Snape, Voldemort, and teaching (was: Question..)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 135506

Julia wrote:
> It's really strange - that Snape's case. According to him in OotP he 
> started working 14 years ago (which can be after Potters death!) BUT 
> in HBP he says to Bellatrix: 'I had sixteen years of information on 
> Dumbledore to give him when he returned'. How can this be? In HBP he 
> is refering to him staying in Hogwart so unless he helped Hagrid, 
> Filtch or cook with other hause elves he had to teach! When is he 
> saying the true? I am under the impression that he isnt honest with 
> Bellatrix but then, shouldnt Bellatrix at least knew when he became 
> a spy at Hogwarts??
> It's really confusing, someone has an idea??

Carol responds:
For me, the only thing that's confusing is the "sixteen years," which
ought to be fifteen if he had taught at Hogwarts for fourteen years in
OoP. (Maybe sixteen is a slip and refers to the time when Severus
began *spying* for Dumbledore, or maybe it's just JKR's maths.)

Also, it's unclear who originated the idea of Snape's teaching and
spying at Hogwarts. He tells Bellatrix that he applied on Voldemort's
orders, which is no doubt true, but Snape was already spying for
Dumbledore and could have originated the idea himself to get away from
Voldemort on the pretense of spying for him. In any case, it fit
neatly into everyone's agenda, including Dumbledore's (he would have
wanted to keep Snape away from Voldemort even more than from DADA).

To return to the timeline:

Several months before Harry's birth, around April 1980, Snape
overhears the beginning of the Prophecy and reports it to Voldemort.
He is presumably at this time a loyal DE. (Trelawney, it seems, was
hired at an odd time of year. (PoA)

Some time after this incident, before he begins teaching at Hogwarts,
Snape for unknown reasons "returns to our side" and begins spying for
Dumbledore. (Pensieve scene, Karkaroff's hearing, GoF)

Around August 1981, assuming that OoP's "fourteen years" is correct,
he applies for the vacant DADA position and is hired instead to teach
Potions. (I assume that the Potions teacher was moved to DADA and
became the next victim of the jinx.) He begins teaching on September
1, 1981. (All school years in HP begin on this date.)

Two months later, at midnight on October 31, the Potters are killed.
Snape is not there. He is at Hogwarts, exactly as he tells Bellatrix
(HBP, "Spinner's End").

Since he is trying to persuade the skeptical Bellatrix of his loyalty,
it is most unlikely that this particular statement is false. He has
also used it, and the other answers that he gives her, to persuade
Voldemort of his loyalty. As he tells Bellatrix, the fact that he is
still alive is proff that Voldemort believed him.

Some of these answers are almost certainly lies, for example, his
assertion that he didn't know that Voldemort was inside Quirrel's head
or that Voldemort was still alive (even after Quirrel's death). But
the statement that he was at Hogwarts when LV fell must be true or
Bellatrix would not have conceded it. (She still doubts his loyalty to
Voldemort; I think we should, too. She doesn't doubt that Voldemort's
skill as a Legilimens exceeds Snape's as an Occlumens; I think we should.)

IOW, we can now set aside any theories that Snape was at Godric's
Hollow. Clearly, he was not. (Wormtail, however, must have been there
in order to pick up Voldemort's wand.)

We should also suspect that Dumbledore's explanation for his belief in
Snape's loyalty, Snape's remorse for the Potters' deaths at Godric's
Hollow, is only part of the story. Snape was already at Hogwarts when
they died, and he had already risked his life as a spy for Dumbledore
before becoming a teacher. There must be an "ironclad" reason for
Dumbledore's trust and a parallel explanation for Snape's conversion.
We just haven't heard them yet.

Carol