[HPforGrownups] Re: SNAPE the coward?

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 118202


> Chrusotoxos:
> I've heard that some guys are sure that Snape was in the 
> circle that night, 
> and at one moment I was almost convinced...but there's still 
> the fact, that, back in the hospital wing, Snape flinched 
> when he heard that Malfoy was there...why would he? I mean, 
> if he was there too, he must have known that Malfoy was 
> there, because Voldemort called him by name. 

Vivamus:
He might well have flinched because he WAS there, and Harry was starting to
name names.  Malfoy's was the first name Harry gave, and THAT was when
"Snape made a sudden movement, but as Harry looked at him, Snape's eyes flew
back to Fudge."  Who wouldn't be alarmed?

But, he could also have done that if he was loyal, and knew FUDGE was a DE,
and didn't want Harry putting himself in danger from the MoM (as it later
turned out he was, but from Umbridge, who we had not met yet in GoF.)

And, he could have flinched because he was in the graveyard as an UNDERCOVER
DE, loyal to DD.  (I don't actually buy this theory, since DD had publicly
stated that Snape had been spying for our side against the DEs, and LV is no
fool.) 

> Chrusotoxos:
> Also, I can't think that Voldemort wouldn't have talked to 
> him if he was 
> there. A guy spying at Hogwarts, how cool is that? And to 
> show Harry that 
> even his teachers wanted him dead...

Vivamus:
How about the eagle owl?   "An eagle owl flew through the coil of smoke
rising from Hagrids chimney; it soared toward the castle, around the Owlry,
and out of sight."  -- that's from OOtP shortly before Harry and Viktor run
into Barty Crouch, Sr.   Even on the first read, I thought that sentence
jumped out as being a bit of planted evidence, referring to Draco's Eagle
owl.

Then, not long after the encounter with Crouch, Sr., Harry has his vision in
Trelawney's class: 

He was riding on the back of an eagle owl, . . . Harry had left the owl's
back . . . he was watching, now, as it fluttered across the room, into a
chair with its back to him "You are in luck, Wormtail," said a cold,
high-pitched voice from the depths of the chair in which the owl had landed.
"You are very fortunate indeed.  Your blunder has not ruined everything.  He
is dead."

So, an eagle owl bore the message to LV that Crouch had been killed.  The
message would have to have come from Hogwarts, and Draco has the only eagle
owl mentioned in the series thus far, so it *probably* was his.  I take the
earlier bit with the eagle owl as a hint that spying had been going on for
LV at Hogwarts for some time, with Draco's owl being the medium.

We know from the veritaserum that Barty Jr. killed Barty Sr.  Snape knew
about the encounter between Harry and Crouch Sr., but would not have known
that Crouch was dead, unless Crouch!Moody told him.   

Apparently, someone used Draco's owl to tell LV that Crouch was dead.
Crouch!Moody was the only one we KNOW knew, but Moody being chummy with
Draco Malfoy in ANY way would have been highly suspicious.  For Snape, it
would have been easy.  OTOH, Crouch!Moody might have just gone to the school
owlry in the early morning when no one was there, and sent it with Draco's
owl.

So, ASSUMING it was Draco's owl, then we have two scenarios: (1)
Crouch!Moody sent the owl by himself, or (2) he told Snape, who sent the
owl.  (I'm dismissing that they would have included a foolish and boastful
blabbermouth like Draco in something so important.) 

I'm inclined to think Snape is loyal to DD, for the simple reason that
characters keep questioning it.  OTOH, it could be the final straw that
teaches Harry that DD is in fact a fallible human being, when he has trusted
Severus all these years, against all recommendations and warnings, and been
wrong.  

Vivamus