LOLLIPOPS strikes back! & Timeline

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 34853

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "ftah3" <ftah3 at y...> wrote:

> Question, and I probably just need a memory refresh as I haven't
been 
> back through the books in a little while: Do we know that he did any 
> more than simply give a heads-up when anything came down the pike? 
> And do we know that his spying had anything at all to do with the 
> Potters, or that Voldemort ever directed Snape to do something 
> personally against the Potters?  

Nope, we don't know.  Canonically, all we know about Snape's spying
career was that it existed.  It's tempting to connect it to the
Potters because, well, everything in the books seems to connect to the
Potters in one way or another.  A Potter is the protagonist of the
series, after all, and the mystery of what happened the night James
and Lily dies seems to be the central point of the overall story arc. 
But if anyone comes up with a really fascinating non-Potter-related
theory about what Snape got up to during his spying days, George and I
are willing to listen.


> As for danger, do we know he actually faced *great* danger?  

Dumbledore specifically used the words "at great personal risk."  Was
he aware of specific risks that Snape took, or was he just working on
the assumption that anyone spying on Voldy had to be in big-time
danger by definition?  I don't know.

> Certainly, when it comes to betraying a powerful megalomaniac like 
> Voldy, any little thing could cost Snape his life.  But if Voldy, at 
> the end of GoF, *was* referring to Snape when he mentioned the 
> follower who had left the fold never to return and therefore would
be 
> killed.  ...that doesn't sound like Voldy is feeling a sense of high 
> treason, does it?  

Well, considering Voldy is intending to kill the person in question, I
expect he's feeling a sense of high *something*, even if it's only a
high dudgeon.  Salying "this guy left, so I'm going to track him down
and kill him" doesn't strike me  as "shrugging it off."  I suppose one
could argue that Voldy is being kind of mellow because he's not saying
"this guy left the fold, so I'm gonna Crucio him for a week before I
kill him," but maybe that's just taken as a given.


> As for changing sides back in the Death Eater days, why does he need 
> to have had some enormous revelation requiring something like 
> unrequited love/attachment to Lily Potter?  Why not...'you know, 
> racist freaks who murder Muggles and wizards and are plotting World 
> Domination really ain't my kinda people.  I think I'll defect.'  

Hah! Looks like George made another frend!

> Imho, it says more for Snape's being a good man at his core that he 
> would make a moral decision of that sort without needing to justify 
> by selfish motives.  Petty and mean he may be on an everyday basis, 
> but when it comes to the *big* stuff, you don't have to bribe him 
> with the object of his obsession to do the right thing, you know? 

Yep, my sentiments exactly.
 

> I don't think it was James, I don't think it was Lily.  I think it 
> was Snape.  A Snape who can be ill-tempered, nasty, and narrow-
> minded, but who in the end has a strong enough moral core to see the 
> error in aligning himself with murdering, racist jerks, and enough 
> strength of will to risk his life for nothing more than simple moral 
> principle by defecting and spying for the good guys.

Wow, you're even out-Georging George here!  I think it could be James
mainly because of the "everything revolves around the Potters"
argument I made above, but it doesn't have to be.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com