Snape vs Quirrell

[Oliver Traldi]

No: HPFGUIDX 122356


Juli <jlnbtr at y...> wrote:

> We all know that during PS/SS Professor Quirrell had
> Voldemort in his body, sharing it. Voldemort was
> trying to get Quirrell to steal the Philosopher's
> stone, <snip> then as punishment he decided to "join"
> him in order to keep a close watch on him. 
> <snip>
>
> After one Quidditch training, Harry follows Snape
> into the forbidden forest, the conversation goes
> something like this: Quirrell is almost crying and
> Snape tells him he'd better decide in who's his
> loyalty, then the scene is over and Harry is more
> convinced than ever that Snape is guilty.
> <snip> 
>
> So, my question is if Snape faced Quirrell a few times
> and told him to stop chasing the Stone, to decide in
> whom is his loyalty, then why didn't Voldemort also
> know about it? He was already sharing Quirrell's body
> and soul, so he must have known and heard all their
> conversations, right? So how come Snape does not know
> that Snape has changed sides? That he is actually
> working for the Order and Dumbledore?


Juli,

There's an excellent essay on Mugglenet about Snape - one of the
regular columns - which offers an answer to this question. I couldn't
find the essay itself but I believe there are three possibilities.

1) Voldemort knew Snape was with Dumbledore then. That's why Snape is
"the one who will never return" in GOF.
2) Voldemort thought Snape wanted the Stone for himself, like any real
Slytherin might.
3) Voldemort didn't think Snape knew Quirrell was with Voldemort. That
is, Voldemort thought Snape thought Quirrell was with Dumbledore.
(This is what Harry thought too.)

The first one seems the likeliest, cool as the latter two are. But the
really interesting thing is that, as there are still questions
regarding Snape's character, this scene doesn't really offer any
insight - there are *still* so many options, *despite* the fact that
Quirrell was actually the bad guy in PS/SS.

Oliver

PS. I hope this works. I tried posting from the website and nothing happened...