[HPforGrownups] Re: Snape and the Potters

[Carol Bainbridge]

No: HPFGUIDX 47111


>Carol wrote (as part of a longer post about Snape and the Potters):
>
> > being killed.  I started to wonder if Harry's dream is actually
> > something of a memory.

Melpomene replied:
>The 2nd [reason for having thought about this too] was in PoA during the
>Patronus lesson when Harry hears the
>voices of his parents...or what he ASSUMES to be the voices of his
>parents. Lupin's reaction is very odd to me here when Harry tells him
>he heard his father telling yelling a warning to Lilly....I got the distinct
>impression from Lupin's reaction that Harry could not POSSIBLY been
>hearing Jame's voice. I don't know why, possibly because he had been
>killed earlier? Somewhere else? And Lupin knew it.

Me (Carol):
This is the best explanation I've seen so far for Lupin's reaction.  I 
could never quite figure out why he would have *been* at the scene, but by 
this time he could certainly know that James was not there.  Really 
good.  I like this.

Melpomene again:
>As for the 3rd--My suspicion here was pretty firmly cemented when
>TMTSNBN was being hyped as having a scene specifically written by JKR
>herself and that she was ADAMANT about how it should be filmed and
>that she was PARTICULARLY adamant that JAMES NOT BE SHOWN!

Me:
Ohhhh.  I didn't know that.  I knew the scene had JKR's stamp of approval, 
but I didn't know the part about James.  That is revealing, isn't it?

More Melpomene:
>Now, I don't know if the voice Harry heard was actually Snape trying
>to give a final, desperate and doomed warning or if it was, in fact,
>James but I am CONVINCED Snape was at Godric's Hollow that night in
>Some Capacity.

Me:
I am too now.  My first inclination is to say that it's Snape who's yelling 
out the warning, although could give him away to Voldemort, although the 
voice tells Lilly to take Harry and run and he'd hold "him" (meaning 
Voldemort) off.  I suppose it would be possible that Snape arrived first to 
warn Lilly.  She may have had just enough time to run and grab Harry, but 
that's it.  Maybe Snape stalled LV for a short while and thought Lilly had 
had a chance to get away.  If the voice doesn't belong to James, which 
seems likely, and it doesn't belong to Snape either, who could it belong 
to?  If as I guessed, Lucius was there as well, it certainly wouldn't be 
Lucius warning Lilly.  I hope we get more hints about that night in book 5.

Melpomene:
>I am also sure he's connected to the "missing" 24
>hours. You have some good ideas there.

Thanks.  I'm pretty sure now that he's connected to those hours as well.  I 
think Hagrid, Snape, and Dumbledore are all connected.  I don't think 
Serius is, though.  I think he showed up later.

Melpomene again:
>Snape was in mortal danger
>from any DE's who might have also been at the scene and witnessed
>this betrayal. A performance like that would CERTAINLY be enough to
>cement DD's trust in Severus Snape AND explain why in GoF he would be
>reluctant to tell Harry the reasons for that trust.

I agree.  And that's why I figured that it's very possible Lucius and Snape 
agreed on some cover story, each for his own reason.  I could see both of 
them swearing to support the other as having been under the imperius 
curse.  We know that's what Lucius claims.  Snape, at that point, couldn't 
be sure how other DE's would react to the vaporization of LV, so he 
certainly wouldn't want to admit to Lucius that he was actually a spy for 
DD, but sometimes the truth is a good lie.  That is, I could see that the 
two would be cooking up excuses and it would seem too much for them both to 
say they were under the imperious curse, so Snape could say, "Okay, you say 
you were under the imperious curse, and I'll say I was really a spy for 
DD.  I'll go now and tell DD about Voldemort so it will be more 
believable."  Then off he goes and during the trials Lucius is cleared of 
wrong doing because he was under the imperius curse and Snape is cleared 
because it turns out he was really a spy for DD.  Lucius and the other DE's 
think "ha, ha we fooled DD and the other goody-goodies.  They think Snape 
was a spy for DD, but we know he was really a true DE like us."