Snape thought Lucius was under Imperio ? was Re: Racism and Snape's grudge

[Wanda Sherratt]

No: HPFGUIDX 101550

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
> 
> That's one explanation, (I can't remember who deserves the 
> credit)  for "Snape made a sudden movement, but as Harry 
> looked at him, Snape's eyes moved back to Fudge." in GoF.  
> Now that we know about legilimency, I read that as Snape being 
> surprised and looking into Harry's eyes to see if he was telling 
> the truth. If Snape was surprised to find out that Malfoy had 
> returned to the circle, then perhaps he thought that Malfoy really 
> had been under Imperius before.
> 
That's the way I took it - that Snape truly didn't think that Malfoy 
would be at such a meeting.  Which tends to change somewhat the 
supposed relationship between them.  If, until that moment, Snape 
didn't realize that Malfoy was genuinely on the dark side, then 
whatever his reasons for maintaining a front, it couldn't have been 
in order to ingratiate himself with Malfoy.  There would have been 
no purpose - a spy wants to infiltrate his enemies, not friends or 
neutrals.

I thought of an alternate explanation for his startled reaction to 
Harry's words, though.  He might have just been shocked to hear so 
abruptly of Lucius's cover being blown.  He might have expected that 
someone as clever and prudent as Malfoy would have always protected 
his identity, so that he could always plausibly deny everything.  
Sure, nobody there expected Harry to come out of that graveyard 
scene alive, but Malfoy seems to me the sort who would ALWAYS take 
precautions, just in case.

Wanda