Conspiracies and re-assessments

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 112444

hannahmarder (I think--unsigned post) wrote:
> Not just that, but why does Voldemort trust Snape?  I think that's 
> key to the whole mystery of Snape and why he changed sides.  
> Voldemort must know that Dumbledore vouched for Snape and claimed he 
> was a spy.  <snip>

Carol responds:
Yes, why Dumbledore trusts Snape is a crucial question, one that Harry
himself has asked and which, therefore, we can be pretty sure of
receiving an answer to even if we have to wait till Book 7. I think
there's a simple answer, most likely that somehow he informed
Dumbledore that LV was after the Potters and/or tried (in vain) to
protect them himself. We do at least know where Snape stands with
Dumbledore, and I for one assume that Dumbledore is right to do so.

Where Snape stands with Voldemort is another matter altogether. I
think he's the one Voldemort believes (or believed) has left him
forever (and that the belief is correct), but we don't know whether
Voldemort changed his mind after the graveyard scene. It's clear,
however, that Lucius Malfoy still maintains some connection with Snape
(at least until his arrest in OoP), which leads me to believe that he
and the other DEs think that Snape is still secretly one of them, but
restricted in his movements by the necessity of staying at Hogwarts.
(I think Snape told Malfoy at the end of GoF that he couldn't be at
the graveyard because you can't apparate from Hogwarts and Malfoy
accepted that.)

At any rate, the point I want to address is the one about Voldemort
knowing that Dumbledore testified that Snape was no longer a Death
Eater and was spying for him (Dumbledore) before Voldemort's fall. How
would Voldemort know that? No DEs were present to hear that testimony,
and Karkaroff was the only DE present at his own hearing. Karkaroff
isn't going to tell the other DEs about Snape; he's afraid of being
Crucio'd or murdered by his fellow Death Eaters for being a snitch.
Nor would the other two hundred or so people (all of them
well-respected Wizengamot or auror types) be likely to spread that bit
of news. (They'd be more concerned, I would think, to keep the
knowledge of Snape's true loyalty from the DEs.) Certainly there's no
evidence that Snape's DE past is common knowledge. Sirius didn't know
it (apparently he didn't hear about it from the Order or from the DEs
at Azkaban), and there's no indication that Lucius Malfoy does,
either. (He speaks favorably of Snape to Umbridge, for example. He may
assume that Snape got off the same way hed did; by claiming to be
under the Imperius Curse.) I think the non-Slytherin parents would be
up in arms against both Dumbledore and Snape if they knew that Snape
was a former Death Eater.

Whether Voldemort had suspicions regarding Snape's loyalty after the
events in SS/PS is another question, one that I haven't resolved to my
own satisfaction, but I'll bet every knut in my possession that he
doesn't know that Snape got off after Godric's Hollow because of
Dumbledore's testimony that "he's now no more a Death Eater than I am."

Carol