Snapes Teaching Career - Dates and Causes (WAS: DD and Harry in Book VI.

[northsouth17]

No: HPFGUIDX 123980



> Hannah:  With regards to where Snape was, this is assuming he was 
> actually teaching at Hogwarts at the time.  It can be argued that 
> he'd started the previous September (just before GH), but it is 
also 
> possible that he didn't take on his role at the school until after 
> GH, perhaps mid-year, or maybe not until the following September.  
> This latter would make more sense to me.  But from the dates he 
> gives Umbridge in OotP, we know the *longest* he can have been 
> teaching is two months, if he has been at all.

The way I worked it out, Snape was in his second year teaching at 
Hogwarts during GH. He says to Umbridge he's been there 16 years. 
(This before Harry turns 16)so he either started teaching midyear, or 
was rounding up to 16, or perhaps was even in his 16th year as a 
teacher, which would mean he was in his *third* year during GH. I 
tend to believe that he was rounding like McG, and had not yet 
finished his 16th year. Since Harry was about a year and 3 months old 
during GH,(I'm assuming the year because he's the same age as Dudley, 
who's already talking some) Snape started teaching either mid year 
before the summer Harry was born, or in September after it.  

On a slightly related subject: Why did Snape take up teaching at 
such a  young age: Hagrid mentions in PS/SS that Hogwarts was the only 
safe place there was. Could Snape have been placed there by Voldemort 
to spy on DD and the Order, and then taken the opportunity, once he 
knew he was in a safe place, to turn coat, or had been given a 
teaching position that kept him safe, at Hogwarts, by DD, after he 
had betrayed Voldemort (pretending he was a spy *for* Voldie, 
of course, but still out of his grasp for most of the time just in 
case).

Northsouth