Dumbledore's trust for Severus Snape.

[colebiancardi]

No: HPFGUIDX 138375

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "finwitch" <finwitch at y...> wrote:

>
> As for Snape - well, he's an Occlumens and he hasn't given Dumbledore
> a reason not to trust him. And don't forget that Crouch Jr. managed
> to fool Dumbledore to think he was Alastor Moody for a while... I
> think it possible that Snape could use the same sort of trick as Tom
> did with Harry: showing him memories that made it seem that Hagrid
> had been the guilty one.
>
> Finwitch

ahh. Let me clarify - when Snape was a student at Hogwarts, yes,
there was probably no reason for DD not to trust him. However, Snape
became a Death Eater - He wasn't born one, he became one(sometime
shortly after he left Hogwarts, I am guessing). He told Voldemort the
prophecy - what he heard, of course. So, when Snape went back to
Dumbledore, there were several reasons why Dumbledore should not trust
Snape. The fact that Snape would now what to *betray* Voldemort by
turning spy for DD, should & probably did raise DD's eyebrows.

DD knows about Snape's mastery at Occlumens, so without a water-tight
reason, why would Dumbledore trust Snape when he turned? And over the
course of 16 years or so, Snape has proven his loyality to DD, but
back in 1980-1981, that history wasn't there. So it has to be
something else.

DD doesn't even trust all the members of the OotP with the mission of
destroying the horcruxes - at least we don't know if he hasn't told
anyone outside of Harry. To call DD a trusting fool is incorrect. He
trusts people to do the right thing, but also understands human
nature. I don't think Dumbledore would have lived to be 150 years old
just by *trusting* people without a reason.

On the Fake!Moody point, DD didn't have a lot of contact with him when
he was at Hogwarts in GoF. When Moody was hired, it was the real
Moody DD was talking to, not the Fake!Moody. Even Snape, master at
Legilimens that he is, didn't catch onto Fake!Moody until the end, and
even at that, he really didn't.  Dumbledore was the one who exposed
Moody for the fake that he was.

JMHO

colebiancardi