[HPforGrownups] Did Snape Try to Warn James at GH? (Re: Here is an interesting Snape one)

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 120489

> Kneasy:
> Interesting.
> Both the current speculation as to Moosemings identity and 
> the events at GH.
> 
> Certainly posters have speculated that there was someone else 
> at GH (usually the finger points at Lupin, though Sevvy is 
> second favourite) I can't recall ever reading a truly 
> convincing theory as to why.
> 
> This one would certainly work in plot terms, matching known 
> or suspected character traits to  the action - though there's 
> one little question that Mooseming doesn't address - who gave 
> Snape the Potters location?
> 
> Sirius or Peter? And did that person know why Snape wanted to 
> see the Potters? Oh, yes. High potential for plot thickening here.

Vivamus:
Doesn't the Fidelius charm mean that only the secret keeper can reveal the
location?  Therefore, if Severus was there, Peter must have chosen to give
the location information directly to Snape.  Unless you are suggesting
Sirius was ESE (which I don't think fits with Peter's confessions in the
Shrieking Shack), Peter must have revealed it to Severus.

Here are two possibilities for that, neither of which are very satisfactory:
1. LV allows a lieutenant to be there when PP gives the news, or 3. Severus
was actually the one to take the information from PP to LV.   

The first seems unlikely, because LV isn't the type to share critical
information -- although it might have happened because PP burst in and
spilled the beans in front of others.

The only explanation I can think of for the second one is a dead drop
scenario.  Instead of going all the way to LV, which would be dangerous, PP
instead leaves a message for his pickup to take to LV.  Since Severus is his
pickup, he doesn't actually know who the spy is; he only delivers the
messages -- which explains HIS actions at the Shack.  But, as he is the
intended pickup for the messages, he can read them as well as LV.  Perhaps
there is some sort of curse or protective charm on the messages, so they can
only be brought straight to LV.  That would prevent Severus from going to DD
until AFTER he had delivered the message.

That generates a scenario of 
1. PP leaves message for SS
2. SS takes message to LV
3. LV makes plans for attack, while SS sends message to DD
4. SS races to GH and arrives barely ahead of LV

This does fit with the speculation from "Jo" about GH.   Hmmm, it also makes
potential sense of something else.  If Severus Snape's first action in
switching sides was to stand up to LV in defense of GH, and was forced to
flee, LV would know that SS had switched sides.  So, the line in the GoF
graveyard, "One, who I believe has left me forever ... he will be killed, of
course . . . " would also fit that.  If SS had been a spy for some time
before that, I don't think LV would have been so casual about it.  It would
have been outright treason and the reason for his downfall, and torturing SS
to death would have been the highest thing on LV's mind.  

But if SS first opposed LV when LV went to kill Lilly and James and their
son, that seems different.  LV would certainly kill someone who did that,
but if Severus' devotion to Lilly was the hook that let LV control him, it
would mean that it meant that LV made a mistake in not realizing that was
the one place he could not control SS.  Hence, the "he will be killed, of
course" line instead of "none of you will rest until that miserable
treacherous slime, SS, has been hunted down and ... [fill in appropriate
things LV would come up with]"

Vivamus, who is delighted to have more food for thought over the next six
months