Snape's part in death of Sirius - Revised Time

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 108264

Asian_lovr2 wrote:
>>> And, since Sirius is safe, and Harry is at the school in the 
custody of Umbridge and the I-Squad, why would Snape need to ask for
assistance? As I said before, Sirius is home, Harry is at school, all
is right with the world. Although, I'm sure Snape was enjoying the
idea that Harry was in deep trouble with Umbridge. Maybe even enjoying
it a little too much. <<<

Snow:
>> Why would Snape assume that Harry was safe in the "forbidden" 
forest with psycho woman who had just fired him for not having enough 
truth serum? <<

HunterGreen:
Slight correction...she didn't *fire* him, she put him on probation. 
And that was because she thought he was being 'deliberately 
unhelpful', which, in truth, he was. Of course it was HER fault for 
using all of the other 'truth serum' that Snape had given her (not 
that that would have worked either...).

>> Snape is on DD's side, right? Umbridge was the direct cause of
DD leaving and McGonnagall being severely hurt (Snape's colleges), so
why in heavens name would Snape trust that Harry would even possibly
be safe with such a person? Sounds a bit suspicious to me! <<

Well, for one thing she's a rather high up MoM employee. He doesn't 
know that its her that sicced the dementors on Harry, or that she 
would resort to using Crucio in the absence of truth serum. She's 
extreme, but I doubt she'd purposely lead two children into the 
forest with the intent of harming them there. 
And she wasn't the DIRECT cause of Dumbledore leaving. That was more 
the DA's fault and Dumbledore's fault than hers (he had the choice to 
let Harry explain the meaning the 'Dumbledore's Army' title, and let 
them expel Harry, but he chose not to). And the aurors were more to 
blame for Mcgonanal. (although Umbridge was to blame for trying to 
arrest Hagrid or have him thrown out of the school for simply being a 
subpar teacher).  

>> This is the one conflict that I have with Snape. Snape took way, 
way too much time in alerting the Order after everything that had 
happened to everyone involved. <<

Sorry to get back to the timeline thing, but we don't know when Snape 
found out about the little trip to the forest. At around the time 
they were heading out there he was finishing up with contacting the 
order for the first time and finding out Sirius was all right. At 
this point, if he had said "Harry had a vision, you better all come 
here / run to the MoM to head him off!!!" then it would have incited 
chaos. If any members of the order went to the MoM that early, they 
would have found no Harry, and the DEs would probably have the sense 
to stay hidden. Then they would have all gone back to Grimmauld Place 
and it would have been a complete waste of time.  

As others have pointed out, there was no reason when Snape left 
Umbridge's office for him to believe that Harry was going to end up 
at the MoM that night. Snape didn't know that Harry had been able to 
use her fireplace at all (and probably assumed he didn't because then 
Harry would have known that Sirius was alright). 

How could he have forseen that Umbridge would try to use Crucio on 
Harry to get him to talk, Hermione would make up a story about 
a 'weapon' in the forest to save Harry, her Umbridge and Harry would 
all go into the forest, UHH would get separated from each other, the 
rest of the kids being held by the Inq. Squad would break free (while 
not having their wands no less) join the others, and that all 6 of 
them would take thestrals to the MoM to save Sirius themselves? 
Wouldn't a simplier scenario just be that Umbridge would spend a few 
hours harassing and trying to interogate Harry before either 
expelling him or sending him off to bed with a few thousand 
detentions (or after calling out Flich)? Sirius at this point could 
not get a hold of Dumbledore since he wasn't due at Grimmauld Place 
until after midnight, I'm sure at THAT time, even without the whole 
forest incident, he would have told Dumbledore what happened.

Its too easy to look at this from a *reader's* perspective. We know 
that Harry wants to run off to the MoM (because of Kreacher's lie), 
we know what time they went into the forest, and we know how / when 
they left. You have to look at the situation through Snape's eyes. 
Then perhaps you can understand why there's such a gap between Harry 
leaving the forest, and the order being alerted to the MoM. He just 
didn't have all the facts.