He was in Voldemort's inner circle, he KNEW Peter Pettigrew was a death eater, and he knew Sirius enough to know he would NEVER join Voldemort let alone betray his best friend/brother!

This was just pure hatred and thirst for revenge, and the one thing I will always resent Snape for! I like and respect him as an overall character but this was just messed up!

^This.

@othobsessed: No, it was not. He was furious because when Sirius escaped, he lost the Order of Merlin that had been awarded him. It's in the book, remember? ;)

link is a handy-dandy place to go.

He didn't know Sirius Black on a level that personal, and after all those years, how would he know how Sirius felt about anything? And how would he know that Sirius hadn't turned to the Dark Path in the year prior to the Dark Lord's fall? It's not like they saw each other and chatted all the time. Just because someone is a supporter of the Dark Lord doesn't mean that every Death Eater knows they are. He did believe that Sirius was guilty. Nearly everyone, including Remus Lupin, believed Sirius was guilty. And if Remus believed his "brother" was guilty, how/why would Severus know any different?

@othobsessed92: But in the fourth book Igor Karkaroff said they the Death Eaters did not know every member so it is posible he did not know. Also if Snape know he would have said something to Dumbledore he wanted to protect Lily.

I say he acted the way he did to try and get back at Sirius for his crappy life. He wasn't the one who called their lover a mudblood so i think that , Snape never ended up with Lily because of his mistakes. Sorry guys thought I'd add that even if u dont agree!

@Thecharliejay: you're certainly entitled to your opinion, but Lily and Severus were never lovers. He loved her, but they were never together that way, and Severus would never have called Lily a mudblood if James Potter hadn't put him in the position he did that day.


And for the record: Sirius Black was just as much of "an ignorant berk" as James Potter was, he did his share of rotten things to innocent people, too.

I always assumed he acted that way because of their old rivalry. Especially because of that one "prank" that Sirius took way too far, which almost ended with Snape dying. Though, this could very well also have contributed!

I think that was a part of it, but not the entire thing. Even if Severus knew it was Wormtail, that had betrayed the Potters, Sirius was still dangerous and had broken into Hogwarts (and Harry's dormitory) twice (that we know of) to prove it. Plus, Severus and Sirius don't have the best of histories together, and Severus isn't known for keeping his head when angry.

I think it had a lot to do with it, actually. Snape knew James had always regarded Sirius as a brother, so it would make sense that he truly believed that Sirius had been the secret keeper who betrayed the Potters. Snape's hatred for Sirius had always run deep, but in all of the unpleasant encounters that we see between them, nothing even comes close to the confrontation they have in PoA. Snape was livid to the point of completely losing control, which definitely makes me think that he was feeling far more than a desire for petty revenge against childhood grievances. I believe that loss of control was caused by Snape's genuine belief that he was staring the man who had caused Lily's death in the face. I can't imagine anything else making him that emotional. Though it's safe to say that Snape never forgave Sirius, the hostility between the two of them was never quite as fierce once Snape knew Sirius was innocent in the Potters' deaths.

For sure;)

Snape knew it was HIS OWN fault that Lily and James were give to Voldemorts hands. He hated Sirius because of that joke. Don't make up excuses for Snape.

Yes, definitely. He like everyone else in the Order (including Dumbledore and Lupin) thought that Black had betrayed the Potters and also killed Peter. He hated both Sirius and Lupin but, his whole focus that night was on getting revenge on Black for betraying Lily. After he found out the truth about Black, he was happy to simply show his loathing through his cutting remarks and by goading Black. If it had all been about the prank or their schoolboy's rivalries, then later on, in OotP, he wouldn't have bothered checking to make sure Black was ok after listening to Harry's cryptic message.

who cares? I hate Snape and that's all that matters.

^^^1) It's not
and 2) how is that making excuses for him? Giving an explanation is not an excuse.

its because sirius tortured him!

In retrospect, once you know about Snape loving Lily, it's obvious that this was part of his reasoning. The prank with Lupin was part of it too - if Snape didn't believe that Sirius had been stupid enough not to think through the potential consequences of that prank, it'd have been easy to believe that he could have turned traitor and betrayed his friends. Snape didn't necessarily know that Sirius wasn't a Death Eater/that Pettigrew was, because even the highest ranking Death Eaters didn't know all their members.