Regulus' Death (was Questions about the Original Order,)

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 69655

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Kelly Grosskreutz" 
<ivanova at i...> wrote:
> greatlit2003 wrote:
> 
> > Here is a list of the people who were killed the year Harry was 
born:
> >
> > Evan Rosier, alleged friend of Snape's and fellow DE. He bit off
> > Moody's nose. (why did JKR name him Evan? So closely related to
> > Lily's name...)
> >
> > Wilkes, another alleged Snape friend and DE (don't know gender)
> >
> > Regulus Black, who was killed by DEs on V-mort's orders
> >
> I thought Rosier and Wilkes were killed after Harry's birth.  
Regulus was
> before, not sure how far before.
> >
> > Moody showed Harry a photo of the Original Order, and pointed out 
who
> > had died. If you follow the above timeline, the photo was taken
> > between 1978-1980. Once again, why so many deaths in that 
particular
> > time period? Could this be the reason why Snape hates Harry so 
much?

Why would this be Harry's fault, as he was an infant at the time and 
couldn't have done a whole lot to change things???

>  For the record,
> it was somewhere in this time that Snape switched sides as well.  
We don't
> know why at the moment, but I'm willing to bet it was after Regulus 
was
> killed.  I see Regulus and the circumstances surrounding his death 
as being
> important and perhaps influential to Snape, who may already have 
been
> questioning his allegiance. 

I've been thinking about this and haven't had time to try to figure 
out the timing with whatever Dumbledore said in the Pensieive scene 
in GoF about Snape's activities.

We know that Snape has been teaching at Hogwarts for 14 years.  Does 
that mean that in OoP he is in his 14th year of teaching, or does he 
mean that he's completed 14 years of teaching and is now in his 15th 
year?

We know that Regulus Black died "some 15 years" ago.  

Here's a theory with no more canon than the above incomplete 
timeline.  What if, in his DE days, Snape was ordered to kill Regulus 
Black?  What if, at this time, Snape was already having doubts about 
what he was doing with the DEs?  But, the order comes from Vmort 
to "kill Black." What if Snape, in a last effort at keeping faith 
with the DEs obeys this command, thinking he's being told to kill 
Sirius Black? And, okay, maybe he's not thrilled about having to do 
this, but at least he's being told to kill someone he has no love for.

Think of about it - Snape shows up.  There's a black-haired man, 
blinkfolded and bound. Snape thinks he recognizes this person, whips 
out his wand and AKs him.  Then, the blindfold is removed, Snape sees 
that it wasn't Sirius, but his younger brother, and realizes that he 
is no more than a tool in Voldemort's hands. His actions, which he 
had doubts about to begin with, have killed someone that he had no 
quarrel with.  This proves to him that Voldemort will use people as 
far as he can, but that once they are no longer useful to him, he 
will dispose of them.

This realization is the final straw that sends Snape to Dumbledore.

 This at least would let him know in no
> uncertain terms that you don't just walk up to the Dark Lord and 
say you
> want out.
> I do think once Trelawny gave her prophecy and both sides knew at 
least a
> portion of it, the war escalated.  Nothing to back me up as of yet; 
it just
> feels right.

I think you're on the right track here.

Marianne