Barty & Snape & Dumbledore (with a cameo from Rita Skeeter)

[blpurdom]

No: HPFGUIDX 37713

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Amy Z <lupinesque at y...> wrote:
> jc wrote:
> 
> >1)Did Barty Crouch, Jr. know that Snape was permanently off of 
> V's team?  If so, is he the one informing V about who the trio 
> are, or is he staying quiet about it to fit in with the role. 
> Also, if he DIDN'T know, why didn't he try to recruit Snape?

I believe Crouch knew about Snape for several reasons.  First, when 
he has been in Snape's office on the night when Harry uses the 
prefect's bath to figure out the egg and Crouch sees Snape, he looks 
at Snape's left arm and says, "I say there are spots that don't come 
off, Snape.  Spots that never come off, d'you know what I mean?"  
after which Snape "seized his left forearm convulsively with his 
right hand, as though something on it had hurt him."

I believe that Crouch was trying to make Snape think that Moody 
still thought he was a loyal Death Eater.  (Snape's panic may also 
stem from his knowing that the Dark Mark isn't general knowledge, 
which makes Moody seem like an even more formidable Auror than Snape 
previously suspected, with inside information that's very hard to 
come by.)  I think that Crouch was indicating in his sly way that 
the Mark was a sign that Snape was owned by Voldemort, and he would 
be owned by him no matter how much spying Snape did.  A way of 
saying, "You can run but you can't hide."  Although, of course, he 
can't reveal that he's also a Death Eater.

I also believe that it was fairly common knowledge that Dumbledore 
stated at Karkaroff's hearing, where he was naming names, that Snape 
had turned spy and come back to "our" side, as he puts it, before 
the fall of Voldemort.  This was a public forum.  Reporters were 
there (Harry sees a young Rita Skeeter in the Pensieve).  The 
question is, of course, what form did the reporting take, since 
those who weren't there need to rely on this to know what happened.  
I can just picture Rita S. writing something like, "And Albus 
Dumbledore, who is still headmaster of Hogwarts for reasons 
completely escaping this reporter (blackmail most likely figures 
into it somewhere), stood to defend his Potions Master, Severus 
Snape, who may or may not actually be worthy of the trust placed in 
him by this rather dotty old man who should have been put out to 
pasture long ago with the rest of the obsolete dingbats..."

If Rita Skeeter was the one reporting this tribunal to the wizarding 
world, in other words, people would technically know that Snape had 
been a spy, but not necessarily believe that he was sincere in 
changing sides.  Even Molly Weasley took the things Skeeter sait 
about Hermione at face value at first.  However, I believe that 
Voldemort and the other Death Eaters know to read between the lines 
and believe the underlying message that Snape is no longer a loyal 
DE.  They can't afford to trust him anymore, really.
 
> If Barty *did* want to recruit Snape, he would have a problem.  
> How would he approach him without revealing his own loyalties?  
> Mad-Eye Moody can't sidle up to Snape and say "nudge nudge, you 
> still a DE?"  If he's at all hopeful that Snape's heart is still 
> with V, all he can do is try to feel him out.

Precisely, although as stated above, I think he already knows in the 
scene in "The Egg and the Eye" where Snape's loyalties lie.

> Rita wrote:
> 
> >> Remember Sirius's comment about looking at how a
> man treats his subordinates to understand what he's really like?
> 
> >I remain alarmed that JKR put that remark into Sirius's mouth in 
> > a chapter in which pretty much all else Sirius said turned out 
> > to be pretty much wrong. Is she trying to cast doubt on that 
> > truism?

> Nah, I don't think so, because it's a different kind of remark.  
> Many of Sirius's theories end up being wrong, whether in that 
> chapter or elsewhere (e.g. Karkaroff is not trying to kill Harry 
> as Sirius fears in chapter 19), but in that he's just like everyone
> else who's trying to figure this stuff out (e.g. Dumbledore, the 
> Trio).  It doesn't call into question his judgment of character 
> nor his general approach to human nature.

Exactly.  Sirius has some of his facts wrong and so he comes to 
wrong conclusions.  The statement about judging a man by how he 
treats his inferiors is more of a philosophy.  Dumbledore also has 
his facts wrong at various points, such as when he still believes 
that Sirius Black is the one who betrayed the Potters.  He, like the 
rest of the wizarding world, believed Pettigrew to be dead and Black 
to be his murderer.  Just because he, like everyone else, is wrong 
about this, doesn't mean the rest of the truisms he spouts are to be 
thrown in the trash.

--Barb

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