Dumbledore's intentional misleading (Re: A Question of Which Book)

[lyraofjordan]

No: HPFGUIDX 144909

> 
> Allie:
> 
> >(I, like Harry, do not 
> > believe it is because Snape was sorry for the death of the 
Potters.  
> > Lily, MAYBE, but not James.)
> 
> Sydney:
> 
> Dumbledore doesn't actually say that this is THE reason that he 
trusts
> Snape-- Harry clearly misinterpreted him. Dumbledore says he 
BELIEVES
> it was the reason Snape turned, but he is acknowledging with the 
word
> 'believe' that he is speculating-- he doesn't KNOW. He is offering
> Harry a mitigation. However, he uses very different language about 
the
> trust itself:  he says he is CERTAIN that Snape is on his side, he
> "trusts him absolutely". If Harry paid a bit more attention, he 
would
> have sorted out that the remorse Snape felt, and the reason 
Dumbledore
> trusts Snape, are two seperate things, and he still doesn't know 
the
> important one. I tend to think the Snape-trust thing is an event,
> hopefully a fabulously dramatic one we can see in Pensive-o-
vision. 
> 
> It's a very nice piece of misdirection on JKR's part, because she 
has
> Snape himself offer the repentance story as the reason for D-dore's
> trust to Bellatrix way back at the start of the book.  So it's 
quite
> easy to miss the distinction Dumbledore makes, and accept Harry's
> misunderstanding-- a misunderstanding that he proceeds to transmit,
> chinese-whispers-wise, to the rest of the Order.
> 
Lyra:
Dumbledore never says Snape returned to the good side because he 
regretted that the Potters *were dead.* That's what Harry says after 
Dumbledore is dead, but in actuality, what DD said was: "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 --" 
(p 549, U.S.)

Snape returned before the Potters were dead; some months before, we 
believe, based on the evidence that he was teaching at Hogwarts for 
2 months before the attack on Godric's Hollow. DD isn't specific 
about what exactly he's referring to in that comment about "how LV 
had interpreted the prophecy" -- it could be Snape was uncomfortable 
knowing Voldy was targeting a baby, or perhaps that was when Snape 
finally realized the "pureblood" talk of Voldy was just that -- 
talk -- and Voldy was really interested in power for his own sake. 
We don't know. 
But the story Harry gave the Order is not the same one he got from 
Dumbledore earlier that night.