[HPforGrownups] HBP The memory in the cave... is Snape's.

[Kathryn Jones]

No: HPFGUIDX 137927

merpsiren wrote:
> I have really spent some time with the following theory and am ready
> to see what everyone else thinks...
> 
> I have been thinking about motives for Snape to defy Voldemort and
> truly join up with Dumbledore and the Order of the Phoenix.  I believe
> the key  to this is mentioned on pg 549 of HBP. 
> 
> "You have no idea of the remorse Professor Snape felt when he realized
> how Lord Voldemort had interpreted the prophecy, Harry.  I believe it
> to be the greatest regret of his life and the reason that he returned
> --"
>  
> Now, if you read this quote from Dumbledore with Harry's POV it
> suggests that Snape regrets how the info of the prophecy affected the
> Potters. However, I believe that Dumbledore really is speaking the
> truth of how the intrepretation of the prophecy affected Snape.  We
> know that Snape overheard the prophecy and eventually passed the
> information on to Voldemort.  However, there is a gap in time of 1.5
> to 2 years between when the prophecy was made, and when the Potters
> were murdered.  Why motive would Snape have to hold back on this
> information?  I believe that Snape defied Voldemort
> and did not immediatly tell him the information he had overheard
> because Snape had a family of his own to protect.  ("Broaden your
> mind...") My grand theory is that Snape was married and also had a son
> (or his wife was expecting which coincided with the birth of Harry and
> Neville) and that Snape saved the information from the prophecy in an
> attempt to protect his own family from death.  Voldemort later finds
> this information out from using legilimency against Snape and is
> furious with Snape that he withheld it.  Voldemort then interprets the
> prophecy to mean Snape's child will potentially be the one with the
> power to destroy the Dark Lord.  The punishment for this betrayal was
> death for Snape's wife and child.
> 
> Now, if you buy into my theory, and then read HBP pg. 571-572.  The
> basin in the cave is filled with the green poison and is described as
> looking like a pensieve.  I believe that the liquid that Dumbledore
> drinks is very much like a pensieve memory, it is Snape's worst
> memory.  The agonizing utterances from Dumbledore as he consumes this
> horrible poison I believe to be the actual memory of Snape at the time
> of his own family's murder. Read the passages with Snape as the
> speaker pleading with Voldemort to spare "them" for a horrible mistake
> that he (Snape) has made (not sharing the prophecy with Voldemort).  I
> read the beginning (the first things Dumbledore utters after drinking
> the poison) as Snape fighting off the legilimency from Voldemort as he
> enters Snapes mind and retrieves the info afout the prophecy , "don't
> like... want to stop... I don't want to... Let me go... make it stop,
> make it stop."   Followed by Snape pleading that his family be spared,
> "It's all my fault, all my fault... I know I did wrong, oh please make
> it stop and I'll never, never again... Don't hurt them... it's my
> fault, hurt me instead... Make it stop, make it stop, I want to die!"
> 
> Snape has lost everything.  I believe this is the reason Dumbledore
> implicitly believes and trusts Snape. Snape wants vengence as much as
> Harry does.   
> 
> I have probably left out half of what is swirling around in my mind,
> but I really wanted to get this theory out there and see what others
> think... so let me know!
> 
> Merprisen

Kathy writes:
    I like it! It has the aditional use of tying up the married 
professors loose end that I could not see having any effect on anything. 
If Snape had been loved, that could explain who else other than his 
mother, it could also explain why he hates Harry, because his son is 
dead and Harry is alive. I too think that what we hear Dumbledore say in 
the cave is Snape, not Dumbly.
Counting to four and hoping nothing else interesting happens today.
KJ