GoF Mysteries

[jodel at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 61333

Ximena Valdivia Says:

>>I think the one he is too afraid was Karkaroff, I remember that Karkoroff 
goes to Snape office and show him something on his arm that I'm assuming is the 
mark of the deatheater and Snape tell him to escape; and Snape is the one who 
Voldemort say that will have to die.<<

This is certainly the widest held, and most obvious interpretation. It could 
very easily be right as well. (After all, Agatha Christie's reputation rested 
on the fact that although she didn't *always* lead the reader up the garden 
path, she always *could* if she chose to.)

But it doesn't much jibe with my own inner certainty that we are not going to 
be permitted to sit back and take Professor Snape's dedication to the "Light" 
side for granted. Rowling is going to keep us guessing over just whose side 
he is *really* on right up to sometime well into Book 7. 

IN the light of this, I will make one rock-solid guarantee that at some point 
in OotP we are going to get some information regarding Snape's backstory that 
is going to throw his revealing of himself as "the DE who recanted" into 
question. And in order to play into that we *may* be given some information which 
will invite us to reinterpret that little speech about the Coward and the 
Apostate and the Faithful Servant. This info may later turn out to be a red 
herring, but it is going to be up to us to decide what to do with it.

One possibility is that it is Karkaroff that Voldemort refers to when 
speaking of the Apostate. Karkaroff is a slimy specimen, but he does seem to truly 
have repented of his DE associations. He clearly does NOT look forward to a Dark 
rising. He has made his peace with the Ministry. When he sold out he stayed 
sold. After all, when his mark began to return who did he go to? Not Dumbledore 
(and why NOT Dumbledore?). He went to Snape, who he KNOWS was a spy. Snape 
who he probably thinks of as the ONLY other person who is in the same boat he is 
in -- that of a genuine *ex* Death Eater. 

What is more, we have some suggestion that this may indeed be the case. The 
Coward will merely be forced to "pay" for his cowardice. The Apostate will be 
killed. Given that the DEs know that Karkaroff sold out his fellows I cannot 
really see Voldemort merely hitting him with a round of Crutius and keeping him 
on a short leash.

If the Apostate is Karkaroff, then the Coward is most likely to be Bagman. 
Chiefly because it seems less than probable that the identity of the three 
missing DEs was that of persons who had not yet been met at the time the speech was 
made. (We have absolutely no certainly on this point. Voldemort could be 
refering to completely unknown people at that point in time, but that would be 
generally regarded as "cheating" on Rowling's part.) 

Bagman dodged the bullet in his trial by managing to make himself out to be a 
simple dupe. Augustus Rookwood, his contact, was already under investigation. 
Bagman betrayed no one, cut no deals and attempted only to save himself. He 
may indeed have been no more than a simple dupe, but he has also been 
demonstrated to be one very shifty character, and truthfullness is not his stock in 
trade. 

Bagman also made a break for it by the end of the TriWizard Tournement, under 
the very useful, and plausible, cover of dodging Goblin enforcers over his 
gambling debts. This may also be true. But it would not be difficult to believe 
that his real gamble was for some other stakes altogether. He managed to 
squirm out of a tight spot a dozen years ago, he may very well have decided that he 
doesn't want to take any further personal risks and to just sit this one out. 
In his case, I *can* see a bout of Crutius and being kept on a short leash 
lying within the expected parameters.

The identity of the Faithful Servant is no mystery. Despite strenuous 
attempts by some members to give this one a more "mysterious" spin, the Faithful 
Servant was Crouch Jr., referred to as such all the way back in the book's first 
chapter and revealed to the reader when he dragged Harry to his office after 
his return from the graveyard.

Which means that during the period that Harry was an unwilling guest at the 
"feast" Voldemort did not refer to Snape at all.

Consequently, either Snape *was* present, but not spoken to, taking up his 
usual "place" in the circle -- which is *extremely* possible, Harry and Cedric 
dissapeared from the Tournement at least a half hour before the DEs were 
called. Ample time for Snape to alert Dumbledore, retrieve his mask and robe and get 
outside the school bounds to apparate  when the call came. He was not 
actually *seen* afterwards until he, Dumbledore and Minerva rescued Harry in 
Crouch/Moody's office, a good 15-25 minutes after Harry's return. Given that portkeys 
*do* work on Hogwarts grounds, Snape's return trip might have been acomplished 
by this method for speed. It would hardly be surprising for a teacher to have 
a private portkey for the purpose of getting to school in emergencies. Part 
of that stating at his own face in the foe glass may have been over the irony 
of his having just come from the DE meeting. Otherwise, he went to the call 
afterwards (before the Mark faded back completely) and made his amends then.

I think there is a very strong argument for Snape having actually been 
present at the "re-birthday party". For one thing, the timing is tight, but far from 
impossible to allow for it. (Time-Tuner not required) Snape and Dumbledore 
would have been expecting Voldemort to make some sort of move at the third task. 
Why else would Harry's name have been put in the cup in the first place? For 
another thing, Acording to Sirius Black -- whose information was good up to 
the day after Volemort's fall -- Snape was never publiclly suspected of DE 
activity *despite* having run with a crowd of later-acknowlledged DEs all through 
school. Nor, as in Pettigrew's case, did any of the imprisoned DEs make any 
mention of him. In Snape, Voldemort has a follower who has not ever been 
publically suspected, and, consequently, one whose "secret" identity is to be 
preserved. This situation will be blown sky high when Karkaroff is taken.

If this is the case, the "task" that Dumbledore regretfully had to ask of 
Snape was to return to Voldemort with a report of what had taken place on the 
Hogwarts end of the operation after Harry had managed his escape. (And, 
incidentally to account for his actions over the period of Voldemort's absence.) The 
odd look that Snape was giving Harry over breakfast at the end of term could 
well have been because, although Snape had answered Voldemort's call fully 
expecting to have to blow his cover with a rescue attempt, he had not been called 
upon to do it.

-JOdel