Does Snape have a life-debt to Harry? (was: Who was witness to the killing of Ja

[eloiseherisson at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 42248

Not long after I joined this group, *I* asked one of those dumb questions, 
too. In my caes, it was 'How does the Fidelius Charm work?' and I feel this 
must be related to the question of whether anyone was able to be witness to 
James' and Lily's deaths.

The Fidelius Charm is the major problem I have (or had - see later: I'm 
sorry, this is one of the posts when I change my view halfway through) with 
Pip's wonderful 'It Wuz Snape' theory. 

Now, my question is this: is the Fidelius charm *completely* broken the 
moment the Secret keeper divulges his secret? In other words, having given 
the information to one person, is it then freely available to *everyone*.
If so, then Pettigrew having divulged the secret, Snape may well have been 
able to find his way to Godric's Hollow in advance (the details of their 
whereabouts were immediately known by Hagrid, presumably via Dumbledore, thus 
implying that they did know in advance where the Potters were and that the 
Fidelius Charm gave some kind of enhanced amnesia, or an inability to find 
them/discuss their presence in the place where they knew they were).

But this poses a problem. As soon as Pettigrew told Voldemort the secret, the 
Potters' whereabouts would no longer be secret, Dumbledore would have (or 
certainly could have) realised that the secret had been divulged, the Potters 
might have been surprised by visitors, there are all sorts of possibilities. 
It would be too risky to do it in advance.

So if the Fidelius Charm *is* made completely void by the Secret Keeper's 
divulgence, then the only sensible course would have been for Pettigrew to 
take Voldemort to Godric's Hollow, before telling the secret to Voldemort and 
allowing him to find them. Snape could only be present if Voldemort chose to 
take him along and he could only have been the one to warn Lily if Voldemort 
sent him into the house first.

OTOH, perhaps the secret does not become generally available on its 
divulgence. In this case, Voldemort and those whom he told would be the only 
ones to know and again, Snape could only be there by invitation as he 
wouldn't be able to find the Potters.

In this scenario, the charm is broken only by the Potters' deaths. 
Except.....Harry was still alive, so the charm still should have still 
worked, shouldn't it?

I think the first version of the charm is correct. Otherwise, how did 
Dumbledore know that something had happened, how did he know to despatch 
Hagrid (and incidentaly, where did he go, since it was apparently not 
Godric's Hollow and he was evidently not at Hogwarts? Summoned to the MOM, I 
presume.)

So, in summary, my understanding of the Fidelius Charm precludes Snape's 
being the one to warn Lily unless he was there *with* Voldemort.

HOWEVER......No 3 child put PS/SS on in the car for the umpteenth time today 
and I was struck by the dream Harry has on his first night at Hogwarts. 
Harry's dreams seem to be significant, yes?

Ther dream ends with the flash of green light which we know subsequently is 
his remembrance of the Avada Kedavra. Leading up to this, we have a voice 
from Quirrel's turban, urging him to change from Gryffindor to Slytherin (and 
Hagrid says an odd thing when he tells Harry about his parents' deaths along 
the lines of, 'why he didn't try to get them on his side before, I don't 
know'), followed by his seeing Snape and Draco.

Which leads me to wonder.....*did* Harry hear Voldemort trying to convert the 
Potters before killing them (I think the time-scale probably precludes this)?
*Does* Harry have a subliminal memory of Snape's and Lucius' presence? We 
know that Draco looks like his father and in a dream, Harry could easily 
interpret one as the other.

Harry has no memory of this dream, so I ask myself why JKR included it, if 
not to give some clues as to the events of that night.

Which means that I am arguing myself round to the view that Snape probably 
was a witness and even that in desperation he may have been the one to warn 
Lily, but that he was present as part of Voldemort's team.

My scenario already has Snape hating himself for failing to save the Potters 
and hating Harry for being the one to bring Voldemort down. Here's another 
wonderful wedge of angst for him. Not only has he been forced to witness the 
event he warned them of and tried to prevent, now he has both failed to 
redeem his life-debt to Jamesand possibly found himself in *Harry's* 
life-debt, as if he did risk all to warn Lily in Voldemort's presence, 
Voldemort would surely have killed him next. 

A life-debt to Harry? Is that the secret Hagrid knows about Snape's hatred 
that he won't tell Harry?

Poor Severus!

Eloise
Who got so bound up in this theory that she forgot she'd set a bath to run 
until she heard the water dripping down through the kitchen ceiling. Oops!



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]