More On Snape's Backstory

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 34728

A few canon points on the Snape Backstory:

*********

> Cindy wrote:

> > Once Snape becomes a DE, he finds it is not all it was cracked up 
to 
> > be.... Snape is just a journeyman DE, outside the outer outskirts 
> > of Voldemort's inner circle, hardly in a position of power.... 
> > Voldemort, believing that Snape isn't trying hard enough 
> > and needs some motivation, punishes Snape with several protracted 
> > Cruciatus Curses and a substantial tongue-lashing....<
> 

Judy responded:

> This is pure speculation.  We have no idea what position Snape had 
> among Voldemort's circle (although he was certainly younger than 
some 
> of the other followers.)  I actually think Snape has the sort of 
> personality that Voldemort would like, and Snape also has skills 
that 
> are apparently not very common.  

Yes, true, it is surely speculation, but not wild, wholly 
unsupportable speculation.  :-)  I'm in the camp that believes Snape 
was a low-level DE because Snape apparently lacked some key 
information about the DEs, specifically, Snape apparently didn't know 
Wormtail was the spy and Black was not.  

If Snape really was in the inner circle and treated well and having a 
grand old time, then why did he leave?  Yes, Snape might have certain 
skills (potions, for example), but I don't see why Voldemort and the 
DEs would value potion-making skills.  Have we ever seen a situation 
in which a DE relies on a difficult-to-brew potion?  The only DE to 
use a potion (apart from Voldemort's rather straightforward re-
birthing potion) was Crouch/Moody, and he brewed it himself.  Heck, 
even second-year students can make polyjuice potion.  Maybe Snape 
felt his skills were being wasted in the ranks of the DEs, but that 
is rather weak motivation for Snape to return to Dumbledore.  

> Cindy continues on:
> > And that is the moment when Snape decides to defect back to 
> > Dumbledore's camp.  .... Snape lures his old friends (Travers, 
> > Mulciber, Dolohoff, Rosier, Crouch Jr., the Lestranges) to a trap 
in 
> > which a certain talented Auror (Moody) kills some and takes the 
rest 
> > into custody.<
> 

Judy wrote:

> Now, this part is directly contradicted by cannon.  Of Snape's 5 
> closest friends (all of whom were Death Eaters), three got through 
the 
> fall of Voldemort without being apprehended.  These include Avery 
> (still free) and the Lestranges, who were only apprehended 
> substantially later, after they attacked the Longbottoms. (Ditto 
for 
> Crouch Jr., although we don't know if he was Snape's friend.)  We 
> know Snape worked for Dumbledore before the fall of Voldemort; 
> Dumbledore says so.  If Snape had turned in all his friends before 
the 
> fall of Voldemort, how come three out of five went free?
> 
> By the way, there is nothing to indicate that Snape even knew 
> Mulciber, Dolohoff, or Travers; the Death Eaters didn't know all of 
> each others' identities.
> 

I think canon is consistent with the idea that Snape ambushed Avery 
and the Lestranges before Voldemort fell and before the Longbottoms 
were tortured.  In "Padfoot Returns," Sirius says:  "Crouch's own son 
was caught with a group of Death Eaters who'd managed to talk their 
way out of Azkaban."  This means that the Lestranges were in Azkaban 
(due to the ambush?) and talked their way out, only to attack Frank 
Longbottom with Crouch Jr. and get sent right back to Azkaban.  So 
that part fits the ambush theory well enough.

The part about Crouch Jr. being caught in the ambush doesn't work at 
all.  Oops!  I think he only went to Azkaban once.  Forget that part.

As for Avery, we know he "wormed his way out of trouble by saying 
he'd been acting under the Imperius Curse -- he's still at large."  
If Avery talked his way out of trouble, that must mean he was 
apprehended, although he may not have ever been sent to Azkaban.  
That, too, fits the ambush idea. 

Things definitely do get fuzzy when we talk about Dolohov, Rosier, 
Wilkes and Mulciber.  We know that Rosier and Wilkes were Snape's old 
Slytherin buddies, making them prime candidates for an ambush.  We 
also know that Karkaroff was captured by Moody before Rosier and 
Wilkes, which is news to Karkaroff in the Pensieve scene.  But we do 
know that Karkaroff fingered them in the Pensieve scene, and there's 
reason to think Karkaroff has some relationship with Snape at that 
point -- Karkaroff fingers Snape.  So maybe Rosier, Wilkes, and 
Dolohov (and Mulciber?) were taken in the ambush, maybe not.  That 
just means it is unclear at this point which of Snape's old Slytherin 
friends were taken out in the ambush, not that there wasn't one.

Judy again:

> Further reasons to think that Snape didn't turn in any Death 
Eaters -- 
> when Sirius was in Azkaban, he heard Death Eaters ranting about 
those 
> who betrayed them, and Snape wasn't one of them.  

The Azkaban DEs would only rant about Snape being a spy if they knew 
he had set up the ambush.  How would they know that?  They think 
Moody caught them, and Snape got away.  The DEs in Azkaban wouldn't 
necessarily know anything about Dumbledore's statement about Snape 
during Karkaroff's plea bargain.  When Karkaroff was returned to 
Azkaban before his release, Karkaroff certainly wouldn't have told 
his DE buddies that he had gone to a plea bargain and cut a deal, so 
he wouldn't have mentioned Snape's spying, either.  

Judy again:

>And, Karkaroff 
> seemed surprised that Snape was a spy.  

If Karkaroff (who was in Azkaban before the plea bargain) didn't know 
Snape was a spy, that suggests that none of the DEs in Azkaban knew 
Snape was a spy.  Which I think is consistent with the ambush idea.

Cindy