I think both of these are deeply tied to The Prank (because no discussion of "jokes" in HP is complete without it) and the grudge that Snape still holds over it. I strongly suspect that right after it happened, Sirius tried to pass it off as a joke, and Dumbledore basically agreed. I think Sirius saw it as a joke, but there's no denying that there was also a high degree of deeply personal malice. Calling it a joke or prank, though, takes all that away. I think Dumbledore went with the prank-gone-bad explanation in hopes that it would calm Snape down, because surely being a victim of a prank is better than having someone trying to murder you. Except it's not. If someone's trying to murder to you, there's no doubt you're important to them, enough so that they'll risk quite a lot and go to extreme measures over you. If it's a *joke* and nearly deadly, even if you're obviously not a random target, then you don't even matter enough to think through what will actually happen. Not only are you not important enough to kill, but you're not even important enough for them to pay attention to whether or not you'll live. For the headmaster to *agree* that it was a joke is basically affirming that opinion. "Well, sure, it's Severus, so I can see that they were trying to be funny and didn't think it through. Why would they, when it's only Severus?" ((not actually Dumbledore's position, but Snape's likely interpretation thereof))
There are other factors involved, too. If this was a prank that went *wrong,* what on earth would have happened if it went *right*? He would have *actually* died? Also, treating it as a joke can't help but imply, "You had the worst scare of your life and nearly died? Haha, that's so funny!" I hope I don't need to explain why this is bad. Finally, less relevant to the joke explanation, I think that given the situation and the times, I have a very hard time imagining any way that Snape would conclude that this was anything *other* than a murder plot; for the headmaster to disagree and brush it off is unthinkable, unless he really doesn't care (or is implicitly in on it). All in all, I have a strong suspicion that Snape's grudge over this "prank" would be held a lot less tightly if people didn't think of it as a prank and didn't expect him to just get over it.
Of course, this is a specific situation, so not directly applicable to the twins, but you can see the same attitude in the way they treat Dudley and Montague, both of whom supposedly deserved what they got. With other people, their jokes tend to have less malice and more "fun," but that just heightens the level to which other people don't matter. Also, Remus and Sirius basically say that Snape wasn't their only victim, so it's quite likely that they, too, were usually "funny" and supposedly benign. I think that shows a real flaw in that way of thinking, as well: getting used to seeing these jokes done at others' expense as funny and harmless starts to erase the already thin lines of what's not a joke and what's harmful, so you don't notice that you're suddenly well over them. I think that would cover the ton-tongue toffee as well as The Prank.
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Date: 2005-03-18 12:25 am (UTC)There are other factors involved, too. If this was a prank that went *wrong,* what on earth would have happened if it went *right*? He would have *actually* died? Also, treating it as a joke can't help but imply, "You had the worst scare of your life and nearly died? Haha, that's so funny!" I hope I don't need to explain why this is bad. Finally, less relevant to the joke explanation, I think that given the situation and the times, I have a very hard time imagining any way that Snape would conclude that this was anything *other* than a murder plot; for the headmaster to disagree and brush it off is unthinkable, unless he really doesn't care (or is implicitly in on it). All in all, I have a strong suspicion that Snape's grudge over this "prank" would be held a lot less tightly if people didn't think of it as a prank and didn't expect him to just get over it.
Of course, this is a specific situation, so not directly applicable to the twins, but you can see the same attitude in the way they treat Dudley and Montague, both of whom supposedly deserved what they got. With other people, their jokes tend to have less malice and more "fun," but that just heightens the level to which other people don't matter. Also, Remus and Sirius basically say that Snape wasn't their only victim, so it's quite likely that they, too, were usually "funny" and supposedly benign. I think that shows a real flaw in that way of thinking, as well: getting used to seeing these jokes done at others' expense as funny and harmless starts to erase the already thin lines of what's not a joke and what's harmful, so you don't notice that you're suddenly well over them. I think that would cover the ton-tongue toffee as well as The Prank.