And back to... How Old Are Snape//James/Lily & co?

[evangelina839]

No: HPFGUIDX 76082

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Little lama" <mcandrew at b...> wrote:

<snip snip...>

> Meanwhile Snape in the same short time has left school to follow his 
> own path of becoming an active Death Eater for long enough to firmly 
> establish his credentials with the other DEs before becoming 
> disenchanted with the whole thing at some point, secretly defecting 
> to Dumbledore's side, staying there long enough to build up DD's 
> trust, presumably taking the time to upgrade his occlumency and 
> other skills essential for his double life under DD's tuition (or 
> maybe Voldy's), and then spying for Dumbledore for long enough to 
> expose himself to `great personal risk' (OK, that might not take 
> long).  Again, quite a challenging schedule.  And that's leaving 
> aside the development of enough emotional maturity (a quality that's 
> often in short supply at age 19 or 20) to be capable of making such 
> a momentous decision.  It's a frantic schedule that hardly allows 
> him to have been a Death Eater for long enough to build up a truly 
> satisfying legacy of lifelong guilt and repentance.

<snip... snip>

Oh, but I saw a movie about an undercover cop a while ago, and him working 
undercover for two years was considered a long time. And in that time he had to 
make friends further and further up the ranks (hm) in order to reach their Chief - 
Snape presumably already knew a bunch of DEs (the "gang of Slytherins" Sirius spoke 
of in GoF) and he had about four years (1977-81?) altogether among them. So... he 
could have been a true DE for, say, 1-2 years, changed his mind, gone to 
Dumbledore, convinced him... and then been a spy for at least a year. It's only too 
obvious I haven't thought this through that much, isn't it? :)
evangelina