Dumbledore's right hand man ( was Is Snape a dofus?)/ Snape and Malfoy

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 32782

Athena writes
>One question that bugged me is: "Why did he teach students in the first 
place?" >He can have other jobs like working somewhere. Is he guarding 
something or >someone in Hogwarts but he is using teaching in covering it 
(~whatever it is~) up?

I believe that he is teching at Hogwarts because that is precisely where 
Dumbledore wants him. Dumbledore doesn't seem terribly concerned about what 
the rest of the world would consider as ideal qualities in teachers: he seems 
to have a realistically resigned attitude towards Trelawny, puts up with a 
History of Magic teacher who bores his class to sleep and as for 
Lockhart..... words fail (granted, he didn't have much choice, assuming as I 
do that Snape didn't want the job).

So he's not there because of his teaching abilities.
I don't think either Dumbledore or Snape ever believed Voldemort had gone for 
good. I also believe that Snape is Dumbledore's right hand man, with inside 
knowledge of the opposition and some compelling reason for Dumbledore to 
trust him (could this be linked to the great personal cost that we hear of in 
the pensieve sequence? Would I like to know what that was!). 

There are at least two incidents  where he turns up with Dumbledore and 
McGonagall which I think illustrate his central position: after the first 
basilisk attack and notably at the end of GoF. In the first case, Dumbledore 
disagrees with his analysis of the situation, but he doesn't question his 
right to be involved. After all they weren't students from his house, it 
wasn't really his business any more than that of the other heads of houses, 
who seem to have been absent.  (Rambling a bit , but do you get my drift? He 
just seems to have more weight than than the other senior and ? older staff)

As for the rekindled discussion of Snape and Malfoy, surely the important 
point is that Malfoy almost certainly knew that Snape was a DE. Releasing 
that knowledge would have the same effect as Snape "accidentally" telling the 
Slytherins that Remus was a werewolf. (Skating on thin ice there, I feel. 
Fortunate for him that for once he analyses a character correctly and knows 
that Remus is too honorable and loyal to retalliate.)


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