Was Snape at the DE meeting?

[Horst or Rebecca J. Bohner]

No: HPFGUIDX 17337

> > > that Snape *was* at the DE meeting - which means he would
> > > have known that Lucius was there *and* saw everything that
> > > happened to Harry.

> I don't have the book handy but didn't Lord V. go around the DE
> circle and address everyone by name?  So he would know who they were
> and Snape would not have been able to disguise himself.

"Some of the Death Eaters he passed in silence, but he paused before others,
and spoke to them."  (GoF Ch. 33, pg. 564 Canadian Ed.)

Yes, Snape could have been there.  I don't think he was, but he could have
been.  However, I suspect it's more likely that Snape is one of the three
that Voldemort mentions at the end:

"And here we have six missing Death Eaters... three dead in my service.
One, too cowardly to return... he will pay.  One, who I believe has left me
for ever... he will be killed, of course... and one, who remains my most
faithful servant, and who has already re-entered my service."

The "most faithful servant" is presumably Barty Crouch; I don't think
there's any good reason to dispute that, since Voldemort already referred to
him as "my faithful servant at Hogwarts" earlier.  I don't know if there's
much grounds to suppose that this could be Snape, although it would make
things terribly interesting if it were.

The coward is most likely Karkaroff, who certainly displayed a fine show of
panic and ran off to try and hide from Voldemort when put to the test.

Snape is most likely the one V. believes has left him forever.  However,
note that V. says "I believe has left me," not simply "who has left me".
That "I believe" is quite significant, because it shows that V. is not
actually *certain* that Snape has left him forever, only that it appears to
him that this is most likely the case.  As such, there is still room for
Snape, if he is quick-thinking enough to come up with a really super alibi,
to come back.  And given Snape's airtight reputation in front of everyone at
Hogwarts as a nasty, spiteful, Gryffindor-hating, Slytherin-favouring, Harry
Potter-persecuting type, I really don't think it would be impossible for him
to work his way back into the DE's.

On the other hand, it might be awfully difficult, unless he had some way to
actually explain away (in a very convincing fashion) Dumbledore's assertion
that he had turned spy against Voldemort.  It all depends on exactly who was
at Karkaroff's trial.  There were at least two hundred witches and wizards
there by Harry's account, and Dumbledore's statement didn't cause a ripple
of surprise among them, which would indicate that all of them had already
heard D. defend Snape on these grounds before.  Crouch certainly knew about
it, as did Mad-Eye Moody.  Rita Skeeter is not shown as being present at
Karkaroff's trial, so it obviously wasn't public:  it may actually be that
the two hundred witches and wizards on the council that tried Karkaroff were
all completely trustworthy and kept the information about Snape's role as a
spy secret.

I doubt it, though.
--
Rebecca J. Bohner
rebeccaj at pobox.com
http://home.golden.net/~rebeccaj