So, what DID Snape do at the end of GoF?

[darrin_burnett]

No: HPFGUIDX 55668

Tom, quoting muggle.net. wrote:

> Anyways:
> "It doesn't mention in GoF that Voldemort even knows that Barty 
> Crouch Jr. is dead, maybe Snape will take the polyjuice potion and 
> impersonate Crouch Jr."
> --submitted by `The #1 HP fan' on www.mugglenet.com

And then wrote:

 
> This strikes me as very, very possible, especially since we don't 
> really know what happens to people who suffer from the Kiss of 
> Death, except that the resulting state is `worse than death,' and 
> that the person's soul is sucked out of the body. But JKR 
> conveniently never tells us if the body actually dies from the 
> process. Perhaps the body is kept alive in some kind of weird limbo 
> state or something, and in that case, Snape will have an endless 
> supply of hairs and other body parts to use in a polyjuice potion. 
> Now, whether or not Snape could effectively pull this off, however, 
> is a totally different discussion.
 
At work without my books, but I am sure that Lupin told Harry in PoA that a 
Dementor's Kiss is NOT fatal. The person just stays there. Presumably, he or 
she could be kept alive  if the goal was Polyjuicing.

My problem with this theory is that Dumbledore tells Snape. "You know what I 
must ask you to do. Are you ready?"

That indicates a long-held contingency plan between those two, instead of 
something cooked up on the spot, once it was realized Barty Crouch was 
alive and in their midst. (Granted, it was probably phrased this way so Harry, 
and by extension, us poor readers, would wonder for three years what the hell 
was going on, but I'm not going to metathink on my first day back.)

Secondly, how would Snape explain his absence while he's Crouch? Or 
would he bounce back and forth between the two personas? Very hard to pull 
off, as you said. Remember, Snape showed back up for the feast and we have 
no indication that he won't be Potions Master in OoP

Other theories:

* Snape has been collecting blackmail materials on all the parents of his little 
Slytherin boys and girls and now he has to start calling in the markers.

* As Hagrid is envoy to the giants, Snape is envoy to the vampires

* We know that OoP involves a scene where Dumbledore comes clean with 
Harry about his past and presumably, what his parents were doing and why 
they were killed. Maybe Snape is the one who has been guarding certain 
items belonging to the Potters and D-Dore sent him to go get them.

* Snape had no idea what he was supposed to do and instead went out for 
pizza, figuring D-Dore would let him know soon enough.