Snape's part in death of Sirius

[mommystery2003]

No: HPFGUIDX 107896

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "nkafkafi" <nkafkafi at y...> 
wrote:
> > Potioncat:
> > One flaw I see in your timelines (both very good, but I snipped 
for 
> > space) is that some of the events overlap.
> 
> Neri:
> No overlap that I can see. The terms that appear to be overlapping 
> are with opposite signs. Just draw on paper three parallel 
timelines 
> (Harry's, Snape's and the Order members') and you'll see it 
> immediately. 
> 
> >  The other is that we 
> > don't know how long the trip to London took.  The train takes 
> hours, 
> > but Harry is thinking that he is going faster than he ever has 
> > before.
> >
> 
> Neri:
> It should be several hundred miles from Scotland to London. If they 
> did it in only 2 hrs it would still be much faster than Harry ever 
> flew before (knight bus' quantum leaps notwithstanding).
>  
> > The battle between the DA and DEs does not seem to last very 
long, 
> > but I couldn't begin to guess how long it actually is.  Then the 
> > Order shows up and it continues for a while.  Then DD sends Harry 
> to 
> > Hogwarts and Harry watches the dawn. How long is a night in 
> Hogwarts 
> > in June?
> >
> 
> Neri:
> My guess would be around 6 hrs. Maybe only 5 from last twilight to 
> first light of dawn. Events from the take-off-from-the-forest until 
> Harry's-back-to-DD-office should add up to this amount.
>  
> > <snip>
> > Even if the fight in her office had made noise, who would have 
> > noticed or cared? I would think the castle was pretty noisy by 
this 
> > time. Students  had been warned away from the area near her 
> office.  
> > Most wouldn't care if something happened to her and 
> might "overlook" 
> > the sound if they did hear it.
> > 
> > Snape finds out Black is safe.  He presumes Harry is with 
> Umbridge.  
> > Harry once did detention with her from supper until midnight. 
When 
> > would Snape miss his students?  If he spends as much time in the 
> > Slytherin common room, as McGonagall does in the Gryffindor 
common 
> > room, then he wouldn't know about his students until they worked 
> > themselves free and came for help.
> > 
> 
> Neri:
> Potioncat, you don't have an argument with me, you have an argument 
> with Pippin:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/107781 
> 
> Either it is the on-top-of-it-all, the-last-defender-of-Hogwarts 
> Snape, or it is sits-in-his-office-and-doesn't-know-bout-nothing 
> Snape. You can't have it both ways.
> 
> > At that point (whenever that is) he finds out they left the 
> castle.  
> > I still don't think he has any reason to think that Harry could 
get 
> > to the MoM.  Or perhaps this is the point that he contacts the 
> > Order, because he finds out that Umbridge and Harry left a "long 
> > time" ago.  He starts searching the Forest after he contacts the 
> > Order.
> >
> 
> Neri:
> The problem starts when Snape contacts the Order the first time. He 
> already knows that Harry believes in Sirius being hostage at the 
DoM 
> enough to break into Umbridge's office. At this point, is it 
possible 
> for Snape not to suspect that Harry had a mind contact with the 
Dark 
> Lord? Snape already knows about three such cases, two of them that 
he 
> personally saw in Harry's mind. Yet he tells HQ nothing about it. 
He 
> only inquires if Sirius is there. Then he either doesn't bother to 
> check about Harry's situation, or he finds out that Harry went to 
the 
> most dangerous place around, and instead of notifying HQ 
immediately 
> he waits several (critical) hours into the night doing absolutely 
> nothing.
> 
> Was he delaying on purpose? I personally don't believe he was. Was 
he 
> acting responsibly? You decide.
>  
> > But still, I ask, does anything in canon indicate that Snape was 
> > delaying in JKR's mind?  If he was, then I would think it will 
come 
> > up in Book 6 or 7.  But this reminds me of SS/PS.  I once asked 
> > where Snape was while the Trio were working their way through the 
> > Tasks. Someone worked out an explanation.  And, for the kids to 
be 
> > the heroes, they have to be able to pull things over on the 
adults.
> 
> Neri:
> In SS/PS there wasn't any discussion in the book about what Snape 
was 
> doing during the time and how did it affect the outcome. There is 
> definitely a discussion about it in OotP.
> 
> JKR's mind? There is perhaps not much indication that Snape was 
> delaying in JKR's mind. OTOH there is also not much indication 
that, 
> in JKR's mind, Snape is a responsible man who gives a fig about 
what 
> happens to the blasted Potter, or to any Gryffindor. On the face of 
> it, Snape appears throughout canon as a man full of hate, who is 
> governed by his emotions rather than by his responsibilities. Now, 
if 
> the Snape fans claim this is all Harry's limited and biased point-
of-
> view, and want to pick canon inside out to prove that Snape is 
> actually a rational and responsible man, well that's OK by me. It's 
> actually a lot of fun. Please explain Snape's actions and timing in 
> the above case.
> 
> Neri


There are only two people responsible for Black's death, and they are 
Bellatrix and Voldemort, who lured him to the MoM.

Sirius also must accept some of the blame because he did not follow 
orders and stay put.  What was stopping him from contacting 
Dumbledore or any other member of the Order before he goes rushing 
off to the MoM?

I'm not sure we'll ever know the complete timeline of what happened, 
but Dumbledore himself absolved Snape of any guilt.  I think we'll 
find at the end that Snape is, was, and always will be looking after 
Harry.

Ces