Snape's position

[mnaper2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 92465

> "suehpfan" wrote:
> > Thanks for the response (everyone). I am still bothered (as is at 
> > least one other poster I read tonight) about the reason Snape is 
> > still alive.  I think I must be giving him too much credit.  
There 
> is 
> > no other way for this all to work unless Voldemort and Malfoy 
both 
> > see Snape as less capable than most of us who read the books do.  
> > 
> 
> Neri:
> It is not something like "a DE of 
> the first circle" or  "a DE of the second circle". It is "my man in 
> Hogwarts" and "my agent inside the Order". LV might have additional 
> informers inside Hogwarts and the Order, of course, but still Snape 
> seems to be located in an extremely important place, which makes 
him 
> not only very valuable, put almost irreplaceable. This might 
explain 
> why he is still alive. What I'm trying to say is, even if Snape 
*is* 
> that important, he won't be told about anything unless it directly 
> pertains to his specific role. This is standard need-to-know 
> procedure, practiced by all terrorist organizations and especially 
> those centered around a single dictator.
> 
> Neri

You both make good points.  Of course, harking back to the 
earlier "which DE was Snape" post, I think a very likely explanation 
is that he somehow did manage to get to the circle of DEs.  Someone 
in an essay pointed out that at the tournament, one of the DEs 
present flipped a muggle in the air so that her dress fell down 
revealing her underwear - exactly what happened to Snape.  So that is 
another explanation of how Snape has still managed to be alive, which 
would also mean that there is a DE out there none of us knows about 
just yet.

As for his role as a DE, I tend to think its probably a combination 
of him not being close to Voldie in addition to the DEs being a "need 
to know" sort of organization.  Assuming Snape did turn against 
Voldie during the first war - and regardless of whether he's 
trustworthy now, there doesn't seem to be any reason to doubt DD's 
word that he spied for the Order then (presumably, he would have seen 
the results of Snape's spying and known Snape was reliable) - I have 
a hard time believing he occupied a central role.  He is so desirous 
of fame and recognition, I can't see him leaving an organization in 
which he occupied a role of prestige and power.

[Unless of course, he actually does have a real and sizable 
conscience . . . hard to believe at this point, although he did 
speak "softly" to Harry after Dursley's abuse came up during the 
occlumency lessons - probably the most genuinely nice thing he's 
done, but that's probably an issue for another thread.]

Ah, Snape, what a fun puzzle.  I wonder if the truth will be nearly 
as good as all our speculations? 

Ally