Snape & Quirrell in PS/SS

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 41072

I've been working on a unified theory of Snape's interactions with the 
Voldemort-possessed Quirrell in PS/SS, and what bearing this might have on 
his future ability to return to spy on LV. I've been doing this mostly for 
my own amusement (and in light of viewing the DVD which must not be named)
, but I thought I might share it with you all. This post takes into 
account much of the previous thought on HPfGU and I have tried to credit 
everyone else where I can. In some cases where many people have speculated 
the same thing, I'm afraid I have referenced the most recent posts for my 
own convenience. There has been much discussion on this list over time and 
some of this is naturally recap -- I consider this the current state of 
our collective wisdom.

This posts covers two main issues:

1) The question of Snape's whereabouts when Harry went through the trap 
door at the end of the book, and why Snape wasn't there to help him. 
(Leftover from a thread from March, I'm afraid!) This gets into the 
general issue of what Snape suspected about Quirrell, and why he reacted 
to him the way he did.

2) The subject recently raised by Rowen Avalon (#40897, #40934) and Dante 
(#40862, #40901) as to what, if anything, Snape told Dumbledore about his 
suspicions.

Also, at the end I say a few things about the general possibility that 
Snape will spy on LV again. OK, let's go:

  ~ What did Snape suspect about Quirrell, and why did he react to him the 
way he did? ~

At Harry's very first sighting of Snape, Snape is talking to Quirrell, who 
is wearing a turban -- evidently for the first time. (According to JKR 
herself, Snape isn't keen on turbans, so he might have wondered about his 
colleague's choice of headgear. ;-)) Just as Snape happens to look past 
Quirrell and into Harry's eyes, Harry's scar suddenly burns. Snape quickly 
looks back at Quirrell. (Note: it happens exactly like this in the 
DVDTMNBN as well).

While this stands as misdirection about Snape, one can also posit that 
this is exactly where Snape would begin to wonder about Quirrell. Snape 
has a Voldemort-delivered scar that burned when LV made it burn, allowed 
him to apparate to LV's presence without even knowing the location, and 
possibly transmits some other dark powers (Elkins discusses that DEs might 
get extra power from LV in posts #36473, #39828; I'm simply adding that 
the scar might be the conduit of the power boost). He also knows that 
Harry has this famous scar from LV (everyone knows). So when he sees Harry'
s scar suddenly burn, he must wonder why, and does it have something to do 
with Quirrell and his turban. It's possible that Snape felt some twinge in 
his scar at that moment as well.

If this is all correct, Snape would have theorized not only that Quirrell 
was working for Voldemort, *but also that Voldemort was possessing 
Quirrell's body in the turban.* Now, let's consider Eloise's theory  
(#34607) that Snape's defection to Dumbledore was something Snape talked 
LV into authorizing in the first place, setting himself up as a double 
agent for both sides. This would explain a number of things such as why 
the other DEs don't blame him for working for Dumbledore or avoiding 
imprisonment by relying on Dumbledore's help -- they thought it was his 
clever plan all along. It would also mean that LV could be suspicious but 
not convinced either way of Snape's loyalty even though Snape has been 
working for Dumbledore for many years. From LV's point of view, Snape is 
either maintaining a very deep cover or he's actually turned loyal to 
Dumbledore in earnest.

Let's imagine that Snape and Dumbledore anticipated all along that someday 
LV would come back, and that Snape might have to return to him as a 
spy/double agent. (I realize that this to some extent begs the question of 
whether or not Snape will spy again, but I'm simply positing that it's 
either one way or the other: either they have planned this all along and 
Snape intends to spy again, or they never planned any such thing in which 
case Snape's task is something else and this argument ends.) Snape's close 
position to Dumbledore might make him so desirable to LV that LV would be 
willing to keep him alive and in place despite not entirely trusting him. 
Therefore, confronted with a Voldemort-possessed Quirrell, Snape must be 
very cagey. He can't let on to Quirrell how or why he suspects him -- he'd 
have to admit that it was because of the scar thing and that he suspects 
Quirrell is really working for LV. This predicament might shed light on 
the question of exactly what Snape was trying to accomplish by pursuing 
Quirrell during the troll-diversion incident: not only is he trying to 
keep Quirrell from getting at the Stone (and gauging how far Quirrell can 
get towards it), but he's trying to catch him in the act so he can openly 
try to thwart him from now on. He can now come out and say "I suspect you"
  without alluding to Voldemort. Note that Quirrell complains that Snape 
suspected him all along but doesn't seem to know why.

Anyway, given the above speculation about Snape knowing he'd have to go 
back and spy someday, Snape would never let on to Quirrell that he 
suspected him of trying to steal the Stone for anyone other than himself. 
His conversation in the Forbidden Forest thus doesn't mention LV, but only 
admonishes Quirrell to be loyal to Dumbledore: "We'll have another little 
chat soon, when you've had time to think things over and decided where 
your loyalties lie." (Note: at the end of the DVDTMNBN Quirrell implies 
that Snape did *not* know he was possessed, meaning Snape did not lead him 
to believe he knew about LV, which also supports this theory.)

However, there is a limit past which Snape cannot push Quirrell. If Snape 
were to physically attack him or otherwise put his life in danger then he'
d risk Voldemort decloaking, making his presence known to force Snape to 
realize that all three should be on the same side. And then Snape would be 
in a real bind. So all he can do is follow Quirrell around and try get him 
to change his own mind. This explains the vexing question of where Snape 
was on the night Dumbledore disappeared and Harry went down the trapdoor 
(my apologies to Eloise's lovely SUCCESS theory, #36503!). Snape could try 
to motivate Quirrell to do the right thing, and he could try to intimidate 
Harry from staying out of the matter entirely, but he could not physically 
stop Quirrell or try to rescue Harry on his own. To do so would risk 
Voldemort speaking up and demanding Snape's loyalty, and then Snape would 
be obliged to somehow help LV get the Stone or blow his cover.

Plus, Snape might not want to be anywhere near the Mirror of Erised when 
LV is around.

  ~ What did Snape tell Dumbledore about Quirrell? ~

Lets consider two main possibilities, either 1) Snape did not tell AD what 
he knew, or 2) he did and they decided to sit on that information.

Possibility 1: Snape wanted to handle everything himself, so he didn't say 
a thing. Evidence for this includes:

a) The fact that Snape does tend to rush into things on his own (pursuing 
Quirrell on Halloween, the Shrieking Shack) without calling for backup. 
Snape both gives the impression of being a loner and someone who longs for 
recognition for his own accomplishments. It matches his personality to 
think he might want full credit for dealing with the whole thing, just as 
he wants recognition for hauling in Sirius Black to the MoM in PoA.

b) Snape was trying to keep secret the fact that he went after Quirrell at 
the Halloween Ball. Perhaps this is why he turned to Filch for help when 
he was injured rather than go to the infirmary where he might have 
attracted a lot of attention from students and had to answer a lot of 
questions from Pomfrey. He can trust Filch to keep quiet since Filch 
defers to him, has very little authority of his own and already enjoys a 
mutually beneficial hall-patrolling partnership with him.

c) There is no evidence that anyone else tried to hassle Quirrell except 
Snape, least of all Dumbledore.

I respect this interpretation but don't agree, so I'm going to go ahead 
and present the counter-arguments and alternative interpretations.

For one thing, there is evidence that Dumbledore knew Harry and the Stone 
were in danger. He does show up at the second Quidditch match to keep an 
eye on things, and as Amanda suggested in post #36555, his use of the 
Mirror or Erised to protect the Stone seems like an extra measurement. He 
only resorted to it after Christmas, which implies that he might have had 
extra reason to suspect someone inside the castle after the broom-bucking 
incident and the Halloween troll. It's not entirely clear whether he knew 
these things from Snape or whether he simply drew his own conclusions, but 
it is not fair to say that Dumbledore didn't act at all as a result of 
suspicious activity. Also, we don't know whether Snape's attempt at hiding 
his encounter with Fluffy was an attempt to keep what he knew secret from 
everyone, or just the students.

For another thing, while Snape does snap into action when he perceives a 
crisis or an immediate threat (again, pursuing Quirrell on Halloween, the 
Shrieking Shack), he is also quite capable of making his worries and 
suspicions known to Dumbledore, even when they are not wanted. Snape 
spends *all* of PoA trying to convince Dumbledore that Lupin is letting 
Black into the castle. He mentions this himself in the Shack and we see 
him doing it after the Fat Lady's portrait is slashed. Dumbledore does not 
consider this a possibility for an instant and he probably resents the 
implication. He does make it known to Snape in no uncertain terms that he 
is unwilling to believe this of Lupin. But Snape persists anyway. Snape 
also speaks his mind to Dumbledore in GoF; he confides about his scar 
coming back and that Karkaroff has told him the same thing. So here again,
  we see him reporting to Dumbledore what he knows about LV and his 
possible supporters. (Besides that, we discover he used to spy on LV and 
thus telling AD everything he knew about the bad guys was his *job* back 
in the day.)

So we can either conclude that a) Snape didn't tell Dumbledore what he 
knew about Quirrell, deeply regretted it, and vowed to keep him in the 
loop about every paranoid idea he had from then on, or b) Snape has always 
made a habit of sharing his suspicions with Dumbledore. That brings us to:

Possibility 2: Snape told Dumbledore everything he knew, but they sat on 
the information

Let's consider variations.

2.1: Snape told Dumbledore everything he knew, but they didn't have enough 
proof to bust Quirrell. If Snape was the only one who saw Quirrell go for 
the Stone during the troll-diversion, it might be a case of one man's word 
against the other, and Quirrell would have said something like "oh, I was 
suddenly worried someone else would go after the Stone, just like Snape." 
A weak defense, but it's not like they caught him red-handed. Dumbledore 
would have believed Snape, but this is Mr. "guilty until proven innocent, 
Severus" so he might not have felt comfortable sacking Quirrell on the 
spot. Similarly, during the first Quidditch match, Snape must have noticed 
Quirrell staring and muttering the broom jinx, but if no one else did, 
then that's not much proof. Irene has suggested #40037 that perhaps 
Dumbledore and Snape appeared at the second Quidditch match to try to 
catch Quirrell in the act (and failed), which fits nicely with this idea.

2.2: Snape told Dumbledore everything he knew, but Dumbledore wanted to 
give Harry a chance to figure out the mystery. To me, this is what the 
books suggest. Dumbledore allowed Harry to see the Stone being removed 
from Gringotts, he sent him the invisibility cloak and he showed him how 
the Mirror of Erised works. He was overjoyed when Harry mentioned he found 
out who Flamel was. It seems clear that he wanted to give Harry a chance 
to investigate and see what he'd be inclined to do and how far he could 
get. (Debbie articulates this well in #40037, improving on my own earlier 
attempt.) Perhaps Dumbledore felt that Quirrell was not so much of a 
threat since a) Voldemort was obviously in a weakened condition, b) the 
protection of Harry's mother's love would do a lot to keep him safe and c)
  Quirrell wouldn't have been able to get the Stone out of the mirror. 
Perhaps Dumbledore regretted being quite so lax by the end of PS/SS when 
he has to rescue Harry; perhaps he didn't foresee events would come to 
such a dramatic conclusion at Harry's expense.

2.3: Snape told Dumbledore everything he knew, but begged him to let him 
handle Quirrell on his own. Heh heh. I love this one. OK, so from what 
Dumbledore says about Snape in the Pensieve in GoF, we know that Snape 
recanted a) *before* Voldemort fell and b) *before* the MoM caught up with 
him -- which they did -- and investigated him -- which they did. Snape was 
lucky he changed allegiances early, since if he waited until LV fell or 
the MoM hauled him in then any amount of weeping or breast-beating or 
moaning about how terribly mistaken he was would have all looked like a 
slimy attempt at evading punishment. Even if he really regretted it later,
  he'd look just as lame and untrustworthy as Karkaroff. So Snape is 
thanking providence that he didn't drag his heels. Therefore, it's 
possible that when he looks at someone in the position of Quirrell or 
Karkaroff he thinks "there but for the grace go I...." So maybe he wanted 
a shot at trying to convince Quirrell to come back to the side of good of 
his own volition before it was too late for Quirrell to change his mind 
and be credible (or be dead). Remember what Snape says to him in the 
Forbidden Forest "when you've had time to think things over and decided 
where your loyalties lie." He could mean by this something like "wise up 
and get back on our side." Now Quirrell perceived Snape as hostile, trying 
to frighten him out of it ("He suspected me all along. Tried to frighten 
me - as though he could, when I had Lord Voldemort on my side...."), but 
isn't that exactly how Snape tries to motivate Harry to keep himself out 
of trouble? Poor Snape doesn't have the persuasive skills of Dale Carnegie.
  And furthermore, he would have had to have been careful about what he 
said with LV possessing Quirrell as I mentioned above; he couldn't exactly 
say "Oh, I was once in the thrall of the Dark Lord like you, but then, see,
  I recanted and...." No, he'd have to make it out like it was just a 
question of loyalty to Dumbledore and not get more specific. Also, I think 
Dumbledore might feel much the same way about letting Quirrell have a 
chance to come around on his own; in other words, to give him the same 
chance to let his choices determine who he is, etc.

OK, if you like theory 2.3  you can combine it with theory 1 and decide 
that Snape *really* wanted to handle everything on his own, or you can 
combine all the theory 2 variations and decide that Snape and Dumbledore 
somehow mutually decided to keep everything quiet. Either way can work.

As to the general question of whether Voldemort can trust Snape if/when he 
returns to him and is his cover already blown, the current state of the 
argument rests with the thread from a few weeks ago between Debbie and 
Eloise: in particular Eloise's explanation for why LV didn't try to 
contact Snape directly in PS/SS (#39844) and Debbie's reasons for why LV 
might have suspected Snape even as far back as the Secret-Keeper Charm 
(#39904). If anyone thinks of more issues please post them.

I think that it's possible for Snape to return to LV -- basically if JKR 
wants it that way. I think she's left that possibility open. Since 
Dumbledore is still the one who LV fears, Snape's position of closeness 
and trust to him might outweigh LV's distrust in Snape; if Snape can 
convince LV he's loyal he'd be too valuable an asset to not keep. Of 
course what Snape would have to do to convince LV of his loyalty is a 
chilling question, not to mention the fact that LV might pretend he 
believes Snape is on his side but not really trust him and feed him 
misinformation after all. Snape and Dumbledore would have to have a plan 
in place to counteract that -- it would get complicated.

On the other hand I find it astonishing to think that JKR would telegraph 
a plot development so baldly. Harry has *never* been right about what's 
going on with Snape, so why would he suddenly guess correctly at the end 
of GoF? JKR's misdirection? Or, this could foreshadow a significant change 
in their dynamic. If Harry does believe that Snape is going back to LV to 
spy then I think that would rule out any possibility for Snape to be a red 
herring in future books; any suspicious activity on his part would simply 
be understood as him maintaining his cover. So perhaps this heralds some 
sort of new understanding between Harry and Snape, which I suppose I would 
welcome.

So my conclusion is indeterminate. :-) I don't think we can rule out the 
possibility of Snape once again spying on LV; I think JKR has left this 
possibility open. Whether that's what he'll do or whether that's just what 
JKR wants us to believe remains an open question.

~~Porphyria


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