Snape's timeline in OoP (Was: Snape's part in death of Sirius)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 114209

Carol returns to the debate between Neri and Pippin to comment on a
single point:

> Pippin wrote:
> He [Snape] would have to dehex the Slytherins and/or get them to the
> Hospital Wing before they could tell him anything. That could
> take an hour or two all by itself. 
> 
> Neri:
> Pippin, I'm really surprised you are not familiar with this useful 
> spell:
> -----------------------------------------------
> GoF, Ch. 35 :
> Dumbledore forced the man's mouth open and poured three drops inside 
> it. Then he pointed his wand at the mans chest and said, "Ennervate."
> 	Crouch's son opened his eyes
> ------------------------------------------------
> So simple and quick. And Crouch Jr. was hit with "Stupefy", which is 
> the same that Ron used on several of the I-Squad. And when DD does 
> this spell, Snape is standing right beside him. Can you see our dear 
> Severus failing to master it? (even if he has to train on poor 
> Filch). In fact, the DEs must know that one too, because they recover 
> so quickly after getting hit at the DoM battle. And Snape was a DE 
> too.  

Carol responds:
Oops. "Ennervate" is the countercurse for "stupefy." It would not work
for the variety of hexes that the DADA kids used on the Inquisitorial
Squad. Yes, of course, Snape would know all those countercurses (or
counterhexes), but it would take some time to unhex everybody,
especially if multiple hexes had been used on the same person. Then he
would have had to question the whole group--probably with all of them
talking at once and all of them angrily demanding punishment for the
Gryffindors. It would not have been easy to get a straight story out
of them. He might even have had to resort to threats or a calming
draft. We don't know what happened, but it was assuredly not as easy
as a single mass "Ennervate!"

Thanks to Alla and Potioncat for pointing me to this thread.
Unfortunately, I don't have much to add except to note that Dumbledore
considered Snape's actions to be satisfactory, so Snape must have done
the best he could under the circumstances. I do hope we'll learn where
Dumbledore was and how Snape contacted him, as he must have done
*before* he contacted the Order a second time because he knew when
Dumbledore was arriving at GP. I had wondered how Snape managed to
enter the forest without being attacked by the centaurs. Thanks, Neri,
for the suggestion that he could have used a disillusionment charm.

Carol, who otherwise agrees with Pippin and will go back now to
catching up on *recent* posts!