did Snape ever Believe..............

[Carol]

danielle dassero wrote:
>
> <snip> I have to wonder if Snape ever got around to believing Harry
that it was Wormtail who snitched and not Sirius. I wonder this for no
other reason than wondering about. Snape would still have reason to
hate Sirius, because Sirius thought of the switch to Wormtail. I mean
just say that Snape did believe that Wormtail was the SK and the
traitor, makes ya wonder how strong Snape is, cause I couldn't have
standed have Wormtail in my house for a summer, I would have killed
him before the end of the 1st day lol. Well those are my thoughts take
or leave them, sorry if it has been talked to death already.

Carol responds:

Rather than responding to the responses, I'm coming back to the
original post, treating it as I would if it were on the main list,
canon and all, not to agree or disagree but to answer your question as
best I can. Yes, IMO, Snape did learn that Sirius was not the Secret
Keeper, even if he had to put the pieces together to arrive at that
distasteful conclusion. 

First, there's the testimony, under Snape's own highly effective
Veritaserum, of Barty Crouch Jr., who informs Dumbledore in Snape's
presence that Voldemort arrived at the Crouches' house late one night
"in the arms of his servant Wormtail" (GoF Am. ed. 687).  He also
hears of Wormtail's involvement in the death of Bertha Jorkins and the
kidnapping of Mad-Eye Moody (687-88). Assuming that Snape knows that
Wormtail is Pettigrew, he has to realize that he was wrong about
Sirius Black murdering Pettigrew and smart enough to start wondering
if the story about Pettigrew's being a rat Animagus is true, too. He
does not hear Harry's version of the events in the graveyard, but he
does see Sirius Black turning from a dog into a man in the hospital
wing, confirming that he was telling the truth about the Marauders
being Animagi. Dumbledore then informs him that they're on the same
side and sends Snape on the dangerous mission to return to Voldemort.
Surely, at that point, he encounters Wormtail, confirming that he, not
Sirius, was the traitor (and, by extension, the Secret Keeper).

When we finally see Snape and Wormtail together, Snape's contempt for
him is evident both in the way he orders him around and in his use of
the term "vermin" to describe him. (He also, of course, cannot have
failed to see the silver hand and, being Snape, obtained that story
from some source.)

Whether Snape learned the story of events in the graveyard from
Dumbledore or Voldemort or DEs like his friend Lucius Malfoy, he
clearly knew or had deduced the truth by the time of "Spinner's End."
For him to work with Black at all and attend meetings at his house, he
surely had to know that Black had not betrayed Lily to her death. Nor
would he have checked on "Padfoot's" whereabouts when Harry
communicated his vision to Snape in Umbridge's office unless he knew
the nicknames of the Marauders and most if not all of their story at
that point.

As for how strong Snape is, we know he's strong. He can block the
Legilimency of the darkest wizard in a hundred years (and we saw just
what that entails when Voldemort entered Gregorovitch's mind). And he
can fool everyone from the Malfoys to McGonagall into believing that
he's a loyal DE. (Even Bella was convinced after the death of DD or
she wouldn't have believed that Snape had sent her the real Sword of
Gryffindor.) So enduring the presence of Wormtail in his house, at the
same time abusing him psychologically as only Snape can, was, if not a
piece of cake, at least all in a day's work for our favorite Occlumens
and spy.

Carol, apologizing for the cliches and hoping that this post is clear

Carol