban — the same sentence Harry wishes for Pettigrew.

“Two more for Azkaban tonight,” said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically.

But then Sirius says he will still manage to come to the castle “quietly” as long as Ron – Harry’s best friend – returns to Hogwarts (we know that Sirius is referring to Wormtail but either Snape assumes that Sirius has an unhealthy obsession with rats or he thinks that Sirius confirms he’s targeting Ron and thus Harry). Another threat, which we know he is capable of executing. Because of this, Snape threatens Black with the use of Dementors.

“The joke’s on you again, Severus,” Black snarled. “As long as this boy brings his rat up to the castle” — he jerked his head at Ron — “I’ll come quietly…”

“Up to the castle?” said Snape silkily. “I don’t think we need to go that far. All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow. They’ll be very pleased to see you, Black… pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay… I —”

We do not know if Severus was truly about to call the Dementors or if it was all a bluff to frighten Black so that he could stop threatening Ron, while making it easier to give him to the authorities, as is expected of a Hogwarts teacher. After all, if Severus only has to call the Dementors to have Sirius Kissed, then why didn’t he try it when Sirius was unconscious near the Lake? Why carry him up to the castle, after finding Ron Confounded and everybody unconscious, when he has the opportunity to do just that? That just fits Snape’s character. He barks rather than bites.

In Snape’s perspective, something even more horrendous could have been happening: Sirius and Lupin seem to have brainwashed the Trio, notably through the use of magic. (Snape would know something about planting ideas and fake memories in people’s minds: that’s what Voldemort did to Harry in OotP, for instance, or to Morfin Gaunt, which we discover in HBP.)

Ron suffers a Confundus Charm at Pettigrew’ hands:

“What did he do to him?” Hermione whispered. Ron’s eyes were only half-closed, his mouth hung open; he was definitely alive, they could hear him breathing, but he didn’t seem to recognize them.

Snape only comes to consciousness in the aftermath when Pettigrew has already fled, thus leading him to conclude it must have been Sirius Black who confounded the Trio.

“Black had bewitched them, I saw it immediately. A Confundus Charm, to judge by their behavior. They seemed to think there was a possibility he was innocent. They weren’t responsible for their actions.”
“You see, Minister?” said Snape. “Confunded, both of them… Black’s done a very good job on them…”

The Minister and Poppy Pomfrey agree that the Trio were not in their right mind:

“Harry, Harry, you’re very confused, you’ve been through a dreadful ordeal, lie back down, now, we’ve got everything under control…”
“Now, Snape,” said Fudge, startled, “the young lady is disturbed in her mind, we must make allowances —”

The terms Snape uses are very telling:

“I suppose he’s told you the same fairy tale he’s planted in Potter’s mind?” spat Snape.

In particular:

“Something about a rat, and Pettigrew being alive —”

Why is this relevant? The book insists repeatedly that believing the rat had anything to do with the Potters’ death was absurd; that Black and Lupin were crazy, notably during the events at the Shack:

“He’s a wizard.” “An Animagus,” said Black, “by the name of Peter Pettigrew.” It took a few seconds for the absurdity of this statement to sink in. Then Ron voiced what Harry was thinking. “You’re both mental.” “Ridiculous!” said Hermione faintly.
“You’re nutters, both of you,” said Ron shakily, looking round at Harry and Hermione for support. “I’ve had enough of this. I’m off.”

He tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but Lupin raised his wand again, pointing it at Scabbers. “You’re going to hear me out, Ron,” he said quietly. “Just keep a tight hold on Peter while you listen.”

“HE’S NOT PETER, HE’S SCABBERS!” Ron yelled […].

“Peter’s alive. Ron’s holding him, Harry.” Harry looked down at Ron, and as their eyes met, they agreed, silently: Black and Lupin were both out of their minds. Their story made no sense whatsoever. How could Scabbers be Peter Pettigrew? Azkaban must have unhinged Black after all — but why was Lupin playing along with him?
Then Hermione spoke, in a trembling, would-be calm sort of voice, as though trying to will Professor Lupin to talk sensibly. “But Professor Lupin… Scabbers can’t be Pettigrew… it just can’t be true, you know it can’t…”
“This cat isn’t mad,” said Black hoarsely.
Harry’s brain seemed to be sagging under the weight of what he was hearing. It was absurd… and yet…

It takes Lupin and Black transforming Peter back into a human—after Snape is knocked out—for the Trio to believe them. Well, as in, they finally believe that Scabbers was Pettigrew, but it still takes more for the Trio to believe that Pettigrew was truly guilty. So imagine how wacky such a story must be for Snape, who has less than half the evidence to prove Sirius Black’s version of the story.

In any case, thanks to all of this confusion and Sirius Black’s violent crimes, Dumbledore reaches the same conclusion any informed reader would:

“There is not a shred of proof to support Black’s story, except your word — and the word of two thirteen-year-old wizards will not convince anybody. A street full of eyewitnesses swore they saw Sirius murder Pettigrew. I myself gave evidence to the Ministry that Sirius had been the Potters’ Secret-Keeper.”

Snape fully expected gratitude from the Trio because he was convinced of Black and Lupin’s guilt.

“Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on bended knee! You would have been well served if he’d killed you! You’d have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black […].”

Earlier in the book, we read:

“Black had proved twelve years ago that he didn’t mind murdering innocent people, and this time he had been facing five unarmed boys, four of whom were asleep.”

Regardless Sirius didn’t kill the Potters, Pettigrew or the 12 Muggles, that statement remains true. Even Lupin was convinced that Sirius Black was a murderer:

“Everyone thought Sirius killed Peter,” said Lupin, nodding. “I believed it myself — until I saw the map tonight.”

The Shrieking Shack is not on the map since it’s out of bounds. Lupin saw Pettigrew near the Whomping Willow. By the time Snape came into Lupin’s office and saw the map, Pettigrew was in the Shack and couldn’t be located on the map anymore; only Lupin was visible, running to the Willow. Snape couldn’t see that Peter Pettigrew was still alive.

“Where does this tunnel come out?” Hermione asked breathlessly from behind him.

“I don’t know… It’s marked on the Marauder’s Map but Fred and George said no one’s ever gotten into it… It goes off the edge of the map, but it looked like it was heading for Hogsmeade…”

And even if Snape had somehow seen Peter’s name on it, he could have thought that this was merely a glitch. Fred and George spent many years reading “Pettigrew” on the map, and yet they never did anything about it. Even Lupin couldn’t believe it for a moment.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” said Lupin, still pacing, and ignoring Harry’s interruption. “I thought the map must be malfunctioning. How could he be with you?”

There is every element for Snape to believe that the Trio was being completely manipulated by those dangerous adults who have proven they don’t care about hurting children and innocent people. Every element to believe they are giving Lily’s son the last huge prank of his life, having a good laugh before delivering him and his friends to Voldemort or eating them as animals. Only one thing could have truly convinced Snape: seeing Pettigrew in human form with his own two eyes. But it didn’t happen because Sirius and Lupin fucked up.

“Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack, nor did I see any sign of him on the grounds.”

Dumbledore summarizes the situation quite plainly:

“Sirius has not acted like an innocent man. The attack on the Fat Lady — entering Gryffindor Tower with a knife — without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius’s sentence.”

Four, Snape was unable to listen to his former bullies any longer.

For a whole year, Snape was scared that Lupin was trying to find a way for Sirius Black to break into the school, or to make Harry leave Hogwarts for Hogsmeade by giving him the Marauder’s Map, a tool that Snape deduced gave instructions to leave Hogwarts without passing the Dementors or warning any professor. Everytime Snape expressed his worries that Lupin was trying to abduct Harry, he got brushed off and silenced by the Headmaster.

“You remember the conversation we had, Headmaster, just before — ah — the start of term?” said Snape, who was barely opening his lips, as though trying to block Percy out of the conversation.

“I do, Severus,” said Dumbledore, and there was something like warning in his voice.

“It seems — almost impossible — that Black could have entered the school without inside help. I did express my concerns when you appointed —”

“I do not believe a single person inside this castle would have helped Black enter it,” said Dumbledore, and his tone made it so clear that the subject was closed that Snape didn’t reply.

He confirms this again in the Shack:

“I’ve told the headmaster again and again that you’re helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here’s the proof.”

Imagine the stress he must suffer, to be gaslighted and ignored by Dumbledore like that just to give Lupin the benefit of the doubt, while Sirius Black is savagely trying to murder people.

Snape was once almost killed by Black and Lupin, and Dumbledore silenced him there too. In his eyes, he also failed to protect his best friend Lily from those who bullied him despite his warnings. Snape thus tries to protect an entire school, alone, from the menace of this mass murderer, this crazy child abductor, this high-ranking Death Eater who once ruined Snape’s life and now tries to kill what Lily sacrificed her life for. And of course, Harry doesn’t make any of that easier:

“So,” he said, straightening up again. “Everyone from the Minister of Magic downward has been trying to keep famous Harry Potter safe from Sirius Black. But famous Harry Potter is a law unto himself. Let the ordinary people worry about his safety! Famous Harry Potter goes where he wants to, with no thought for the consequences.”

He is, of course, talking about himself worrying to death for Harry.

More concerning is that after Snape was knocked out, he suffered multiple concussions, which knocked him unconscious for more than half an hour and which made him bleed.

Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the wall, then slid down it to the floor, a trickle of blood oozing from under his hair. He had been knocked out. //

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.

That makes him eligible to be treated in emergency, notably for fear of Second-Impact Syndrome, which is lethal. The symptoms of a concussion include nausea, mental confusion, irritability and oversensitivity to light and noises, which explains why Snape could not bear Harry and Hermione screaming in the Infirmary, as well as his unhinged, abnormal state.

Finally, we know Dementors are particularly vicious against people who suffered trauma or who are racked by guilt and grief, which Snape doubtlessly had. Snape might not have been at the actual Azkaban, but with the hundreds of Dementors prowling around Hogwarts for a year, a highly triggering place in which he is being tormented by the return of his bullies (Sirius, Lupin, Pettigrew + Harry/James), all the while gaslighted and ignored by the Headmaster like after the Werewolf Prank, it all very likely made Severus more unhinged than usual. Lorie Kim, writer of Snape: A Definitive Reading, even argues that this year, Severus was mentally stuck in the past, suffering flashbacks of unresolved trauma, particularly as he was confronting his bullies in the Shack, the very place he once was almost killed in. It was history repeating itself. A Time-Turner experience of its own.

The result? A long thread of words and sentences that prove Snape is in physical, mental and psychological distress. Even his wand is bursting with magic.

Snape was slightly breathless, but his face was full of suppressed triumph.
“Two more for Azkaban tonight,” said Snape, his eyes now gleaming fanatically.
BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of Snape’s wand and twisted themselves around Lupin’s mouth, wrists, and ankles; he overbalanced and fell to the floor, unable to move.
“KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!” Snape shouted, looking suddenly quite deranged. “DON’T TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!” A few sparks shot out of the end of his wand, which was still pointed at Black’s face.
“Vengeance is very sweet,” Snape breathed at Black. “How I hoped I would be the one to catch you…”
But there was a mad glint in Snape’s eyes that Harry had never seen before. He seemed beyond reason.
“SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!” Snape shrieked, looking madder than ever.
And then, as they both took a fourth piece of chocolate from Madam Pomfrey, they heard a distant roar of fury echoing from somewhere above them…
“HE DIDN’T DISAPPARATE!” Snape roared, now very close at hand. “YOU CAN’T APPARATE OR DISAPPARATE INSIDE THIS CASTLE! THIS — HAS — SOMETHING — TO — DO — WITH — POTTER!”
“Severus — be reasonable — Harry has been locked up —”
Fudge appeared angry. But Snape was beside himself.
“OUT WITH IT, POTTER!” he bellowed. “WHAT DID YOU DO?”
“Professor Snape!” shrieked Madam Pomfrey. “Control yourself!”
“See here, Snape, be reasonable,” said Fudge.
“THEY HELPED HIM ESCAPE, I KNOW IT!” Snape howled, pointing at Harry and Hermione. His face was twisted; spit was flying from his mouth.
“Calm down, man!” Fudge barked. “You’re talking nonsense!”
“YOU DON’T KNOW POTTER!” shrieked Snape. “HE DID IT, I KNOW HE DID IT —”
“That will do, Severus,” said Dumbledore quietly. “Think about what you are saying.”
Snape stood there, seething, staring from Fudge, who looked thoroughly shocked at his behavior, to Dumbledore, whose eyes were twinkling behind his glasses.
“Fellow seems quite unbalanced,” said Fudge, staring after him. “I’d watch out for him if I were you, Dumbledore.”

You have never seen Snape shout as madly as at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban. He shrieks so loudly that Harry, who was in the infirmary located on the 3rd floor, could hear Snape howling from Flitwick’s office on the 7th floor where Sirius resided minutes earlier. He could be heard from 4 castle floors below.

Unhinged and crazed as he was, it’s a miracle Snape did not become nearly as violent as Sirius Black has proven to be.

And yet… Snape made the right decisions given the information available to him.

For someone who’s apparently meant to be a vicious, evil man, Snape was being defensive rather than bloodthirsty. Snape’s actions are a matter of de-escalation rather than aggression or open violence. He never once casts a legitimately offensive or harmful spell, his only weapon of control is strictly verbal taunting intended to intimidate and force Black and Lupin’s compliance. He could have easily used the advantage of surprise to do either man great personal injury and justified it to the Aurors by the sole fact that Sirius was a wanted man and Remus Lupin a friend of Sirius Black, his accomplice and a werewolf.

What do we see instead?

One of the first things Snape does when he reveals himself is to restrain Remus Lupin because:

He knows he has forgotten to take his Wolfsbane potion and is about to transform: “You forgot to take your potion tonight, so I took a gobletful along.”
He believes that Lupin is in cahoots with Sirius Black: “I’ve told the headmaster again and again that you’re helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here’s the proof.”
He sees that Lupin sweeps out the attempt on Snape’s life as a mere trick in the Trio’s eyes: “[…], Sirius here played a trick on him which nearly killed him, a trick which involved me —”. And not only does he proceed to tell a string of humiliating victim-blaming half-lies [“He especially disliked James. Jealous, I think, of James’s talent on the Quidditch field… anyway […].”], he also argues that Severus’ rightful attempt to turn Sirius to the authorities is carried out by a mere “schoolboy grudge”: “You fool,” said Lupin softly. “Is a schoolboy grudge worth putting an innocent man back inside Azkaban?”. Lupin gaslights Severus and manipulates the children, proving that he’s still a dangerous bully that needs to be gagged and bound.

Then Snape warns Sirius not to make any aggressive move or he will act in defense:

“Give me a reason, and I swear I will”.

But you know what? Snape already had every reason to kill Sirius. Both objective and personal.

Sirius got Lily killed and Harry orphaned because he was the secret Death Eater spy, Voldemort’s right-hand man and the traitorous Secret Keeper.
He was the convicted murderer of Pettigrew and 12 Muggles.
He repeatedly tried to murder Harry and his friends and was in the process of doing so in the Shack, hurting the children in the meantime.
He already tried to kill Severus in the past and never regretted doing so.
He bullied Severus mercilessly all throughout school.
He repeatedly put people in mortal danger by making a werewolf wander around the school grounds and Hogsmeade, having many “near misses”.
He is an illegal Animagus.

In particular:

Sirius was lunging at Severus aggressively, so if Snape had retaliated, it would have counted as self-defense.
Severus could Avada Kedavra him on the spot and he would receive the Order of Merlin for killing Sirius Black.

The idea of Pettigrew being brought to the Minister as a corpse was perfectly within Dumbledore’s and the Ministry’s acceptance, so it’s likely the same goes for Sirius Black:

“[…] without Pettigrew, alive or dead, we have no chance of overturning Sirius’s sentence.”

Harry, in fact, thinks precisely this:

« I bet you anything Fudge would’ve told Macnair to murder Sirius on the spot…. »

Meaning that Snape would be in his right to kill him, bring the corpse of the escaped Azkaban convict to the Aurors and there would be no complaint. As for Lupin, remember what Dumbledore says:

“I might add that werewolves are so mistrusted by most of our kind that his support will count for very little and the fact that he and Sirius are old friends —”

So Snape could totally have killed Lupin on sight. Few people would complain about the death of a (potentially) convicted werewolf. Snape could have expected praise for killing one off (and for rightful reasons too), but he doesn’t do it.

Sirius and Lupin, in contrast, were ready to kill Peter in cold blood; they’re indifferent at the prospect of becoming killers, and in fact, they seem rather glad of it.

“Of course,” said Black, and the ghost of a grin flitted across his gaunt face. He, too, began rolling up his sleeves. “Shall we kill him together?”

They had to be talked out of committing an act of murder in front of three children, which obviously would have traumatized them. Notice the children’s distress:

“You should have realized,” said Lupin quietly, “if Voldemort didn’t kill you, we would. Goodbye, Peter.” Hermione covered her face with her hands and turned to the wall.

“NO!” Harry yelled. He ran forward, placing himself in front Pettigrew, facing the wands. “You can’t kill him,” he said breathlessly. “You can’t.”

Harry and Severus take the same decision towards the person they believe guilty: not killing the culprits, but instead delivering them to justice, either Azkaban or the Dementors.

“Two more for Azkaban tonight.” – “All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out of the Willow.”

“We’ll take him up to the castle. We’ll hand him over to the Dementors… He can go to Azkaban… but don’t kill him.”

The difference is that Harry spares Pettigrew only because he thinks his dad wouldn’t want Black and Lupin to directly become murderers just for him.

“Get off me,” Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew’s hands off him in disgust. “I’m not doing this for you. I’m doing it because — I don’t reckon my dad would’ve wanted them to become killers — just for you.”

And Harry thinks this because Pettigrew emotionally manipulated him:

“Harry,” whispered Pettigrew, shuffling toward him, hands outstretched. “Harry, James wouldn’t have wanted me killed… James would have understood, Harry… he would have shown me mercy…”

Snape? He spares the one he sees as Lily’s murderer despite the fact that he’s ready to kill. No manipulation involved, nothing but his own will prevents it.

“Vengeance is very sweet,” Snape breathed at Black. “How I hoped I would be the one to catch you…” – “Give me a reason to do it, and I swear I will.”

You could argue that maybe, unbeknown to the reader, Snape had another parallel with Harry, that maybe he spared Sirius from immediate murder just because he believed that’s what Lily would have wanted. But there’s no real Lily in the room to tell him what to do and no one’s using her memory to emotionally manipulate him (like Pettigrew did with James). If Snape believed that the right thing to do was to spare Sirius and Lupin, because that’s what he believes “Lily” would have chosen, then that’s just Snape taking extra steps to do what he believes is morally right. To put in another way: If Snape’s “Lily” is meant to incarnate a good moral compass and if he chooses to believe in that “Lily” hard enough to do what is right, then that just means Snape is fundamentally convinced and driven to do what’s best. That “Lily” is just his mental/spiritual proxy to goodness, which he intimately believes in and tries to attain. (Thus Cursed Child Snape saying: “[…] now I give my allegiance to the cause she believed in. And it’s possible — that along the way I started believing in it myself.”)

In the very place of his childhood trauma, Snape still stands as a contrast between justice and vengeance. Severus intends to turn Sirius Black to the authorities, which is what any teacher trying to protect the children from a criminal should do. It is up to the Minister and the Wizarding World’s judicial system to be condemned for choosing the Dementor’s Kiss as the sentence for a seemingly convicted Death Eater. Not that Lupin, Sirius or the Trio are repulsed by the idea either, considering they were intending to deliver Pettigrew to the Dementors the same way Snape wanted to deliver Black to them. In fact, before Harry discovered that Sirius was innocent, he was informed of what Dementors do:

« What — they kill –? »

« Oh no, » said Lupin. « Much worse than that. You can exist without your soul, you know, as long as your brain and heart are still working. But you’ll have no sense of self anymore, no memory, no… anything. There’s no chance at all of recovery. You’ll just exist. As an empty shell. And your soul is gone forever… lost. » […] « It’s the fate that awaits Sirius Black. It was in the Daily Prophet this morning. The Ministry have given the dementors permission to perform it if they find him. »

His reaction?

Harry sat stunned for a moment at the idea of someone having their soul sucked out through their mouth. But then he thought of Black.

« He deserves it, » he said suddenly.

« You think so? » said Lupin lightly. « Do you really think anyone deserves that? »

« Yes, » said Harry defiantly. « For… for some things… »

For betraying his mother and father. In Snape’s story, it was for betraying Lily. If Harry is rightful for wanting his parents’ murderer sentenced to the Dementors, then Snape is too.

When Pettigrew seems to escape him, Sirius slashes the Fat Lady’s portrait, rams against Harry, tries to bite him, strangles him, bites Ron, drags him to the Willow, breaks his leg and jumps on it.

When Harry tries to prevent him from delivering Sirius to the Aurors, Severus asks Harry four times to get out of the way and he gets knocked unconscious by the Trio he tried to save; precisely because he hasn’t used blunt force like Sirius did.

“Get out of the way, Potter, you’re in enough trouble already,” snarled Snape. “If I hadn’t been here to save your skin —” […] “Don’t ask me to fathom the way a werewolf’s mind works,” hissed Snape. “Get out of the way, Potter.” […] — now get out of the way, or I will make you. GET OUT OF THE WAY, POTTER!”

When Severus is unconscious and Sirius must carry him up to the castle, he keeps making Snape’s head bump against the rocked ceiling, worsening his concussion and making it more likely that Severus gets severe cerebral trauma. Which could kill him.

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.

When Sirius is unconscious and Snape decides to carry him up to the castle, he puts him carefully on a stretcher.

Snape had regained consciousness. He was conjuring stretchers and lifting the limp forms of Harry, Hermione, and Black onto them. A fourth stretcher, no doubt bearing Ron, was already floating at his side. Then, wand held out in front of him, he moved them away toward the castle.

Let’s consider this scene for a moment.

Right now, Snape is pointing his wand at the unconscious, wrecked, defenseless form of Sirius Black, and in his knowledge, no one is around to stop him for what he’ll do next. Sirius has almost managed to escape yet again. Snape has every reason and the perfect opportunity to kill Sirius Black by himself, once and for all. He could use Muffliatto and then Sectumsempra, Crucio or any kind of debilitating torture as revenge against Lily’s murderer and his long-term tormentor. He could bring him to the Dementors right away. And instead of taking the pleasure of being Sirius Black’s executioner… Severus conjures a stretcher for him.

If Snape had been as vengeful, cruel and evil as some fans make him out to be, then Lupin and Black wouldn’t have made it alive. And perhaps, who knows, Pettigrew would have ceased his attempts to flee and bring Voldemort back by himself.

“Sirius and Lupin are blameless”…?

A lot of antis like to shift the blame on Snape for Pettigrew’s escape at the end of PoA. Despite Sirius and Lupin completely messing up Peter’s escort to the castle, antis pretend that Snape’s uncooperativeness was the sole reason Peter managed to escape. A blatant fandom double standard of course, that Snape gets blamed for not giving his former bullies the benefit of the doubt over the course of a few minutes, while Lupin and Sirius hardly get blamed for their misbehavior over the course of an entire year. Let’s bring a little more justice here.

Sirius had multiple opportunities to let someone know of his innocence; instead, he had several violent break-ins into the school. He could have at least informed Dumbledore that the Wealseys’ rat was Scabbers instead of trying to kill Peter directly and terrorizing a school in the process.

You’ll tell me Sirius couldn’t think of that because he was not being in his right mind all the time… but I disagree. When Rosmerta asks if it’s true that Sirius was mad, Fudge argues that on the contrary, Sirius seemed surprisingly normal and unaffected by the Dementors.

“Is it true he’s mad, Minister?”

“I wish I could say that he was,” said Fudge slowly. “I certainly believe his master’s defeat unhinged him for a while. The murder of Pettigrew and all those Muggles was the action of a cornered and desperate man — cruel… pointless. Yet I met Black on my last inspection of Azkaban. You know, most of the prisoners in there sit muttering to themselves in the dark; there’s no sense in them… but I was shocked at how normal Black seemed. He spoke quite rationally to me. It was unnerving. You’d have thought he was merely bored — asked if I’d finished with my newspaper, cool as you please, said he missed doing the crossword. Yes, I was astounded at how little effect the Dementors seemed to be having on him — and he was one of the most heavily guarded in the place, you know. Dementors outside his door day and night.”

In fact, Sirius argues in the same direction:

“I think the only reason I never lost my mind is that I knew I was innocent. That wasn’t a happy thought, so the Dementors couldn’t suck it out of me… but it kept me sane and knowing who I am…”

Sirius was rational enough to buy a top-model, international-level Firebolt broom for Harry and send it to Hogwarts. He was rational enough to attend Harry’s match against Hufflepuff and to communicate with a cat so he could get a list of passwords to access Gryffindor Tower. It doesn’t take much to send a message to Dumbledore, McGonagall, Lupin, the Wealseys, or even Harry, and tell them, “hey, the Weasleys’ rat, it’s actually Pettigrew under his Animagus form, do what you have to do and when everything is done, help me get out of this mess ‘cause I’m innocent”. It costs nothing to try.

But all is explained when we read this:

“Brave of you not to run for a teacher. I’m grateful… it will make everything much easier…”

So it’s not just that Sirius didn’t think of sending a message, it’s that he really didn’t want a teacher informed, including Dumbledore or his old friend Lupin. Because what mattered most to him was getting his hands on Pettigrew personally. Apparently, nevermind that Harry and other children were in danger during the whole year it took for Sirius to achieve his plans, and that Pettigrew could have escaped at any time (which he eventually did).

As if it wasn’t enough, Sirius explains that he knew Pettigrew wouldn’t become a true menace unless Voldemort came back to power:

“You weren’t about to commit murder right under Albus Dumbledore’s nose, for a wreck of a wizard who’d lost all of his power, were you? You’d want to be quite sure he was the biggest bully in the playground before you went back to him, wouldn’t you? Why else did you find a wizard family to take you in? Keeping an ear out for news, weren’t you, Peter? Just in case your old protector regained strength, and it was safe to rejoin him…”

Peter remained a mostly harmless rat for 12 years; he was just sleeping, eating, shitting and listening to know if Voldemort found his way back from the dead. The only reason Pettigrew actively searched for Voldemort before he was back into power, is because Sirius tracked Peter down right into Hogwarts and forced him to flee. It could have prompted Peter to capture Harry and bring him to the Dark Lord early on! But if, for instance, instead of trying to eliminate a dormant threat on his own, Sirius had just observed, watching out for Harry and Scabbers — had even faked his own death so Pettigrew wouldn’t be tempted to flee Hogwarts — and jumped into action only when he learned Voldemort was back, then Peter wouldn’t have run to resurrect his “old protector” so soon and Harry wouldn’t have been in such grave danger. Or as we said earlier, he could have contacted Dumbledore, the leader of the Order, or Lupin, his old friend who would recognize Pettigrew under his rat form, and formulate a plan to take him by surprise. Who knows, so many people might have lived if Sirius had not intervened, at least not the way he did. Perhaps Voldemort wouldn’t have been resurrected at all.

Furthermore, there was no need for Sirius to drag Ron into the Shack and make Harry and Hermione follow, especially as he considered that explaining the Secret Keeper mess to the Trio was not a priority.

“WAIT! You can’t do it just like that — they need to understand — we’ve got to explain —”

“We can explain afterwards!” snarled Black, trying to throw Lupin off.

If Sirius can break Ron’s leg and drag him around like a ragdoll, he sure can kill Scabbers while he’s trapped in Ron’s hand. Besides, a rat bitten to death by a mad dog would have been far less traumatic for the children than witnessing a scary grown man murdering another in tears.

Instead of restraining Pettigrew like Severus has done for Lupin, Sirius and Remus decide, for some reason, to shackle Lupin and Ron to Pettigrew and walk him to the castle. Ron. You know, the child who cannot walk properly because his leg is f*cking broken. They could have Petrified Pettigrew, carried him either on a stretcher or with Mobilicorpus, and even if Lupin had transformed, Pettigrew wouldn’t have been able to escape, but no! Cheap plot twists. Negative IQ.

And I still stand by my anger that Lily wasn’t made the Secret Keeper just because Sirius chose Pettigrew instead, without warning Dumbledore or anything.

Lupin also gets his share of the blame, but that’s a subject for another day. Just remember that a lot could have turned out differently if he had been less selfish, less cowardly and more responsible.

All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus. But I didn’t do it. Why? Because I was too cowardly.

Conclusion

Just as Severus didn’t let Sirius rot in Azkaban, he didn’t give him to the Aurors just out of petty hatred. Because as we said in our previous video, Severus Snape couldn’t know that Pettigrew was the Death Eater spy who sold Lily to Voldemort. What Severus saw in front of him in the Shack were two individuals who had everything that pointed them as the murderers — especially in Snape’s perspective, but also for everyone who wasn’t Harry, Ron, Hermione or Dumbledore.

We can be glad however that Severus Snape wasn’t too vengeful or bloodthirsty, or else Sirius Black wouldn’t have survived the night. Perhaps Harry and Hermione couldn’t have done anything about it either. Perhaps Dumbledore wouldn’t have bothered in the first place.

I think we can fairly ascertain that Snape acted the best and safest way he could given his mental state and the information he had at his disposition — both official and from personal experiences. On the other hand, it would have taken far less of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin to prevent such a mess from happening. Sirius Black did not make it easier to understand: “He has not acted like an innocent man”. But while it is more… not excusable, but at least understandable in his case, it is far less for Remus Lupin. Had Lupin done better, perhaps Pettigrew would have been caught and Sirius Black would have been free. Perhaps everybody — Severus and Harry, Sirius and Remus — could have rejoiced at the punishment of the person who ruined so many lives… and been spared from the Dark Lord’s return.