Snape and the Malfoys (was Re: Harry's Putative Death)

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 42047

Marina wrote: 

> But Snape's a *spy*, it's his job to distrust everyone, to know who
> the bad guys are, and not to be taken in by charm.  And why would
> Lucius try to charm Snape into thinking he isn't a true DE, if he
> believes that Snape *is* a true DE?  (At least we'd better hope 
Lucius
> believes this, otherwise Snape is in deep doo-doo.)


You could argue he's in deep doo-doo anyway if it was Snape who 
Voldemort was talking about when he said: "One I believe has left me 
forever. He will be killed."

Look, we're all assuming that Snape is going to resume spying now 
that Voldemort is back and that's the best assumption out there, but 
it is still just an assumption. We don't know exactly what Snape was 
doing at the end of GoF and we don't know that it was just resuming 
business as usual as a double-agent. 

Or perhaps better put, we don't know what Snape's mission is. We 
don't know he's going to try and rejoin the DEs as a plant. It's 
certainly pushing his luck if he does, considering he did once before 
and at least two people we KNOW aren't trustworthy -- Rita Skeeter 
and Fudge -- overheard Snape saying he was a DE.

But again, there is a difference between Competent!Snape and 
Infallible!Snape. Lucius managed to fool a lot of people after 
Voldemort fell. 

OR... Snape could be disappointed in Lucius. It is possible he was 
hoping that not every single surviving DE except for Snape and 
Karakoff would return (Moody/Crouch was on a mission, or else he'd 
have been there too.) 

Snape did make a sudden movement when Lucius' name was mentioned. 
There is a reason for it. This is our theory.
 
> > And I'm not convinced Dumbledore told Snape about the diary. 
> > Dumbledore definitely operates on a need-to-know basis and if he 
had 
> > ideas of Snape someday being a plant in V-Mort's camp again, he'd 
> > want him as protected as possible from information that could 
betray 
> > him.
> 
> Seems to me if there's anyone outhere who really needs to know 
Lucius'
> allegiance, it's Snape.  How would it betray him to know that Lucius
> is a DE?  It would betray him a lot more if he obliviously went off 
to
> spy thinking he can trust his buddy Lucius.  I can think of a lot of
> things Dumbledore might legitimately want to keep from Snape, but
> "watch out for this guy, he works for Voldemort" is not one of them.
> 

But again, he doesn't work for Voldemort until AFTER Voldemort comes 
back. Lucius -- and the rest of the DE's for that matter -- do not 
show their true allegiance until Voldemort rises. 

And Snape isn't going to have to go off and spy without knowing what 
Lucius is. He knows now. My point was that Snape didn't need to know 
about Lucius giving the diary to Ginny. 

Giving Ginny that diary isn't technically doing Voldemort's bidding, 
at least not intentionally. Lucius wanted to get Arthur in trouble 
and shoot down the Muggle Protection Act. Sure, that makes Voldemort 
happy, now that he's back, but if Voldemort never returns, Lucius 
doesn't want to see that Muggle Protection Act passed. The whole 
reason he was wanting to ditch Voldemort's belongings was because the 
ministry was cracking down on him.

Looking back, there is obviously reason to suspect that Lucius would 
return, but until Harry heard the names of all those people in the 
graveyard, no one knew for sure who would go back and who wouldn't. 
And Dumbledore, in my opinion, decided that until he knew, he would 
keep it to himself.

Darrin
-- Band name: Ginny and the Diaries? What do you think?

How about the Burning Dark Marks!