Snape--Abusive?

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 115657


Alla wrote:
> 
> > As I said prior I share the speculation that Snape participated in 
> > the torture of Neville's parents and I hope that Neville will 
> > remember it one day and will tell Snape everything he thinks about 
> > him. :o)
> > 
> > I do think that Snape has an enormous guilt because of that, but 
> > hey, I can be wrong, of course.
> 
> 
Magda responded:
> Neville's parents were tortured after Voldemort fell, when people
> were starting to feel safer. The DE's ostensibly tortured them to
> find out where Voldemort was although I personally lean towards Red
> Hen's theory that it was a kamikaze attack designed to make Crouch
> Sr. look bad and thus make sure he wouldn't become Minister.  Crouch
> Sr. would have hunted down any and all DE's without mercy.  
> 
> Why would Snape have participated in the Longbottoms' torture after
> Voldemort fell?
> 
> Magda

Carol adds:
We saw in the Pensieve the four people who were responsible for
torturing the Longbottoms: the three Lestranges and Barty Jr. There's
no indication anywhere that anyone else was involved. Snape's trial
was separate from theirs and seems to have no relation to it. Also
Barty Jr.'s grudge against Snape would surely have been more personal
if he escaped imprisonment for the same crime he went to Azkaban for.

More important, Snape had *already* been spying for Dumbledore "at
great personal risk" before Godric's Hollow, which occurred some time
before the Longbottom incident (people in the WW had sufficient time
between the two incidents to feel safe again). Whether Snape was hired
as a teacher at the beginning of term or immediately after Godric's
Hollow, he was almost certainly at Hogwarts when the Longbottoms were
tortured. In Dumbledore's words, he was at that time "no more a Death
Eater than I am." Whatever sins Snape is guilty of as a Death Eater, I
very much doubt that the torture of the Longbottoms is one of them. 

Carol