Snape as a Spy and Spy!Lucius, too!

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 86442

> Jen R: There is another logical explanation, one of my pet theories, 
> and it's that Lucius Malfoy is a Spy as well. Now, I'm not saying 
> Lucius is a good *person* or that he believes in the Order's cause, 
> or even that he is not exactly as he's portrayed--a prejudiced, 
> bigoted, power-hungry man. But Lucius being a pseudo double-agent 
> would go a long way to explaining a few things.
> 
> For one thing, how has Snape convinced Voldemort he is still on the 
> side of the DE's? With Lucius's help of course. We have no evidence 
> that Snape is friendly with any of the other DE's besides Karkaroff, 
> who is no longer 'loyal'. We're pretty sure Snape wasn't at the 
> graveyard. His link to Voldemort is through Lucius, LV's "slippery 
> friend". 
> 
> LV is a shrewd dictator. He is not immune to the fact that Malfoy 
> has power in the mainstream WW, has money, has pureblood status--all 
> the things LV never had. Malfoy, while he may once have been young 
> and idealistic and believed in LV's cause, is now older, wiser and 
> more powerful---and he's not going to let some two-bit Evil Overlord 
> who's not even pureblood (spits on floor) take anything away from 
> him.  
> 
> My theory is that Lucius turned spy after the COS incident. Yes, he 
> planted the diary, he was all for scaring the 'Mudbloods', perhaps 
> bringing some family shame on the Weasleys by using Ginny, and 
> closing down Hogwarts, but my guess is he had *no clue* that LV 
> could actually return to life through that diary. That fact spooked 
> him enough that he decided to work with Snape at least, if not the 
> Order in its entirety. 
> 
> Who else planted the seed of "obtaining the Prophecy" in LV's ear, 
> luring Harry Potter to the MOM, and having LV outed to the WW? Who 
> was the one telling all the DE's "not to kill Harry" in the DOM even 
> though the other children were expendable in his eyes?  He knows 
> Harry is the One, and much as he and Snape despise "Potter", they 
> want him to do their dirty business and remove LV for good. Then 
> they, or Lucius at least, can get on with the business of running 
> the WW in whatever way he can--bribery, under the table deals, etc.
> 
> No, Lucius isn't going to take orders from anyone this time around, 
> especially a 'half-blood'.

Carol:
Interesting! I agree that (until Lucius is sent to Azkaban at the end
of OoP) Snape is working solely with Lucius, that Lucius is "slippery"
(even Voldemort doesn't fully trust him), and that Lucius has
ambitions of his own to succeed Voldemort. Whether or not Lucius
suspects Snape of having left the DEs forever before the graveyard
scene, he has posed as Snape's friend all along, taking advantage of
old Slytherin ties in hopes of gaining information from him. No doubt
he looks down a bit on Snape, who is younger, less prestigious, and
has to earn his living as a teacher at Hogwarts, but he condescends to
remain on friendly terms with him for his own ends. By the same token,
Snape would benefit from retaining the tie with Lucius as part of his
cover. Before Voldemort's return, Lucius presumably thinks that Snape
escaped Azkaban in the same way he did, by pretending to be under the
Imperius curse. Once he realizes that Snape is the one who will not
return, he probably thinks it advantageous to maintain the connection
and pretend that he believes Snape's explanation (he couldn't apparate
to the graveyard, etc., as explained in another post). Whether he also
suspects Snape of being a member of the Order, I don't know. I don't
think he does or he wouldn't continue to commend Snape's performance
as a teacher--unless he thinks Snape is a double agent. I also don't
think he knows about Snape's efforts to thwart Quirrell or the jig
would be up. If he suspects Snape of alerting the OoP and indirectly
bringing about his own arreat, then the jig IS up.

You're also right that he is the only one who could have informed LV
that the way to lure Harry to the MoM was through Sirius, but the
source of that information wasn't Snape, it was Kreacher. I don't
think Snape was in on Lucius's little scheme to succeed Voldemort, at
least not with any real intention of acting on it, but I have no doubt
that he used it to his advantage. (However highly Lucius may think of
himself, Snape is undoubtedly more cunning and more intelligent, and
has the advantage of knowing occlumency and legilmency.)

The problem for them both is that their link is broken. Is Snape going
to maintain appearances by helping to break them out of Azkaban? I
seriously doubt it. He doesn't want the DEs to be free. Will he be
forced to work with Draco and Narcissa now? Surely he can't blow his
cover and be revealed as, in essence, a traitor to his own house.

BTW, I still don't understand how Lucius got hold of the diary, which
couldn't have been left in the Riddle house at the time of the
murders. The police would have found it and realized that Tom Marvolo
Riddle, the name on the binding, was not the name of the Tom Riddle
who died. A little investigation would lead them to the older Tom's
divorce, an unacknowledged son in an orphanage, and a certain teenage
murderer. Maybe Voldemort told Lucius that it was at Hogwarts and
Lucius forced Dobby to find it and bring it to him?

Carol