GoF: why didn't Sirius know about Snape?

[amaryllis05 at web.de]

No: HPFGUIDX 6272

--- In HPforGrownups at egroups.com, "Rita Winston" <catlady at w...> wrote:
> (IIRC) While Sirius was in Azkaban, he heard plenty from the 
convicted 
> Death Eaters crying out in their nightmares. He heard enough to say 
> that Peter was hiding from his former colleagues, who harbored 
> unkindly feelings toward him for having led their Dark Lord to 
> destruction. He heard enough to say that they were not happy that 
> Karkaroff had gained his release by incriminating others. But he 
said that he had no idea whether Snape had been a Death Eater, only 
> that he used to hang out with people who became Death Eaters. 
> Karkaroff knew that Snape had been a Death Eater so surely other 
> prisoners would have known it, too.

That`s possible but we cannot know for sure that the prisoners who 
knew about Snape were the ones in the cells neighbouring Sirius`. I 
don`t think that the prisoners in Azkaban are allowed to move a lot, 
not to mention to visit other cells. Sirius only heard the people 
crying out in their sleep. So they must have been near him. Other 
people in other cells very possibly knew about Snape, but Sirius 
couldn`t hear them if they talked about him. 

 Dumbledore said in open court 
> that Snape had turned against the Dark Side and been a spy for 
> Our Side, how come none of the convicts knew that and mentioned 
> it along with Peter and Karkaroff?

I understand that these trials were held when Voldemort was already 
destroyed. Dumbledore had to know about Snapes true identity, but not 
any of the others. Otherwise Snape would have been assasinated long 
before. I guess that the mentioned trial happened at a time when the 
other convicts (and Sirius) already were in Azkaban. As for Peter, we 
can guess that he went into hiding just after Voldemorts fall and 
probably didn`t follow every trial or the "Daily Prophet". Maybe it 
wasn`t even mentioned in the newspaper because none ever heard of 
Severus Snape before or, more likely, the court wanted to keep it 
secret to protect Snape from revenge of some Death Eaters still in 
freedom.  

Cheers, Susanne