Confusuion-spies/lies

[Anne(Anja)]

No: HPFGUIDX 58820

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "peggybaratto" <petalla at e...> 
wrote:
> 
> Here are some of my questions now---
> Is it really a secret that Snape was a spy for Dumbledore? 
> Dumbledore does publicly stand up for Snape.  He says that Snape 
> turned spy for him before the fall of Voldie.  If this is public 
> knowledge (at least within the WW), how can Snape return to the DE?
> 
I think at first it may have been very well a secret which became 
public when Snape was caught by the Ministery and brought to trial , 
probably AFTER Voldemort's first defeat. Why do I think this ? You 
see, Dumbledore stood up for Snape during Karkaroff's trial which 
clearly took place after Halloween 1981. During the same trial Crouch 
mentions that "Snape has been cleared by this council" (GoF , p. 383. 

This means :
a) Snape has been accused of being a Deatheater sometime BEFORE 
Karkaroff mentioned his name in front of the council and everyone 
present that day.
b) He must have been already a spy back then since Dumbledore was 
able to vouch for him . Otherwise DD wouldn't have been able to save 
him from the Dementors or Askaban.
c) Even Snape's first trial happened after Harry defeated Voldemort. 
Here my evidence in canon is Lucius Malfoy who doesn't seem to have a 
clue that Snape left the Dark Lord and rejoined DD's side. If he knew 
about that , he would have told Draco whose attitude towards Snape 
would , IMHO , be completely different.

Still I don't think it is common knowledge in the Wizarding World 
that Snape was Dumbledore's spy. Nevertheless I guess the information 
would be available to everyone interested. It's just that Harry never 
tried to find out anything about Snape before he saw the scene in the 
Pensieve , otherwise he probably would have found out earlier. 
Now there's still the problem with Lucius Malfoy who never gave the 
impression of distrusting Snape's loyality to the Dark Side (he 
wouldn't have sent his son to Hogwarts if he had known that his son 
would be thaught by a traitor). Maybe Snape and Malfoy are indeed 
close friends and Snape found some excuse for all the talk about him 
being a spy. Lucius himself talked himself out of this whole 
Deatheater thing as did many others , so it wouldn't be impossible 
for him to believe that Snape just pretended to be have been a spy to 
escape from the Ministery. 

Maybe this excuse may also work with Voldemort. Just think of his 
immense arrogance. Would he want to admit to himself that there was a 
traitor among his precious Deatheaters all the time ? I don't think 
so. And remember he took Malfoy and Avery back as well although the 
two of them denied their loyality to him before the council. 
Sure , there's still the fact that Quirrel/Voldemort probably sensed 
his true loyalities but he might be able to find an excuse for that 
as well. BTW , is there any evidence in canon that Voldemort can 
remember anything of the things that happened while he was on the 
back of Quirrel's head ? 

    Sympa (who is confused as well but wanted to jump on this anyway)