Snape's position

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 92548

> > Neri wrote: 
> > The importance of this need-to-know basis is now very clear when 
> > Malfoy is in the hands of the aurors and can be interrogated.
>  
> 
> Potioncat:  
> Imagine if he were to name Snape!
> 
> Neri: 
> However, perhaps Snape was able to get more information by spending 
> some quality time with DEs who are a bit less discrete. I already 
> noted that Lucius Malfoy has a tendency to brag, and just sitting 
in 
> the bar with Crabbe and Goyle beaching about mudbloods could prove 
> fruitful. And naturally, Snape's hand might accidentally slip, so a 
> drop or two of veritaserum might find their way to Crabbe's and 
> Goyle's glasses...
> 
> 
> Potioncat: 
> No wonder he looked so pale when he left the hospital wing...bar 
> hopping with Crabbe and Goyle?  Let's hope he doesn't overdose on 
> Draught of Peace!
> 
> All these evolving posts have demonstrated several ways that 
Snape's 
> knowledge of the Mom Affair could have played out.   I have this 
bit 
> of input about a scene in GoG that bothered me for quite a while, 
> but may have a connection to this discussion.
> 
> "The Madness of Mr. Crouch" pp557--558.
> This is where Harry is looking for DD and Snape comes from the 
> headmaster's office and stalls Harry.  Then DD appears, listens to 
> Harry and the two of them go off to see Crouch, leaving Snape 
behind.
> 
> I finally resolved, as have others, that Snape was stalling Harry 
> while DD collected his thoughts (pensieve).  Then I couldn't work 
> out why Snape didn't go with them.  He's often in the thick of 
> things.
> 
> Then "The Pensieve"597--604.  It's not clear to me how much time 
has 
> passed between the two events, but here, DD has a recent 
> conversation with Snape as well as the events shortly after LV's 
> fall.  
> 
> I think the meeting just before Harry brought the news of Mr. 
Crouch 
> was when DD and Snape began planning for the role Snape would play 
> when LV did return.  Snape left to go prepare, rather than joining 
> Harry and DD as they went to see Mr. Crouch.


Neri now:
IMHO, DD was sending Snape straight to LV by the end of GoF, and this 
is why Snape was pale. Bar-hopping with Crabbe and Goyle is just an 
added bonus, and if it seems easy to you, remember that LV must be 
watching like a hawk every move of Snape, even if he was somehow 
(how?!) convinced to let Snape live.

I fully agree that there is something going on between DD, Snape and 
the pensieve. I think it was mentioned in this forum before that, 
during the occlumency lessons in OotP, Snape was using DD's pensieve, 
but when Harry portkeyed from the MoM to DD's office, who was 
supposed to be locked while DD was away, the pensieve was there in 
the room. So Snape was going in and out of DD's locked office, 
borrowing and returning the pensieve.

However, even if it is possible to use the pensieve to remove some 
memories from Snape's mind, I'm not sure it would have been enough to 
convince LV that Snape was on his side. IMO what Snape needed is for 
LV to legilimen into Snape's mind and find clear evidence in there 
that Snape was indeed a loyal DE all the time, and that he hates DD's 
guts. I don't see LV letting Snape live *and* drafting him again for 
anything less than that. OTOH, Snape and DD had 13 years between them 
and the pensieve to manufacture precisely such evidence. DD had known 
all those years that LV will come back. I don't know if we have 
enough information on legilimency, occlumency and the pensieve to 
deduce how DD and Snape managed it, but I feel certain that if such a 
thing is possible at all, DD and Snape are the right persons for the 
job.

Neri