Public Knowledge of Snape as DE?

[lucky_kari at yahoo.ca]

No: HPFGUIDX 30681

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Gabriel Edson" <feycat at f...> wrote:
> I've always been under the opinion that it is known by some that 
Snape was a DE at one point. Parents can't trust a werewolf, I don't 
think many of them would be enthusiastic to see a DE - former or not - 
as a DADA teacher.
> 

I think it's pretty obvious that Snape's DE status is not widely 
known. Sirius says that no-one ever accused him of being a DE, and it 
seems Sirius has been reading up on the trials. I can imagine the 
trials being kept secret, which would fit entirely with Crouch Sr.'s 
way of doing things, and would explain why Hermione hasn't told us 
everything already. Only the results of the full-fledged trials would 
be reported.

Mr. and Mrs. Lestrange - Guilty
Lucius Malfoy - Not Guilty
etc.

Snape, being only mentioned in evidence, wouldn't come into the spot 
light.

Furthermore, this scenario could explain why no-one seems bothered 
Sirius didn't get a trial. They don't know the procedure in convicting 
him. They just know he was declared Guilty.

About the trials, how did Snape bear himself in them? He obviously 
would have a lot of evidence to give against his former colleagues. 
But Lucius Malfoy's attitude towards Snape shows that he's not bitter 
at Snape's behaviour during trial.

Did Snape truthfully testify in favour of Lucius? Was he taken in by a 
show of repentance from that corner? After all, at the end of GOF, 
Snape is shocked when Malfoy is listed among the DEs at Tom Riddle's 
grave. 

Meanwhile, what does Voldemort know? If the trials are kept secret, he 
has no definite information on who said what, and his only source is 
the DEs accusing each other, which they are likely to do with or 
without factual basis. So, he may not know that Snape was a traitor 
from that stage of the game?

When he says he thinks there is one who he thinks will not return and 
has betrayed him, I'm all for it being Snape. But I don't think it was 
Snape's career as a DE that put him onto this. After all, Voldemort 
gets to live one school year in the same building as Snape. Granted, 
he was heavily under wraps much of the time, but he must have seen a 
lot of Severus, and realized he was not working for Voldemort. BUT, is 
this any worse than what Lucius or any of the others, some who working 
in the MoM would have occasion to punish Voldemort's followers, had 
done? No, I think Voldemort only decides that Severus has indeed 
betrayed him beyond the betrayals of all the others, is when he 
doesn't show up at the graveyard. 

So, then, what if Severus was to appear a few days later with a 
plausible excuse for why he couldn't come? i.e. he was under 
Dumbledore's eyes the whole time (which was true.) Voldemort would 
give him hell, probably treating him worse than any other of the DEs 
in the graveyard scene. But, if Voldemort is convinced that Snape has 
only betrayed him in the same sense that Malfoy and the others are 
done, isn't Snape a little too useful to do away with? 

As for Snape impersonating Crouch Jr., I don't think the Ministry 
would neglect to advertise that Crouch Jr. had been apprehended. After 
all, they were anxious to paint Cedric's murder as the work of one 
lone madman. And, in pinning the blame on Crouch, there is no-one 
alive to object to the story. Except poor Winky.

Eileen