[HPforGrownups] Snape's spying career

[Porphyria]

No: HPFGUIDX 36295

Regarding Dumbledore's revelation of Snape's spying career in the 
Pensieve scene, Elkins wrote:

> Even so, though, surely Dumbledore's pronouncement could have placed
> Snape at far greater risk from other (still at-large) Death Eaters? 
> He makes the pronouncement during Karkaroff's plea bargain, at a time
> when the Ministry clearly believes that there are many Death Eaters
> not only still at large, but also as-yet unidentified.  For that
> matter, he makes the pronouncement after it has become clear that
> there might still be Death Eater moles within the very ministry
> itself!  It just seemed a bit...inconsiderate to me.

I've heard other people theorize that perhaps everyone in the Pensieve 
was put under a secrecy charm, but that may be a little pat. Still, in 
defense of Dumbledore, I think it's possible that all 200 of the wizards 
at Karkaroff's hearing already knew that Snape was cleared because he 
was a spy. I'm not sure if this is new information to any of them at the 
time.

When Karkaroff mentions Snape, it is Crouch Sr. who first sniffs: "Snape 
has been cleared by this council...He has been vouched for by Albus 
Dumbledore." He says cleared by "this council" which makes me think the 
council members could be the exact same 200 people present. Plus, there 
is no mention of any buzz of murmurs rushing through the crowd the way 
there was just before when Karkaroff mentioned Rookwood. So maybe it's 
old news to them. Lastly, when Dumbledore stands to say that he has 
"already" given evidence in the matter, he does it "calmly" as if he's 
merely reminding everyone. He doesn't seem pressed as you'd think he 
would be if he were trying to convince people.

Well, that leaves a couple of problems, such as potential moles in the 
Ministry. But still, if there's a mole amongst these 200, they might 
already know all about Snape. The other question might be why is 
Dumbledore so nonchalant about letting the likes of Karkaroff know that 
Snape was a spy per se. All I can think of here is that maybe Dumbledore 
figured that since Karkaroff had just sung like a bird that his own 
status amongst the former DEs would be even worse than Snape's; at least 
Snape can theoretically claim that he duped Dumbledore into believing he 
was a spy. Karkaroff pretty much has to exile himself to the unplottable 
Durmstrang to avoid his old DE buddies. (Well, that's the way I imagine 
it. Karkaroff certainly tends to run from his troubles. ;-))

After the initial fall of Voldemort, Dumbledore apparently had to do 
*something* to keep Snape from going to Azkaban. The implication is 
certainly that Snape was spying for Dumbledore personally, and not in 
any official capacity for the MOM. The MOM performed some sort of 
hearing or investigation or something into Snape that required D's 
testimony to get him cleared (it's not stated that Snape was arrested 
and put on trial, but it seems that the MOM could have if they'd felt 
the need to). So Dumbledore might have been more or less forced to spill 
the beans semi-publicly then. Putting Snape's life in danger from a 
bunch of former DE's who have their own reputations to restore is still 
better than letting him go to prison.

I myself haven't ruled out the possibility that Snape is more or less 
stuck at Hogwarts because he's safer there. We never see him go out for 
a drink at Hogsmeade with his fellow heads of house. We certainly never 
bump into him in Diagon alley or at the Quidditch World Cup. Apart from 
the Shack incident, does he go off campus ever?

Also, I'm in the camp that refuses to believe that at the end of GoF he 
was sent back to rejoin the DEs so as to spy again. I think that the 
fact that Harry has already pondered as much is enough to rule the 
possibility out. :-) So maybe it's sort of OK if some people know he at 
least claimed to be a spy. Sort of. I've also argued that I don't think 
it's common knowledge that he was a spy or a DE at all, so maybe the 200 
wizards in the Pensieve could keep a secret after all. I guess we'll 
see....

~~Porphyria

[I'm the arbiter, I know the score
  From square one I'll be watching all 64]

Dammit, Elkins, now you've got that whole soundtrack stuck in my 
head!!! :-)


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