Snape was at the Potter's House That Night (& another Unbreakable Vow)

[Kathy]

No: HPFGUIDX 145271

Let's look at this from another perspective.

Canon: Snape goes to Dumbledore and says he's through with LV. 
Dumbledore asks him to continue to be with the Dark Lord and help 
them put an end to his reign.

Why is Snape always thinking of Harry?  It isn't because he loves 
kids, or because he loves Harry.  He hates Harry.  Why?  Because he 
looks like his father?  Partly.

JKR has used foreshadowing in all of her books.  We just learned 
about the Unbreakable Vow in HBP. What if Snape came to Dumbledore 
and told him what happened at Godric's Hollow...told him that 
through no fault of his own the Potter boy is now an orphan, and he 
feels partly responsible for this.  Dumbledore knows that Snape 
always had trouble with James, therefore decides that he cannot 
place Harry with him, but makes him take an Unbreakable Vow to take 
care of Harry.  Now, whether Snape likes it or not, he is bound to 
the boy and will die if he doesn't.  Now THERE's a reason to hate 
Harry!  

APF also wrote: Didn't LV say at the DE gravesite rally in GoF that 
he was all alone until Quirrell found him in the forests of 
Transylvania (or wherever)? If Snape was with him, why didn't LV ask 
SS "Why didn't YOU do something? YOU were there!?!"

Kathy replies:  Remember that the house was torn apart by the spell 
that warded off the AK.  (Hagrid: "No, sir -- house was almost 
destroyed, but I got him out all right before the Muggles started 
swarmin' around. He fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol.")

Snape may have been knocked out and when he went to find Voldemort, 
he found a body...or he found nothing. When Voldemort failed to 
appear, or when the dark mark on his arm almost disappeared, Snape 
and the other DEs figured that was it...the Dark Lord was dead.  
After all - why would anyone believe that you could overcome death?  
Also - if Snape wasn't there, how did Dumbledore know to send Hagrid 
so quickly...so quickly that the Muggles hadn't started to swarm 
around...hmmm...even as I write this it makes sense.  How did 
Dumbledore know so quickly.

As for Snape sniping at Sirius...that could be because he felt that 
Sirius was really the one responsible for everything.  If Sirius had 
been the secret keeper he would have died rather than give away 
James & Lily's location...therefore Sirius is responsible for Lily's 
death and for Snape taking the Unbreakable Vow to protect Harry.  In 
a sense, Snape isn't protecting Harry, he's protecting himself. 

Wow - thanks for responding to this post...it's really neat to 'talk 
it out' like this...

KathyO

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "another_potter_fan" wrote:

> > Jazmyn:
> > Voldemort was not there to kill James or Lily. He was there to 
> > kill Harry!  James and Lily just got in his way.  There would 
> > have been no orphans anyways as the child was the target if 
> > everything had gone to Voldemort's plan.  Snape knew the target 
> > was Harry, but is not resposible for Voldemort's actions.  
> > Voldemort kills whomever he wants anyways (if he can)..  Snape
> > also defected to become a double agent before Harry's parents 
> > were killed, so would likely have found someway to NOT be there. 

> Another_Potter_Fan:
> Jazmyn, I think what Kathy meant was by asking LV to spare Lily, 
> and then with the result of the AK, SS feels responsible for 
> Harry's situation and resents it very much. The orphan at his feet 
> was just a bad consequence of his actions. 
> 
> Anyway, I'm not sure which side of the fence I'm on with this 
> theory. On one hand, it would explain why LV offered Lily the 
> chance to save herself (I mean, why else would he care?). SS asked 
> him to spare her life. Also, if Snape were there, it could explain 
why he can show up late to a DE rally at a gravesite WAY LATE and 
still be accepted back into the fold - LV trusts him more than any 
other DE in the circle. Not that they're friends or anything close, 
but SS might be the closest thing to a #2 man that LV has. 
> 
> Here's the counter-argument: Didn't LV say at the DE gravesite 
> rally in GoF that he was all alone until Quirrell found him in the 
> forests of Transylvania (or wherever)? If Snape was with him, why 
> didn't LV ask SS "Why didn't YOU do something? YOU were there!?!"
> 
> Thoughts?
> 
> APF
>