Secret Agent!Snape [Was "a question"]

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 91152

> Annemehr:  More troubling for Snape trying to pass as a loyal 
DE  would be what Pettigrew could tell Voldemort about what 
happened in  the Shrieking Shack. I looks bad that Snape tried 
very hard to  capture the supposed DE Sirius Black. 

Pippin:
 Snape can claim that he thought Dumbledore was testing him 
when Quirrell attacked Harry and that in his eyes  Sirius had to 
be either  innocent, or raving mad, most likely the latter. In either 
case, he was useless to Voldemort--why should Snape risk 
revealing himself by aiding his escape?

Jim:
>> Voldemort doesn't impress as the kind of mastermind that 
lets himself  be talked out of much.  Snape, even though he has 
Occlumency,  wouldn't be accepted unless he lowered the 
barriers so that Voldemort could look directly into his mind.<<

I don't think Occlumency works like that. From what Snape says, 
the  barriers erected by  the skilled Occlumens are 
undetectable...all the legilimens sees is a sort of mental 
Potemkin village. Voldemort can poke around all he wants and 
never learn anything Snape doesn't want him to know. 

Jim: 
>> In the Muggle world of espionage, Snape is completely 
"blown," and  would never be able to "go operational" again.  
Snape's work is done some other way. Nothing he gleaned 
directly from LV could be trusted, given the high probablity it's 
disinformation designed to trap the Good Guys and smoke out 
Snape himself.

>  Someone suggested he may have a relationship with 
>someone like  Narcissa Malfoy <<

Umm,  all that buildup at the end of GoF, Dumbledore's 
apprehension, Snape's pale face and glittering eyes, "if you are 
prepared" was about Snape going to confront Narcissa or 
something?

 If Snape is the "one who I believe has left me forever...he will be 
killed" then he had little to lose by going to Voldemort directly. 
You can't retire from the Death Eaters. If he didn't manage to 
convince Voldemort that he'd never left the fold, it'd only mean 
dying a little sooner than he would have anyway.

As for how Snape can conceal where his loyalties lie, this is the 
wizarding world. An entire civilization has kept itself secret for 
350 years. The wizards are *good* at keeping people from 
finding things out.  Snape's memories are shielded by 
Occlumency, by the Pensieve, and perhaps by the Secret Keeper 
spell as well.


Pippin