[HPforGrownups] Snape's Memory

[manawydan]

No: HPFGUIDX 78977

RSFJenny:
>Snape is the Eavesdropper in the Hog?Ts Head.
>Snape put three memories in the Pensieve. We know one was the "worst
memory".
>There is only speculation on what the other two were, but, by going on all
we
>know of Snape in canon, it's safe to attribute the second to when James
saved
>Snape's life (God forbid Harry see his father as a hero in Snape's memory).

Except that Harry already knows all about this. He knows that James saved
Severus's life. And he also knows that it wasn't done as an act of altruism.
And Snape knows that Harry knows. It's possible, I agree, that it's a memory
that still makes Snape so angry that he has to get it out of his head to be
able to think straight when he's teaching Harry. But not something that he
needs to keep hidden

>So, the third? What must Snape keep from Harry? It has to be important that
>Harry not see. From what we know of Snape in canon, there is no other
significant
>event in his life, except whatever it was that made Snape turn to the good

I'd say that that lack of mention in canon is itself significant! JKR's
comment about there being something in book 7 which will be very important
about Snape suggests that there's something very big to come out. Which was
what led me to speculate that Snape took his hatred of James out into the
world with him and acted on it as a DE.

>side (I don't believe there is a significant moment that made him turn to
the
>dark side, I believe he was already on that path). JKR has been silent on
what
>made Snape switch sides, leaving us to know only that DD trusts him. What
proof
>could Snape have offered to DD to prove he was indeed switching sides? I
>believe he provided DD with information - his knowledge of part of the
prophecy
>and that he had passed the information to LV - as proof, which is defintely
>something Harry is not allowed to see. Not enough for you? Consider this:
just how
>does DD know that the eavesdropper didn't hear the whole thing unless the
>eavesdropper himself told DD? He was listening to the prophecy, so the
chances
>that DD also heard the exact moment the eavesdropper was being thrown out
are
>quite slim-none.

I agree with what you're saying here, not so much in the sense that Snape
used his partial knowledge of the prophecy as the key to make Dumbledore
take him on board (Dumbledore could equally easily have concluded that Snape
was trying to blackmail him and let the Aurors turn him inside out) but that
the prophecy _itself_ is something which the Order doesn't want Harry to
know at this time - perhaps Dumbledore gave Snape a direct instruction to
eliminate any possibility of Harry finding out the prophecy until he was
ready.

Cheers

Ffred

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