Sleeping Snape Distrusted by all

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 138056

Aussie wrote:

> I did a word search about Snape sleeping, and couldn't find anything 
> in the posts. Seems as though NO-ONE trusted Snape.

Carol responds:
We don't know that he was asleep. He certainly was not dressed in his
night shirt (as in the encounter with Fake!Moody in GoF) when Flitwick
came to his office and nothing is said about waking him up. I think DD
was just assuming that he was asleep because of the late hour, but
Snape the night owl wa more likely marking DADA essays than sleeping.
He certainly didn''t know that the DEs had found a way into Hogwarts
and yet he seems to have been awake. He might well have been waiting
for Dumbledore to return. We don't know.
> 
Aussie:
> - Draco didn't trust him enough to wake him for the big event.

Carol:
He didn't want Snape to steal his "glory," remember? This was *his*
big challenge. (Stupid little git.)
> 
Aussie:
> - DD didn't tell him to stand guard with the OOTP at Hogwarts that 
> night

Carol:
Of course not. Snape could no more serve guard duty where DEs'
children might see him and report him than he could join the Order
members at the MoM. It would blow his cover. And the DA (sorry I
snipped that part of your post) didn't trust him because Harry didn't.
> 
Aussie:
> - Nor did DD tell him he may need Snape's Dark Arts remidies later 
> even though the headmaster warned Harry about conditions of 
> accompanying him. DD knew it was perillous and protected with Dark 
> magic, so why not advise Snape?
> <snip>

We don't know that he didn't tell him. Snape could have been waiting
to be summoned. But DD did trust him. He wanted Snape and no one else
to help him after he'd been poisoned. And had Draco not chosen that
same moment to let the Death Eaters in, Snape would almost certainly
have done so--as he saved Dumbledore after the ring Horcrux, Katie
Bell from the cursed necklace, and Draco from Harry's Sectumsemprs.
But when he went up the stairs, fate was already in motion. The
provisions of his Unbreakable Vow had to be filled or he would die. 

Maybe Snape didn't want to kill Dumbledore. I don't think he expected
it to happen even though he'd taken the vow and the DADA post was
cursed. Like Dumbledore, he thought that the school was protected. How
could he have imagined that he would find Dumbledore, who had so
easily staved off Fudge and his Aurors only a year before, disarmed
and helpless? He doesn't even raise his wand until after Dumbledore
speaks and they exchange that glance, whatever the glance may mean.

I don't know what happened in that moment or what went through either
Snape's or Dumbledore's mind. But until that moment, and maybe even as
Snape raised his wand and cast whatever curse he cast (AK in your
view), Dumbledore trusted Severus Snape.

As for the Death Eaters trusting him (another part I snipped), he had
very carefully cleared away Bellatrix's doubts at Spinner's End, and
he made sure to tell her to spread the word to those who'd been
talking about him behind his back. Again, he needs to allay their
suspicions to keep his very deep cover. Now that he's killed
Dumbledore and "proven" his loyalty, they'll probably not ask any
questions at all. It's quite a feat, whether he's good or evil, to
have Death Eaters fearing him and obedient to his will.

Unfortunately for him, the process works in reverse for the Order,
whose trust he has forfeited. They ought, I think (and this is just my
*feeling*) to have reacted more as Slughorn did ("I taught him. I
thought I knew him.") rather than implying that they'd been suspicious
of him all along. How *could* McGonagall, who had been his teacher for
seven years and worked alongside him for fifteen, dismiss him so
quickly as an ex-DE whom she had trusted only because Dumbledore did?
Her reaction reminds me of the people in the "Riddle House" chapter
who were so quick to condemn Frank Bryce. Only Hagrid clings to his
trust until he sees Dumbledore's body. I wonder if Lupin reacted that
way when Sirius was charged with murder. I hope not.

They couldn't know about the Unbreakable Vow, of course, but they're
very quick to assume the worst--that Snape was a traitor all along and
that he murdered Dumbledore of his own volition. Not even Lupin,
himself a victim of it, takes the DADA curse into account.

While I don't believe that Dumbledore's death was a mercy killing, I
do think that Dumbledore was dying anyway and Snape's so-called choice
was between three deaths and one. I don't doubt for a moment that he
feels deep and genuine remorse. And I will be quite surprised if
Dumbledore, the Epitome of Goodness and JKR's mouthpiece, was wrong to
trust Severus Snape.

Carol