Snape and the Map (was: Re: Thoughts on PoA Snape & What Snape

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 48351

Eloise:

> It also highlights what I regard as one of the more obvious of 
JKR's 
> plot manipulations.
> I cannot, for the life of me work out why Snape didn't tell 
> Dumbledore about the Map. I suppose that perhaps he didn't 
realise  that Lupin would give it back to Harry. But why on earth 
didn't he  simply pocket it when he found it in Lupin's office? And 
how did he tell his side of the story to Dumbledore and Fudge 
without mentioning  it? Why does Dumbledore still know nothing 
about it until Crouch Jr  tells of it under interrogation?<<


It sounds Flinty...but let's see. Crouch/Moody claims "Auror's 
privilege," as his justification for searching another wizard's 
office. Snape isn't an Auror, so maybe he'd rather not  tell 
Dumbledore or Fudge that he entered Lupin's office without 
permission. Snape doesn't say how he got into Lupin's office in 
the first place. Did Lupin leave the door open, or did Snape break 
in? Anyway, all Snape had to say is something like, "I was 
bringing Lupin his potion when I saw him running across the 
grounds. I followed him..." 

There are several reasons why Snape wouldn't want to take the 
Map with him. (1) A good investigator doesn't disturb the 
evidence. (2) Snape thinks the Map is a piece of Dark Magic that 
might be dangerous to handle. (3)  He can't take anything away 
without revealing that someone was there.

The Egg and The Eye chapter in GoF creates further difficulties 
along this line. Why didn't Snape tell Dumbledore about the Map 
then? But explaining to Dumbledore  about the Map would be 
difficult without evidence. Snape's cried 'Wolf' far  too many 
times. Worse, if Snape's in high dudgeon about Moody rumbling 
his office, he's in no position to confess that, er, he did the same 
thing to Lupin.  So Snape doesn't mention the Map at all. After all, 
*he's* not the Defense Against the Dark Arts Master at the 
school.

JKR shows us how this works with  Snape's interrogation of 
Harry about the missing potions ingredients. If Snape and Harry 
had pooled their information, they would have realized what was 
happening, but Harry doesn't want his friends to be punished for 
burgling Snape's office. So he doesn't tell Snape what he knows, 
and Snape, in turn, doesn't mention that the theft of the 
boomslang skin was recent. Like a real spy, Crouch/Moody 
benefits because his enemies don't share  their  information 
with each other.

Of course we should also come up with an explanation of why 
neither Lupin nor Sirius tells Dumbledore about the map. Could 
it be that there *is* some Dark Magic in it? Not enough to be 
dangerous to Harry, but enough so that they would feel that 
what Dumbledore doesn't know won't hurt him?

Or did they tell Dumbledore about the Map, and is Dumbledore's 
"What map is this?" question misleading, because Dumbledore 
doesn't want Harry thinking that Lupin and Sirius won't keep his 
confidences?


Pippin