Don't the Death Eaters know that Snape's a spy?

[aggiepaddy]

No: HPFGUIDX 106658

> HunterGreen:
> SNIP>
> This begs a question though: How did Snape get back into the fold 
> when Voldemort believes he left forever and is planning to kill 
>him? Its always seemed rather simple, Snape appeared later that 
>night (the dark mark must be some sort of homing mechanism, perhaps 
>it was still strong enough for Snape to find him hours later), and 
>explained himself. Voldemort's remark about Snape always seemed less 
>angry than the one about the one 'too cowardly to return', (about 
>that, I wonder if he did something that was the reason Snape turned 
>his back on the  DEs, and Voldemort is not surprised that he left) 
>thus it seems reasonable that Snape had at least a shot at getting 
>himself back into the DE circle. 
> For one thing, Snape certainly was not in a position to just take 
>off out of the school and run off to a Death Eater meeting when the 
dark mark appeared, and Voldemort knew that. Barty Jr. isn't there 
either for the same reason.
<SNIP> 
> As for Snape's relationship with Lucius and Draco, I don't there's 
> anything fake about it. 
<SNIP>


Aggie:

I like this explaination.  It fits well with canon.  I've always had 
a problem with Snape returning to the DEs, with him not being 
killed.  This goes a long way to explain it.  It would also explain 
the look of apprehension on his face at the end of GoF when DD asked 
him to go on his mission.

Although I agree that Lucius and Snape *are* old school friends, I do 
wonder how Lucius doesn't realise how close to DD Snape is.  I 
suppose it could be put down to part of his double agent act but I 
always thought Lucius would be more suspicious than that.  I guess  
it could be the same relationship as Sirius, James and Peter.  
Sirius, with the benefit of hindsight, wondered how he never 
suspected Peter in the first place, maybe Lucius thinks of Snape in a 
similar way.  Before I get jumped on for comparing Snape and Peter, 
I'm not *directly* comparing them.  I'm merely suggesting that 
Lucius, being several years older, sees Snape as Sirius saw Peter. 
I'm not saying that Snape is a sniviling sycophant but he could have 
look up to Lucius in the same way as Peter did to J and S.  This 
would 'allow' him (LM) not to see Snapes's double agent role and 
would 'allow' him to praise Snape to Umbridge.  Or maybe (as some are 
saying) he's in on it too. . .     ;o))