Snape, the Facts and nothing but the Facts.

[Mari]

No: HPFGUIDX 134540

 "bbkkyy55"  wrote:

> I was watching POA today and got thinking.  Didn't Snape know about 
> Pettigrew and that Sirius was innocent.  Why was he so keen on 
taking 
> Sirius immediately to the dementors?  Did he hate Sirius so much he 
> would commit murder or actually worse than murder on an innocent 
> man?  

This is very interesting.

Someone may correct me on this but I believe he did NOT know that 
Pettigrew and not Sirius was the betrayer, at the time he went after 
Harry, Ron and Hermione to the Shrieking Shack.

In PoA Snape is actually making the choice to go and SAVE Harry, Ron 
and Hermione from someone who he believes to be in league with 
Voldemort. Of course, his personal prejudice then gets in the way and 
he prefers to believe that Sirius is guilty even when informed 
otherwise by the trio.

Putting it in context, there are a number of difficult choices Snape 
has had to make in canon.

In PS/SS, he saved Harry's life.

PoA-mentioned above.

GoF-convincing Fudge that Voldemort has returned. Voldemort wanted no 
one to believe he was back!

OoTP- alerting the order to what was happening in the Department of 
Mysteries. Voldemort was furious that he was unable to get the 
prophecy.

The most peculiar thing about each of these choices is that it was un-
necessary for Snape to make them in order to maintain his cover. In
fact, each of these choices COULD have intensely irritated Voldemort.

The evidence remains ambiguous, as many posters have pointed out. I am 
simply saying that throughout the series, Snape has been set up as a 
very ambiguous character. I wouldn't be at all surprised to find that 
the reason Rowling spent so long editing, planning and going back over 
this book (as she has stated in interviews) is that she INTENDED the 
end of this book to be the HIGH POINT of the ambiguity which has 
characterized Snape through the series.

Mari.