Snape and the Potters

[aja_1991]

No: HPFGUIDX 47130

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Carol Bainbridge <kaityf at j...> wrote:
> 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.

You've suggested that the male voice Harry heard urging Lily to take 
Harry and run was not James, and suggested that voice was either 
Lupin, Snape, or Lucius Malfoy.  

My concern with this theory:  Harry has met all three of these men, 
and has spoken to them.  He knows what their voices sound like.  
Wouldn't he by now be able to connect the voice in the flashback to 
one of them?  Yes, I recognize that voices can "age," but all three 
were grown men at the time of the Potters' deaths, and I don't think 
the ensuing 12-14 years of time would change their voices 
dramatically enough that Harry couldn't recognize them.  

That doesn't discredit the idea that Remus knows enough about what 
happened that night to know Harry couldn't be hearing James' voice 
making that statement.  It does suggest that the voice belongs to 
someone Harry has never (yet) met, which would rule out people like 
Sirius, Peter, Remus, Lucius, Fudge, Arthur Weasley, Hagrid, 
Dumbledore, Snape, Flitwick, Macnair, Crouch (Sr. and Jr.), etc.  
Which raises all kinds of intriguing possibilities.  Mundungus 
Fletcher?  An uncle or grandfather who was in fact killed in fight to 
save Harry and Lily?  Mr. Figg?  Or perhaps somebody working 
undercover using some kind of voice altering spell... or potion?

aja_1991, pondering away at the mystery...