Snape at Rebirth party?

[naama_gat at hotmail.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 19935

I want to try and summarize some of the problems regarding Snape's 
possible presence at Voldy's rebirthing party:

First, there are the timing problems. These can be split to the pre 
Harry's return and post Harry return (that is, return from the 
graveyard)
The Pre Harry return timing splits again according to whether Snape 
was at Hogwarts or not:
At Hogwarts:
Snape would only know about Voldy's return when he feels the dark 
mark burning. Whether he immediately shows it to Dumbledore or 
whether some time lapses before he tells Dumbledore, he cannot 
Apparate from Hogwarts. Even if he immediately told Dumbledore 
and Dumbledore immediately told him to act as a faithful DE, some 
ten-fifteen minutes had to pass until Snape could Apparate to Voldy's 
side*. But that means that he would have appeared quite some time 
after all the other DEs arrived. However, going by the description 
in the book, all the DEs arrived simultaneously. Not one of them 
arrived several minutes later than the others.

If he was not at Hogwarts (which I don't think is reasonable to 
assume, BTW) then he could Apparate to Voldy's side immediately, 
arriving with all the other DEs.

Post Harry's arrival timing:
This is where the timing problem is conclusive, IMO. 
Harry arrived to the maze entrance via portkey. Which means 
that he left the graveyard and arrived at Hogwarts almost 
instantaneously. Within a minute or two of his arrival "Moody" was 
dragging him to the castle, getting some of the information he needs 
already on the way. This walk takes maybe five minutes, maybe less? 
>From the moment they enter Moody's room to the moment Dumbledore, 
McConagall and Snape break in maybe another five minutes pass. Also, 
Harry sees all three in the foe glass a minute or two before they 
break into the room. Also, Dumbledore later said that the moment 
he realized that "Moody" had taken Harry he knew he wasn't the 
real Moody and (presumably) immediately went after him. This means 
that Snape had maybe 8-10 minutes to Disapparate from the graveyard 
(and how could he do that without raising extreme suspicion?) to 
somewhere near Hogwarts, reach Hogwarts* and join Dumbledore and 
McConagall (and how would he know where they were?). I really don't 
see how this can be possible. 


A different point against the Snape-at-Rebirthing-Party theory 
relates to Snape's actions when Dumbledore tried to convince Fudge 
that Voldy has returned. It was superemly important to convince 
Fudge. It was so important that Snape was driven to show his black 
mark, telling its significance and thereby admitting that he had been 
a DE. But, if Snape had been at the rebirthing party and seen Voldy 
returned, why didn't he say so at this point? Surely that would have 
been the most convincing argument - "Minister, I have seen him with 
my own eyes!". It doesn't make sense that Snape would admit to being 
an ex-DE  but keep his attendance at the rebirthing party a secret - 
when the whole point of showing Fudge the black mark was to convince 
Fudge that Voldy has indeed returned!


Naama


*I think we must assume that it takes quite a while to arrive from 
the nearest Dis/Apparating point to Hogwarts, or else there is very 
little point to the whole Dis/Apparating defence.