In defense of the Snape apologists :-)

[Mari]

No: HPFGUIDX 136128

>1) Saving Harry's life in PS

>vmonte:
>If you recall Snape did not know that Quirrell was working for 
>Voldemort during SS/PS. Voldemort kept Snape in the dark.

Mari again:
Let me expand a bit. The fact that Snape saves Harry during the 
Quidditch match has nothing to do with quirrelmort and the stone. 

At this stage Snape has no idea that Harry would be able to stop 
Quirrell from getting the stone. Snape does not know that Harry is a 
threat to Voldemort's plans to get the stone.

It is a case of a student in danger of being hurt or killed, and 
Snape steps in. Why? He does not say that Dumbledore asked him to 
protect Harry in the Spinner's end chapter of HBP. He couldn't afford 
to be seen to be harming Harry, that's true. Snape may have thought 
his cover with Dumbledore would be strengthened, but Dumbledore 
already trusts him. He could not dispose of Harry if he is a death 
eater, but he does not have to protect him.

>Mari:
>2) Choosing to go after the trio to the shrieking shack, to protect 
>them from someone he believed to be in league with Voldemort, in PoA.

>vmonte:
>Well, this is a matter of interpretation. I see a teacher that is 
>more concerned with exacting revenge and getting accolades, than a 
>teacher who is worried about his students.

 It's precisely because I can't see Snape being that concerned about 
students that this action puzzles me. I totally agree that Snape was 
after accolades. Later on in my post I identified this as a 
characteristic of Snape's that is evident from what we know of him in 
the books so far. He craves admiration. Let's look at the sequence of 
events again: 
1)	Snape sees the trio (and Peter Pettigrew) sneak down to 
Hagrid's on the marauders map. 
2)	He sees Sirius and the other four go past the whomping willow 
to the Shrieking Shack.
3)	Snape believes Sirius Black to be after Harry, and Lupin has 
forgotten to take his potion so will also possibly be dangerous. 

However, he doesn't like any of the trio. WHY bother to try to 
protect Harry again? No one else knows that Sirius Black is in the 
grounds, let alone where he and the trio are.  If he was just ESE, 
surely it is much easier to pretend he never saw Sirius going into 
the Shrieking Shack, or to tell Dumbledore that he has found Sirius 
rather than running a risk himself. He seems to be choosing to do 
something that his inclination does not naturally lead him to do. 
Why? 

The interesting thing is if he suspected that Sirius was able to get 
into the grounds as an animagus, there was plenty of opportunity 
through the year for him to get revenge on Sirius by handing him 
over, if that was his motivation. However, he decided to take action 
when the trio were in danger. 

>Mari:
>3) Trying to convince Fudge in GoF that Voldemort is back, when 
>Voldemort didn't want anyone to know this.

>vmonte:
>Moody had already threatened to tell Dumbledore that Snape had it in 
>for Harry (I don't think that Snape knew that Moody was Crouch Jr.). 
>Snape probably felt that he had to prove his loyalty to Dumbledore.

But Snape tells Fudge this after Barty Crouch has lost his soul and 
is incapable of telling anyone anything. Why would he be a threat?

Also things are set up pretty nicely at this point for Voldemort to 
come back to power. Barty Crouch can't give evidence because the 
Dementor sucked out his soul. Dumbledore and Harry have been pretty 
effectively discredited by Rita Skeeter.   

There was no advantage to be gained from speaking to Fudge. 
Dumbledore already trusts Snape and has done so since he came to the 
school. Nothing would have changed had Snape said nothing about the 
dark mark, or Voldemort being back. Why take the risk of annoying 
Voldemort, when this wasn't necessary to remain as a spy for 
Dumbledore? 

>4) Alerting the order to what was going on in the Department of 
>Mysteries.

>vmonte:
>He took his sweet time didn't he. Funny how he never shows up to 
>anything. Where was he during the fight? Maybe he was afraid of 
>blowing his DE cover you say? He's the Potions Master no? He's got 
>all kinds of potions locked in his room doesn't he? And with all the
>polyjuice that seems to be floating around Hogwarts you would think 
>that Snape would have some to spare for when he needs to go 
>somewhere in disguise. But I guess not.

Ok, I checked the sequence of events here again to be sure what 
happened. 

1)	Umbridge calls Snape to the office ordering him to make more 
veritaserum; Snape says he is unable to do so.
2)	Harry warns Snape cryptically about Sirius being in the 
Department of Mysteries.
3)	Harry goes to the forest with Hermione, Ron and Umbridge.
4)	Snape alerts order members, who go to the department of 
mysteries. He tells the order members he will go to the forest to 
search for Harry in case he is still there.

The interesting thing is, Harry hears about Snape giving fake 
veritaserum, and the sequence of events leading up to the battle at 
the Department of Mysteries, through Dumbledore. So once again we are 
not given direct access to what happened. This is why I have only 
mentioned the events that can be verified by other members of the 
Order.

Voldemort wanted Harry in the Department of Mysteries by himself. No 
one knew that Harry asked Snape for help at the time it all happened. 
Again, there was no advantage to be gained from alerting the order at 
all. This was not necessary to maintain his cover with Dumbledore 
because Dumbledore never needed to know that Snape was aware of 
anything. 

How could Snape have been blamed if Dumbledore thought that the Order 
(including Snape) did not know what was happening at the Department 
of Mysteries until it was too late? If Snape were just a death eater, 
why wouldn't he have done all he could to ensure that Voldemort got 
the prophecy? After all he is the one who told Voldemort about it in 
the first place!



Mari.